Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
Are you ready for Day 6? These challenges are sure making September fly past!
If you missed the previous challenges, you can catch up here:
On to Day 6!
Where would you go if you absolutely HAD to bug out?
This really ties in with Selco’s article today about not being so married to your plan that you are willing to risk death in order to bug in. There are situations in which bugging out is simply the only option, like wildfires, floods, chemical spills, and many others.
So if suddenly there was a knock at your door telling you that you had five minutes to get out of Dodge for whatever life-threatening reason, where would you go and how would you get there? When you answer this question, be careful not to share too much personal information. Don’t say “I’d go to Podunk, Virginia to stay with my sister Sally.” Say “I’d go to a small town 3 hours north and stay with my sister.”
I know that many – if not most – of us plan to hunker down. But think flexibly here – where would you go? If you don’t have a bug out plan, check out this PDF book.
Share your ideas
What is your plan for bugging out? How many different ways could you get there? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
Remember if you want to qualify for the free ebook, be sure to post your answers in the forum.
If we had to evacuate because of forest fire, first we just go off the mountain into the nearby small town. If that became threatened, we would head north 7 hours to our nephew’s farm or his father’s home that has 4 empty bedrooms. We also have another brother half way there where we could stay for a day or two. Because of our dog and cats, the farm would be best for more than a very few days.
FIrst, we have no plans to bug out. All of our preps are here – for off-grid living and growing our own food.
Second, if we absolutely had to leave, it would be a three hour drive to a relatives home on a lake. Unfortunately, while there are enough beds and space for the family, the house, while beautiful, is not adequately built. It does has a generator which is fine for short term use, but it has too many windows (op sec and heat loss), no alternative heat source (a pretty fireplace is not going to heat a 3,000 foot house.) It is in the woods, fire problem, and has a lake shore which anyone can penetrate by boat in the summer or on foot over the frozen water in the winter. No one fishes. Very little land to raise crops in zone three – we would need a greenhouse.
We would have to drive. Without a vehicle, I would not even try to walk 200 miles in the winter.
Closer to home, we have a couple of good neighbors, but they would be in the same situation.
With ten large dogs, 3 cats, 145 ducks, 8 turkeys and 32 chickens there isn’t a lot of places to go. We built here which is our bug out location. I have family almost 300 miles away in a big city. I had to give up my dairy goats back in July due to my husband health. I have been having to travel a lot to help my mother (81) take care of my dad (86). If I leave my poultry behind to die, I still have my dogs and cats to take with me. 3 of my dogs do NOT do cars. If it is a fire, I would have to do a large fire break around my house and barn with a tractor. Most people don’t know it, but Mexico was known as the land of 10,000 volcanoes. Not far from us in Mexico are some inactive volcanoes which like Mt. St. Helen could wake up. That would be the one reason for leaving. My parents would take us in and we would have to load as much food in our van and car to take with. However with a volcano I would head more north.
All of our pod members will be bugging out to our place. We have already mapped the route. Already hiked the route. If this place was compromised, we would all trek east to a cabin, however, this would be temporary since water source nearby is already low and it belongs to someone else ( we have been guests there for 30 years) …. not a pleasant thought.
This is a tough one because having moved to another state we have no family or friends anywhere within manageable traveling distance. We also have a pack of dogs and chickens to think about. Fortunately we live in a place that doesn’t get tornadoes, hurricanes or floods. Just snow, lots of snow and we’re prepared for that and the resulting power outages. However, I do need to give some more thought to this as you just never know …
Yesterday I was given five minutes warning to evacuate my home. Too true, not a joke! LADWP workers digging in the street broke a high pressure natural gas line three houses from my house. About 500 feet from my front door. Luckily I had my s#*t together ready to go. Grabbed my dog and headed out the back door. Now you must know that I am limited with my dog, as she is a 200 pound English Mastiff. Not many are willing to take her in. I am very lucky that there is a place within an hour drive with A/C water and food.
