Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
Good morning! I hope your preparedness month challenges are both enjoyable and informative.
If you missed the previous challenges, you can catch up here:
Today’s Challenge
We often talk about bugging out on foot. There are a variety of scenarios when you might have to use “people power” to get somewhere.
Today, I want you to take a long walk to a place from which you might have to return home on foot. Although there is the possibility you might have to GO someplace on foot, the most likely event for most of us is striking out to reach or homes and families if the SHTF while we’re away.
Some places you might want to go:
- Your children’s school
- Your workplace
- Your church
- The local store that you visit frequently
You get the idea. Depending on your level of fitness, you may not be able to do the entire walk today and that’s okay. Just spend some time transporting yourself on foot. You may need to have your spouse or a friend pick you up from your destination and drive you home. If you’re in really good shape and the place is a reasonable distance away, walk there and then turn around and walk home.
And it doesn’t matter! Just go today on a challenging walk to test your fitness level. Wouldn’t it be awful if you headed out on foot because of some kind of event and discovered then that you were unable to make it?
If this challenge is an eye-opener and you need to get in better shape, check out this no-nonsense PDF book.
How did it go?
So tell us in the comments: how did your walk go? Was it harder or easier than you had imagined? If your place of work or school is too far to manage on foot, figure out how long it would take to get home. This will help you figure out what supplies you need to keep in your get-home bag.
Share your experiences in the comments. And to be eligible to win prizes, share over in the forum.
Bugging out on foot is not an option for me. Extremely bad knees. I might make it a couple of miles but no more. I do carry a portable “soccer” seat in the car that I can carry and use it to rest on but would still be slow and couldn’t get far.
I train to walk to and from my children’s therapy on my treadmill. The center is 1.5 miles away. I try to do three miles once a week or more.
Raining here today, so no hike.
The most logical place for us to be stuck would be at the grocery store – five miles away. The road is mostly flat except for our 1/2 mile private drive in the country. The road would be fine but our drive would be a challenge. We will walk our drive tomorrow to see how we do. Down is fine, but coming back up – not so much.
That last time I walked that far was on a family trip to a national park and that was before I started having trouble with my hips.
Chances of our bugging out on foot? NIL.
Well, when I was working 220 miles away from home a few years ago, I carried a very complete bugout bag great pair of hiking boots, and a fold-up bike in my trunk. I was prepared to have to get home from a couple of hundred miles away. I retired about 3 years ago and since then my hip has gone really bad, so no walking long distances for me. My daughter and son-in-law live about 8 miles away. They’re going to come here in an emergency. We’re prepared here, food, water, weapons and ammunition. So walking anywhere is a no-go for me.
Didn’t read this challenge until late in the day, but I inadvertently completed it the other day. I had planned a trip to the store, figuring to take my usual bus up and back. Unbeknownst to me, the route had changed and the bus could only drop me at the mall next door to the one I was going to. I really wanted to get these errands done, so I went ahead, walked over to my original destination and got my stuff. Including two gallons of water, and six cans of food. I had a folding cart with me, but I hadn’t really thought about how heavy it was going to be. I got it done, but wrecked my back for a couple of days in the process and still have residual soreness in back, arms, shoulder…you get the idea.
Lesson learned. Never assume that any trip will run smoothly and think ahead to what you can comfortably carry for a distance if taking public transport!
But I did it, so I’m in better shape than I thought I was. Good to know.
PS: “Next door” in this case is about a fifteen minute walk…not too bad, but I haven’t been doing as much walking this past summer as I usually do. My next mission is a store about a half hour walk from my house and back. Unless I get heavy stuff. 🙂
Church is 100 miles from home. Dr and sons are around 65 miles away. Groceries over to 20 miles. Gas and hamburgers about three miles away. I could get home with a few rest stops on the way. Husband can’t walk far at a time probably not the three miles in a day.. Or maybe if we took all day. I’m rebuilding my strength slowly as he fails. We’re 72 and 82. He has stage 6 of 7 Alzheimer’s. In the last two years I broke my leg above the ankle. Then a fall injured my hand and arm. Emergency galblader surgery when I almost died. Then repair surgery on arm with a metal piece and 7 screws to hold the bone together. Then a torn hamstring with a completely sperated ligament that would have stabilized the knee. I’m healing again and finally walking some. Add fibromyalgia and periferal neuropathy and I’m not a great walking candidate but I’m working on it. My biggest problem is I go no place without my husband and I wouldn’t abandoned him. Things I can walk away from. I know that. I did it. But I won’t leave him in the pain and confusion of life today. He’d do anything to help me if he could remember how or what.
