RE: How to bug out?
Not many people with thoughts on how to bug out. Pretty unexpected.
Right, time for my rant/ideas.
First up, and although this is my first note, it's also the last thing you'll end up doing, but the first thing that will cause alterations to your plan. You'll understand why when I say what it is. One of the most important things is, you need to practice bugging out. Although it's super important, it's not the first thing you'll be doing.
The first thing you should be doing is getting a plan. Boring hu? I know, it's not loads of fun. But if you work it out so you can easily bug out of a city, where do you go? What do you need? What do you have cached along the route? Do you even have a route? Where are you bugging out to? What do you have there? How long do you plan to be bugged out for? See the need for a plan now?
Bug Out Planning:
Where are you bugging out to? A friends house? A Bug Out Location (BOL)? Or to a woods you know well and have prepped?
Where is that location in relation to your home? North, East, South, West?
What stands between you and that location? Rough city areas? Streams/rivers? Motorways? Fields? Another city?
How far away is that location? Is that distance a road distance, walkway distance, country lane distance, or a straight line away?
How long will it take you to travel that distance by car, foot, boat, bike, etc?
What do you need to carry with you to get to the location, considering your travel time? How much food? Is there a place to get more water? Safety items?
Next up comes contingencies. If route A is blocked, do you have a route B? How about Route C, D, Double D, E and F?
This is an annoying question, who is bugging out with you? How will all the above apply to them? What do they need, how fast are they, etc?
Once you have completed all of that, you now have a BASIC plan. No joke, this is basic planning. No doubt SD, NR and BP all have maps with 6 or 7 bug out routes (minimum), as well as bags ready and packed, along with 'points of interest' marked on the maps, along with locations of caches they've hidden away, and much more.
Brilliant, you now know where you're going and how you're getting there, right? Hu, you've not considered how you'll get there? You'll drive, right? But what if your car isn't working, has been stolen, or the roads are all jammed with traffic? Now realise why I asked how long it would take to walk the routes? What about a puncture in a bicycle? Are you really going to stop and fix the tyre? How many punctures are you able to fix?
What items you need to carry has been mentioned, so this is where the Bug Out Bag comes into play. There are numerous threads on BOB equipment lists and the alike. So I won't go into too much detail about them on here. What I will ask though, once your bag is complete, can you carry that bag, that distance, in that time on your plan? See where practice comes into it now?
Remember those contingencies? This is where you get to plan for them. Where are the bottle necks for refugees? What are potential attack points or visual black spots where you'll be vulnerable? Where will your line of sight be reduced a lot? How can you compensate for those things? Are there places you can go to that will allow you a quick overview of your route? I think of high towers, in this situation. Church steeples, and the alike.
Once again, here is where you'll need to practice more and more to better your movement, speeds, and ability with the tools in your pack.
On a last note, because the wife is probably bored of hearing the clicking of keys on my keyboard, have you factored in certain locations that you might want to visit en route to your BOL? Places like supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, etc? If not, you might want to give it a go.
I hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll bring more thoughts on bugging out, to you all another time.
Enjoy.
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism - Thomas Jefferson
Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
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