In my desert environment it’s hard to think of anything that might force us to Bug Out. We’re in our 70’s and Bugging In is our entire strategy. Vegetation is so sparse we face no fire danger. Flooding isn’t an issue, nor are tornadoes of other severe storms. I suppose if a large army of raiders came for us or an EMP destroyed our ability to pump water we would have to leave, but we’re pretty well equipped to stay in place. But, hypothetically, if we had to leave we’d either head for the mountains where there are springs and creeks and seeps–or for the Colorado River or Lake Mead. The mountains are closer and we’d head there if forced to flee on foot but we have an old 4×4 and an ATV that should run even after an EMP. My preferred bug out locale would be Lake Mead, specifically the extreme eastern or north east areas as there aren’t many folks around, access except by water is difficult, and we could live on our boat, fishing for food and with plenty of water available to get a garden started.
Don’t intend to bug out but if necessary I have plan in place. Two bugout bags always ready, inventoried and updated monthly. Documents are in a small fireproof lockbox ready to go. Current prescriptions and 90 extra days worth are ready to go, just need to grab them and add to backpack. Dog foods for 2 dogs are kept in 5 gallon buckets. 5gallon water with handle ready to go for me and the dogs. Will use backroads to head north to avoid traffic. Will stay with friends 200 miles to the north. Firearms/ammo already pre-staged besides normal every day carry. Seldom let gas get below half tank but have gas on hand to top off truck and at least 10 gallons extra to take with me. Have camping gear in truck box with other gear permanently.
We have multiple bug out locations. Weekend place in WV with multiple water sources and lots of fertile soil to grow stuff. My son (armed to the teeth like me) and family are nearby as is my daughter (also armed). We can comfortably “bug in” with a natural gas fired generator that can power heat, well, hot water, and even our air conditioning. Also a gasoline powered generator as “Plan B”. 39 years of maraige to the same wonderful woman who grew up learning that “can” was a verb for something you did in late summer.
Is your natural gas source your own or do you get it from a utility company?
I’d head north to a small town in Oregon and stay with my granddaughter and her husband,
We don’t live in the desert, but we would not bug out unless we absolutely had to because we are safer here than anywhere else that we could probably reach and be assured of safety. We don’t live in a town or city and for that we are grateful.
I would head 18 hours (by car) west to my daughter and son-in-law’s place. It would be an interesting ride with 5 dogs but we would just all pile into the car and go.
I would evacuate to my son’s about 30 miles away he has property and is set up for it.
Another problem that I’ve given much thought to, yet haven’t been able to come up with a really good solution.
I guess it would depend on if my friend can give us a ride and where she needs to go. If she can’t accommodate us for some reason, we would have to depend on state/federal evacuation and shelters.
Either option sucks for a multitude of reasons, but a crappy plan is better than no plan at all. It would have to be a major disaster for us to bug out at all given our limited options.
Have 2 options with friends both have wells and have told me to come their way if needed. I also have a couple of fair places on nearby public land I can go to.
Just found yoy
Three years of prepper youtube
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Sail to a nearby island sitting 20-30 cables off shore.
Bug-out is probably going to be the best option for us in a revolution. Our problem is to get out of the city, as most of the cities and towns here were planned with one major road in and out, and a few smaller roads also available, but not easily accessible. We would have to leave at 1am in the dark, no lights on car, and silence inside. The plan is to get away from the city by a minimum of 100 km, and hopefully to a place that has a nearby stream of clean water. Google Earth has been used to plan a route, but we desperately need to plan another 3-4 options in case the route A is blocked off.
I do not have a bug out location, which has been a stressful thing for me. I have a forest near me where I could hide. But randomly walking around isn’t safe, as I feel I would find a lot of other people doing the same. The hwys out of my city would be backed up and crowded. I don’t have escape vehicle. Other than my SUV. I’m stomped on this one ????