I’m starting to try to ride my bike again. I walk in the house and in the yard with weights. I work the garden alone. I agree being in shape is important. At 72 with my family I could easily live another 30 years. How ever many years I have I want to be productive and as selfsefficient as possible. Before this silly series of injuries and illness I was walking a 4 mile loop. 2 miles up hill then 1/2 mile larval and 1 1/2 miles downhill. All rough dirt road.
I was second time widow at 55. No income. No vehicle. No electricity. Carrying water and cooking on sticks in my country yard. I lived 16 miles from city limits. I lived for a year on food I’d put away. Friends brought me a car on a trip through the area. It needed a battery , tires, registration, and a license. That took 4 months selling stuff from my rural yard. Buying used tires and even a used battery. Once the car was on the road I had a job in three weeks.
Several incidents in life have made me appreciate getting into the kind of shape that made life easier.
When I was 21 I walked away from everything to have a chance at life. I spent 10 months alone in the woods with nothing but 1 change of clothing, a pocket knife, and half a book of old paper advertising matches. I prayed and thought about needs and how to meet them. I survived and learned a lot about myself. Being young and strong sure helped. So did all those badges earned in campcrafts, direction finding, knots and much more. The years of Forraging for food and medicines with Mom helped save my life. My prized possessions in those days were found tin cans I could cook in and make teas.
I’ve had money and fine posessions, Country club parties and met well known folks and I’ve had little more than the clothing on my back. Stuff is just stuff. Relationships with good people and health are important.
At 21, I lived alone living off the land for 10 months. At 55 I lived off stored food food for nearly 1 1/2 years.
At 68 we lost a lovely home in the mountains. Again as we moved we lived off stored food. Mostly from the garden. I’ve owned this three acres free of a mortgage since 1981. I’ve Lived in this little unincorporated rural village since 1977 and ran a little church school here for 22 1/2 years. So blessed to have a paid off spot to come back to.
Garden this year isn’t much but were eating a lot of wild greens and often cooking on gathered sticks. I’ve dried some amaranth leaves. Adding Boiling water makes an almost instant dish. I’m still putting food and other supplies aside. I’ve taken archery back up. Getting better. I wear little 1 lb weights on my wrists to help build up my strength again.
I see many here unable to fully meet today’s challenge….but I’m aiming to get there in spite of the physical problems.
Thanks for the challenges.
I work from home but town in 28 miles away to a groc store… so I go in every other week but in the winter… ill go 2-3 months with out going to town… so that will not happen… church is a block away
While my health is good, and my strength is pretty good for a woman my age, endurance is my achilles heel. The mile and a half walk home from work has a steep decline/incline, which I know would be a challenge for me. Honestly acknowledging your shortcomings is wise and enlightening. Gives you the opportunity to work on ‘work arounds’.
Great challenge! I walked to work this morning (~3 miles) and will be walking home. Definitely doable, and a good way to check out in advance where I may need to be looking over my shoulder (walking on the side of the road, under a bridge, etc.).
I walk 2 to 2 1/2 miles everyday, year round. My health is so-so but the walking helps. Closest place I go is 1/2 mile, the furthest is 2 miles. Easy in summer a bit slower and sometimes limited when winter is here in Montana but it is all doable. The Nearest good bus stop in 1/2 mile and it cover a large portion of my small city and is also free. If disaster strikes most likely will need to stay put.
Bugging out on foot would be hard as I am handicapped but with the use of my walker and that my bugout bag is on a wheeled cart I would be slow but could get several miles before having to stop .
By taking back roads and resting it would probably take me Three or Four days to get the 30 miles to my sons .
He would most likely find me before that.
Went just how it should for me
Daily walk 5 km in morning, but without the grab bag. I will really have to pluck up courage to put that bag on my back as I may not even make 1 km. Think I am subconsciously avoiding it. I have packed, re-packed, thrown out, and re-packed that bag but cannot eliminate anything more I would need for survival for 7 days!
As someone who has struggled with knee/joint pain, there are a couple of things i’ve done that have helped tremendously; 1. I consume a scoop of collagen peptides each day in my coffee. Some days I’ll have two. it helps repair the depleted collagen in our bodies which happens as we age or due to injury. 2. I have eliminated nightshades from my diet. These foods are in the nightshade family; tomatoes, potatoes, tomatillos, tomarillos, eggplant, all peppers, ground cherries, and certain berries (strawberries can cause inflammation in some people experiment and see how you feel).
I’m new to prepping and it can be difficult but not impossible to store foods that do not contain nightshades. All I can suggest is to try eliminating things form your diet one at a time to see if it helps your knees feel better. I loved putting ketchup and hot sauce on all of my food. I love Mexican and Italian food but I love more the way I feel without eating those inflammatory foods. As I heal, I can do more and more. I plan to build up my walking strength just-in-case.
Good luck!