Plan B or a Reality Check?

The last few days I have been looking at many many plans for bugging out, lots of videos with lots of good info in many cases—The gear to have on hand and so on. Some offer very sound advice, and it seems to make sense until you start to break it down by questions. The essence seems to be if you have to bug out due to untenable conditions at the home base, you bug out and live off the land. What none of the videos I saw ever took into consideration was no family to deal with. If you are single and owe nothing to anyone then you’re free to bug. Taking that line of thought, I was amazed at the idea of what minimal gear was, and the weight of the pack. Even most young guys would be hard pressed to move well, much less hike into the wild very far. I think the reality is what kind of shape you are in and be honest with yourself. If you have the skills to try and live off the land you would still be still have hard battle.

Another factor would be what time of the year are we talking about, dead of winter or middle of summer? Even in many remote areas it could be beyond the skills of most well trained outdoorsmen. for any length of time past a week, if that. And if things were that bad, just avoiding company would present other problems. Let me ask this, when was the last time you carried a pack of 60 plus pounds with a rifle, up hill, in the snow or in 100 degree weather, or in a driving rain and mud? Not an easy task.

Many folks have never been in the wild alone even for a weekend, much less under such stressful conditions. Don’t laugh, over the years I have seen many plans for someone to spend a week out by themselves, most cant do it, just cannot cut it. Then they come back with some goofy reason for not staying out in paradise, riiiiight. It is not easy to be by yourself.

My partner in crime, Alan Halcon, stresses communication and I think he is right on the money , if whatever device you have will work, that is cool, even if all you have is a receiver. At the least you will hear what is going on to to a certain degree. Commo will help you decide what move to make. Not one video I saw even brought up the subject and I watched dozens. Of course, now they will pop up all over the place.

Another thing that was never addressed. If you have a family, are you going to just leave them? I think not. This is really an impossible situation for most. and off the charts… Makes for a cool video though . Also part of the Plan B structure of bugging out is to be ahead of the crowd, how do you do that? Bugging out in your trusty survival wheels and your retreat cabin that is only 50 miles away, allowing you to zoom ahead of the panic.. What if you didn’t have heads up first that TSHTF? Everyone is not starting from the same point. All along the way are feeder roads leading to the main highway or freeway and how the highways become parking lots. No easy answer. Bugging out seems to be mostly a great survival fantasy, a great romantic adventure and that is all it is.

Bugging out could land you in the “camps” or not. Either way you are a refugee and that is something you want to avoid at all costs, then you are under the gun of someone else’s control over you, you dont want that. All of these conditions will also have side effects of trauma that no one ever talks about. What are you just going to sail along like it is another weekend of extreme camping, no thought of what happened to mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, your bro or sis, close friends and such? What about your dog, cats and horses, etc all of that will weigh heavy on you as well?

Bugging in seems to be a good idea on the surface but that is going to depend on were you live. All of these things depend on so many outside factors it is impossible to round them all up in a nice ribbon and bow. . It is a package that will unwrap before our eyes, and I feel it wont be pleasant

In the videos I viewed they never take into account what could go wrong, and just common sense will tell you things do go wrong, the small stuff could shut you down. The flu could knock you out, a tooth ache could take you out, a broken limb could do it, for some forgetting certain meds could be a bust.

What is your Plan B?

By Dude McLean

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