If You Must Leave The Area, What Are Your Backup Plans? Explore Backups For Plan B Or C...

If you MUST leave the area in the event of a regional or widespread disaster, what are your backup plans? Do you have alternative backup plans for your backup?

No matter how carefully we pick our primary and secondary emergency bug-out locations, there is no such thing as a completely “disaster-proof” area. Do you have a second or even third alternative location in mind?

Perhaps, like many, you are still working on securing your primary bug-out plan but it hasn’t happened yet because of finances or other logistics... Some would prefer to wait until they have enough money to ensure relative comfort rather than pure survival. For example, they may be struggling to save for land and a house rather than just raw land where a tent or one-room shack would be better than nothing at all.

I have lived on my bug-out land for many years, but have had to use alternative plans more than once. That led me to draw plans B, C, D, E, and even F for the fubar times (Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition).


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Plan B - reciprocal friends/family support group within a 50-150 mile radius.


Plan C - (If I need to leave the entire region): grab-n-go the essentials in backpacks and this game hauler cart pictured below. (It can haul up to 750 lbs worth of stuff, and also has side braces, securing straps, and tow bar for towing behind a vehicle if necessary.) If for some reason I need to abandon my ride and hoof it, my essentials are portable. (If the SHTF looks to be severe and widespread I will not be hauling much in the vehicle other than ourselves, backpacks and game haulers. The vehicle is only as good as the fuel supply, which may not last long.)


Plan D - Currently have a climate-controlled storage unit in a very small town near friends/family that do not live in my area. In the event that the climate control aspect is no longer functional for some reason, it will have served its purpose to extend the life of my supplies up to that point. This small town in a remote, rural area does not carry as much of a nightmare risk as a city. I opted for the storage unit out of courtesy to friends/family. Not everyone has unlimited space, etc. No need to saddle anyone with the responsibility of holding my stuff, plus it gives me more flexibility.


Plan E - (have not done this yet) Rent small, alternate storage units further out, but also near friends/family. For many years, I have cultivated these reciprocal support groups which span thousands of miles throughout Canada, USA, Mexico, and elsewhere. We are a tight bunch of good people who have looked out for each other and have stood the test of time and trials for many years. Outside of this tested-by-fire group, I trust no one.

Plan F - When everything goes completely FUBAR and I cannot reach or contact anyone in my support group by phone, I will need to travel there grey-man style: perhaps after dark until the earliest morning hours just before daylight to reduce the risk of being detected by others. What I have in my backpack and cart will be too valuable to others to risk traveling in the open. (Bonus: if needed, this game hauler could also haul an injured person.)


https://www.amazon.com/Kill-Shot-Game-Cart-Tow/dp/B071KLC8PP

Image:

 

I don't think the idea of (or implementing) a plan B, C, D, etc. is cost-effective to most of us. Not being a rich person, I figured that I had enough money saved up to follow what I considered my most realistic plan (sell house, move to rural area, buy land, buy house) rather than to develop a bunch of interlocking plans, which would eat up most of my savings before I could procure and develop my main post-SHTF location.

Any "backup" or "backup- to-my-backup" plan, unless it were to another completely safe place to live, would require that I acquire or maintain the same infrastructure that I already have. Leaving my mini-farm via primitive transportation with just enough stuff that I can carry would make me the very opposite of a post-SHTF survivor: a refugee.

If Kimberly, Idaho were to go down -- even if I had a bug-out location available -- what would make it any safer? I could be another hundred miles ahead of a pandemic or extreme climate changes, but without a house, a garden, my livestock, tools, knowledge of the area, helpful neighbors and friends, and all the comforts that I have now. And even if I did spend a hundred thousand bux on a plot of land and a cabin in Broken Pelvis, Montana; Roachspit, Texas; or East Jesus, West Virginia, what would be the chances of getting there in one piece -- and of getting there and not finding that someone has already taken it over and didn't want to share?

In a perfect world, I could fly my private jet to my other home in Osorno, Chile or Dunedin, New Zealand; but the way I look at it, Perfect is the enemy of Good Enough.

 

You brought back a memory from long ago. It is easy to build a bicycle type cart that rides on the rails. This really would work well and allow you to also carry more than just what you could carry in aback pack. The ones that I remember looked a little like this only it was not so neat since it was welded up by a bunch of kids.


More pictures of this idea...

https://www.bing.com/images/search?...cycle+for+riding+on+railroad+tracks&FORM=IGRE

 

You need to go and look at the pictures on the page that the HTTP will take you to. A lot of the bikes they show are just regular bicycles with a light outrigger to stabilize you on the rail. If you built it right it would be no more trouble to store or get on and off the rails than any bicycle.

 

I suspect that you could make something like a motorcycle with a side car that was bicycle powered. I really do think that traveling the rails is a great idea even if you are walking it. Train tracks don't ever have steep grades so you don't have that to fight. they also tend to run out in the country side and people don't build on the tracks like they did at one time and do now along major highways. Travel at night will be easy compared to woods trails and safer than highways.Even just a wagon that would ride on the tracks would make your life a lot easier since you could carry more with less effort.

 

My daughter had a thing that you could hook on the back of a bicycle that had room for two kids and some supplies that was nearly wide enough to adapt to tracks. It was light tubular framed with canvas body and even a clear plastic windshield and was covered so the little ones were out of the sun. It didn't weigh anything and was amazingly strong.

 

It looked a little bit like this but was specifically for two kids. It was given to them by a friend that had Twins. They used it to haul the baby and groceries at times.



Look at some of these trailers for bicycles!! Some of them are wild.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bicycle+pulled+trailers&FORM=HDRSC2

 

So many people will have the same idea of traveling along railways that it won't be long before it will be just as dangerous, if not more so, as traveling along roads.

