How to bugout
Your success in escaping a crowded urban center isn’t in how well you prep your items, but in how well you prep your mind.
I’m asked quite often how to bug out…or how does one escape a city when SHTF. While everyone has their own reasons for why they’re readying what is known as preps, not everyone has the mindset that is required when Murphy’s law kicks in, and it will always kick in regardless of the preparations you’ve made. I’m going to discuss 2 mindset keys that can tip the cards in your favor for success.
1. Always be the boy scout
Regardless of where you live, albeit the country, or dead in center of metropolitan area, location is no excuse for not having essential items for survival on your person at all times, as well as multiple main routes out of your current location and alternate routes with alternate alternate routes that you can improvise as organic constantly changing situations demand. That being said, we’ve become too dependent on GPS based navigation either in cellphones, garmins, or vehicle based turn by turn navigation. Very few appreciate the importance of a simple Rand Mcnally map book, and even fewer can utilize the valuable tool that a USGS topographic map, compass and protractor have to offer in an emergency situation. If you can’t read a map or guide yourself, your family, or your group out of any location to another location and be able to adjust your route to avoid potential threats or obstacles while in transit then you’re already set up for failure.
Gain map reading skills.
Buy a compasses and learn to use them, and make sure your entire group can as well in the event your are separated.
Have multiple copies of scaled topographic maps for your area and surrounding areas that you can find or place resources at, and have all important locations marked on your map. This will be come important if your group is not together at the onset of a situation or separated during a situation each individual member will be able to make it to regroup (rally) points or continue on to the intended destination or alternate destination. While of course one wouldn’t want to give away the location of things like ammo, food, water, or strongholds to others that may come into possession of a lost or stolen map, don’t mark the place you’re dropping food/ammo caches as such. A simple trick is to put multiple false locations on a map that a person in the know can use to triangulate the actual position that is intended, thus leaving the intended location unmarked.
learn to navigate by the stars and the sun because shit happens.
Bugout bags aren’t going to be included here, if you can recall, I wrote “no excuse for not having essential items for survival on your person,” this doesn’t mean always have your bugout bag on you. I have effected long term survival with merely a knife, a survival bracelet made of paracord, and a lighter. Which brings me to next essential asset for your success.
Be Gumby
Learn to do without. This means gain water purification, fire making, weapon making, trapping, hunting, shelter building skills. While its great to have a change of clothes, a firearm and ammo, a nice sleeping bag, a good tent, etc you can and probably will drop something, loss something or become separated from things you may have based your whole plan around and plans while help prepare your mind, skills prepare your survival.
The world isn’t rainbows and candy
Don’t talk to strangers. The easiest way to win a fight is to simply not get in one. SIN Safety In Numbers is a simple concept. While you may have a larger group than a smaller group that smaller group may have more training and more determination than yours. History has shown that superior numbers do not always equate to victory, and when SHTF no one is gonna be writing a history book about how you found yourself on a t-shirt that also no one is going to be making.
People will die. Simple huh? Accept it now, because it could be your wife, your husband, your children, your brother, mother, etc…..at some point given a long enough scenario you will lose someone that you value. You can either let it drag you down and affect your decision making ability, or you can push it back and deal with it at a time when you’ve established the security that will give you the luxury of looking back. Survivors guilt can be the reason you drink your moonshine when you’ve actually gotten the rest of your family or group to a place that can be secured so you can actually brew that moonshine, or it can be the reason you and the rest of your entourage become that off smell on the trail. If you haven’t gained the ability to suppress your emotions yet you need start running those scenarios in your head now. Mentally put yourself in the position that you’ve lost the people close to you, and do it for each of them individually, mentally grieve and experience their loss now, it will make you more determined to ensure you can prevent having to experience that loss in real time, and it will soften the blow when it does happen.
Die with dignity. You may not be the main character in this scenario, accept that. This doesn’t mean that you aren’t a contributing member of the team. Ultimately do everything you can until you’re physically incapable of doing anymore, then dig deep and do just a little bit more.
conclusion
We call it prepping because we can’t ever now if a situation may arise, and if one does, what that situation maybe. I’m not saying stop your preps. Do what gives you peace of mind, but remember the first thing to break will be your mind, and that happens all your prepping will just make you a very well stocked supply drop.
