*Bugging Out To "Somewhere" and Doing "Something"*
Let’s Think About This
By: Jaden
25 February 2007

Beware Of Weird Sites that advocate training you to become a refugee with a 3 day "Bug Out Bag" on your back.
Have A Plan
It's All About Personal Responsibility.
Get off your duff and get out and PRACTICE!!
We must prepare for the worst and work for the best.

That is the first thing you see when you look at the AlphaRubicon webpage. Check this article out too. The idea of a Bug Out Bag or Bugging Out is not to run out in to the woods and then "do something". The REAL idea is if you have to bug out of your area, you already have a place to go that’s stocked with everything you will need to live…not just survive, but LIVE for months or possibly years AND having a way to get there. That’s where a good BOV comes in. If your retreat is in the backwoods of New Hampshire, a Geo Metro probably is not going to get you there during the spring or winter.

Many people have their brains programmed to become a refugee or die. If the crap hits the oscillator here I’ll grab my bag and head out to the hills or back woods of Vermont, Montana, or wherever and live off the land. Maybe head to hunting camp and live there. I can go to a national or state park and stay there….along with how many other thousands of people?? When I get there I’ll do "something".

THINK ABOUT IT!! If you can’t figure out what "something" is now then how are you going to figure out what "something" is when all hell breaks loose and you’re sitting "somewhere"?

Some people think that bugging out is like camping. Load up a bunch of stuff and go camping. NO, it’s NOT. When you go camping you plan ahead, get your food ready, go camping for a few days and then come back home. You come back home to your job and civilization functioning normally. When TSHTF and you bug out, most likely you won’t be returning home a few days later, going to work and finding civilization as you left it.

Same idea of going to camp. How long will the food & water last? How about means of cooking? How long can everything you might possibly need last before you have to go to a store?

Ok, for whatever reason you have to leave your area. You grab your 3 day pack and throw a bunch of stuff in your vehicle and head out. You drive 200 miles (and use a good ½ tank of fuel) to the remotest woods you can find on the map. You set up camp and start cooking the steaks on your Coleman stove. Life is good for the first couple of days. Then your food gets low, the steaks and burgers are gone along with the soda, your propane bottles are almost empty, your MRE’s that you had in your pack are gone…whoops you ran out of cigarettes too. Figuring it’s not a big deal…remember, Bugging Out is just like camping… you get in to your vehicle and head out to find a town somewhere with a grocery store. After making a few wrong turns and driving on the wrong woods roads you finally find a town 4 hours later with a store. You go in to the store and the shelves are nearly empty. You do manage to find some peanut butter and some beans and a few Ramen noodles, you go to the check out and find out the credit card machine is not working. You have no cash, you have nothing…just a useless piece of plastic that always worked before. You leave the store and drive through town. Your gas tank is now at ¼ and you find a gas station that is sold out. You ask the proprietor where the next nearest gas station is and he tells you that all the gas stations within at least 100 miles are sold out. There is no gas to be had. He just ran out and is getting ready to close.

You now wonder how you’re going to get back to your BO spot where you left your tent, sleeping bag, Coleman stove & lantern, cooler and other belongings. You might have enough gas to make it back there provided you make no wrong turns.

You now have 3 options-

    1. Stay in the town "somewhere" with NOTHING and check yourself in to a government shelter…that means you’re now a REFUGEE!
    2. Try to get back to your campsite and have an empty gas tank when you get there and not be able to leave by vehicle…not to mention you still have hardly any food. That means stranding yourself out in the woods "somewhere"…which will probably mean DEATH!
    3. Try to get back home which is now about 300 miles away knowing you can’t go that far on ¼ tank of gas. That means either REFUGEE or DEATH!
    4. Yea….see how easy it is to screw yourself. That could happen very fast by bugging out to "somewhere" and doing "something".

    You’re smarter than the above person. You’ve watched "Man vs. Wild" on TV and bought some survival movies, you have a survival kit that you bought. You bug out to a national or state park and will live off the land. You head out in to the woods with a survival kit cuz you’re a SURVIVALIST. You drive so far and use so much gas that you can’t get back to a town unless you walk. You find your campsite "somewhere". You get a campfire going and are eating the high-energy bars you paid 5.00 bux a pop for. Wow…they taste like crap, they’re absolutely horrible!!! Oh….did you forget to actually try them before depending on them? Did you try them to see how much energy they actually give? No, you didn’t because they cost too much to just eat and waste. Now that you’re out in God’s country you find out they’re not all they were advertised to be in that survival magazine.

    You’re ready for some real food, so you being the trained and experienced survivalist are going to live off the land. Ok, no problem. You start looking for food. You see a nice deer about 100 yards away, wow wouldn’t that taste some good cooked on a campfire. You do have a rifle that was your grandfather’s that you’ve never fired. You take aim on the deer and yank the trigger, nothing happens. WTF? Oh...forgot to pull this hammer thingy back. You try to cock the hammer and it’s stuck, it won’t budge. You watch as that nice deer steak wanders off.

    A bit discouraged and a little hungrier you find a small brook that might have fish in it. You tie a knife on to a stick with a shoestring just like they did in the survival videos. Two hours later you finally manage to spear a fish. It’s 12" long. Great…you got your food.

    You head back to your campsite and get your fire going again, then ponder how to clean and cook the fish. The video didn’t show how to do that part. It only showed spearing it, then a picture of it on the fire and the guy eating it. You then decide that it can’t be that hard so you clean it and cook it on the fire. You eat it and then go to bed. In the middle of the night you wake up feeling sick and then begin puking your guts up. You wonder if you ate a bad part of the fish or not.

    The next morning you get up and realize how bad your situation sucks. Now that you’ve stranded yourself "somewhere" you wish you had a better plan. If you do get rescued you’ll probably become a REFUGEE. If you’re not rescued you’re probably going to starve to death "somewhere", unless wildlife gets to you first.

    The prepared survivalist has to bug out for whatever reason. The plan goes in to action. They grab some food, stored gas jugs and maybe some extra deep cycle batteries and jump in to their 4 wheel drive BOV. No need to grab the BOB as it’s already in the vehicle. The BOV is already stocked with some things like clothes and food. They drive to their retreat, which is already stocked with clean clothes, weapons, food and water, has alternate power, has heat, has more gasoline stored there and all the comforts of home. They are able to stay at their retreat for 3 months while things cool down. They aren’t just surviving, they’re living. Good hot meals, plenty of coffee, watching movies, taking hot showers and chillaxin’. While there, they are monitoring the activity at their home AO using TV and broadcast radio. They are able to attain good information by using ham radio and having communications with people who are in their home AO. At the end of 3 months they still have enough supplies on hand to go another 9 months, but have given good reports from their communications sources decide it’s safe to return home. They have used ½ tank of gas to get to the retreat and might have enough to get back home. No problem, they grab some of the stored gas, fill their BOV and throw the empties in the back and head back home.

    Their BOB is not designed for living in the woods and living off the land. It’s designed to get them to their retreat or back home if foot travel is the only means.
    Jaden



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