The railway idea has been mulled over for decades by the prepper-survivalist communities, as well as by laypeople who live near the tracks. Of all the people Out There during a societal breakdown, encountering not-so-nice survivalists would be among the most dangerous people to deal with, because they will also likely be well armed and trained in the use of night vision/heat imaging equipment...and have the same mindset/goals as us. Gang members will also quickly learn to lay in wait for easy strategic ambushes. And, if there are more of them than you can handle...well, there's that...

Traveling off the beaten path is risky too because you may encounter fences, private landowners and their dogs...

Speaking of traveling...

For so many obvious reasons, being a refugee is the LAST thing any of us want to do, but I know that unless I make advance plans for the unthinkable, I could be worse than just a refugee...I will be an unprepared refugee.

It is reprehensible for me to think that someday I might be forced to leave the fruits of decades of my shelter-in-place labors. If I am faced with a drastically urgent reason to leave, I want to have an idea of what is truly the next best thing to do, and hopefully not be forced into a half-baked plan that has not been adequately researched.

That's why I am still exploring beyond Plan A, B, and C... as in Plan B-1, B-2, Plan C-1, C-2...lol.

It is too easy for me to stay stuck on ideas of what "should" happen, instead of what "could" happen. No, I don't worry myself to death over it, but it won't hurt to explore all of my options while the "sun is shining..."


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I can relate to all of this 100% because this was my mindset for many years. I felt so secure on my BOL and all of the work put on it to ensure long-term survival that I could not imagine what on earth could force me to leave it.

Then I got to thinking in "advanced preps" mode...the places where most fear to tread, the nope, NOT-going-there-doing-that places, and the things that don't fit into my current well-thought-out plans...

Some of my advanced preps include plans for things such as widespread crown fires that will likely be more numerous after the SHTF has been going on for a while (not enough local infrastructure in place to put them out), or a huge tornado of the kind that rips out basements...and just like that, most of my stuff on the property is GONE...

And during the aftermath of dealing with disasters during a pre-existing SHTF situation, when we are most vulnerable, we face the very real possibility of becoming easier targets and being outnumbered and overwhelmed by forces greater than ourselves...and they may decide to STAY. (Those with ponds, or other sources of fresh water may find their land to be a special targets)

For these and other reasons, I may be forced to flee. It is not my only backup plan, but the time and energy spent developing and testing a DPN (Disaster Preparedness Network) has already proved its worth a few times...and cost us nothing. We learn who our true friends and family are not only during good times, but when we are all undergoing severe trial, and these time-tested ones are marked in my mind as key members of my DPN.

Depending on how widespread and severe the SHTF situation is, learning how to be a successful traveler will figure heavily into the DPN...IF I ever need to resort to that. Hopefully I won't need it!

 

Traveling is not my plan. It is a hand to mouth survival at best and I don't want to be the person on the outside wanting in. Live or die I will do it here. I chose this place with survival in mind over 20 years ago and while it has changed a little it still has the things that I think will give the best opportunity to not just survive but to live. We have a mild climate, water every where, lots of wildlife and even more livestock. The woods will provide fuel for many decades and the people that chose to live in the woods near a tiny town are not the kind that are dependent on others taking care of them.

Over the years I have incorporated my plans into this location. I guess that to some extent I bugged out over 30 years ago. I left the place the I called home for over 30 years and all of the people that I had known for my entire life because I didn't see that place as someplace that was going to offer much in the years to come and would be a death trap in the event of any sort of social collapse. I was right it has gone massively down hill and is a very clear example of the worst in big city living gone to hell. like some of the cities in the north say around Detroit and Flint changing times have not been kind to the place that I used to call home.

Many times people are trapped in their situation. I REALLY understand that. You have roots and a hug investment in where you are at and know a lot of people there. It is hard to pull up and just walk away from everything and just start all over from scratch. I was sort of blessed by being in a position where I was going to lose everything anyway so I decided to just dump it all and leave. I sort of had to go into business for myself because the only industry where I chose to go wouldn't hire me. Every place that I had ever worked at was gone. When the oil industry tanked in the early 80s there was just nothing left there for me. I had no past work history that anyone could verify.

In my case it was truly a case of life dumped a case of lemons on my head and I made lemon aid out of it as soon as I picked myself up. I will say that losing everything was rather liberating. I was starting from scratch and this time I had a plan and stuck with it. I always had a plan. Many of the suggestions that I have made here were plans that I had in the past.

The thing people don't realize is that most of the things that we as preppers/survivalists feel we will need don't truly cost all that much or even truly require a ton of effort. You don't need a $150.00 knife. If I ever need and assault weapon after the fall I bet my $150.00 Nagant will get me one from a fool real easily. Even a single shot H&R used once as a sniper weapon will let me upgrade my weaponry if it has to.

It is better to know where to find food and harvest it yourself than have cases of cans. I could always take my knowledge on the road with me and feed myself almost anywhere in East Texas. My basic plan is to make myself extremely valuable to my friends and neighbors. The people that I will have with me are mostly tough as nails male and female alike with lots of skills that will just b more valuable in a TEOTWAWKI world.

Even with all that said, if I HAD and was forced to run I know that we can do it because we have already done it once. My basic backup plan though is to turn my little area into an organized almost militaristic hell hole for anyone to crack. We have two special forces trained people and I have a lot of experience with improvised weapons that would make our killing fields a slaughter house. With a little effort we will be someplace that bad people will avoid.

 

Simple, I am coming to your house LOL

 

That, which you are describing is a pet carrier for biking. I bought one at a yard sale one time for $5.00. My son rode my grandson around in it. It finally got destroyed/fell apart. I would love to find another, and to get a scotter , EMP proof it and put a part to pull one of these again. That would work for me with my limits for pedaling.