Sniper-T
10-26-2011, 03:32 PM
Still sorting and organizing my HDD's I came across this that I thought deserved some airtime. It was mislabeled, but I believe it came from Survivalblog as well.
Personally I work over 50 miles from home, and frequently hunt or fish 200+ miles away. An incident while I am away, is always on my mind be it simply a winter blizzard or summer fire that shuts the highways down, or something more nefarious.
This is an article submitted to the blog, and a couple letters that followed it up.
for those of us who work away from the home... Or play away from the home.
Say you're miles away, hunting or fishing or shopping...
Getting Myself Home to Bug Out, by H. Billy
If the Schumer hits the fan (SHTF) and you’re at work miles away from your home and/or Bug Out Location (BOL) what will you do? Have you planned your route to get home? What if it’s not possible to use your route? Do you have alternate routes? Getting home to or to your BOL should a SHTF scenario arise will be trying, slow going and stressful enough unless you plan for it properly. I’m not talking only about physically planning but mentally planning as well. Giving yourself more options should you need them will hopefully lessen the stress and get you through a little easier.
If you’ve ever lived in a big city, you know firsthand what the traffic is like during rush hour. A daily commute of 40 miles, one way, can sometimes take three hours are more. As the economy has worsened and my seriousness for prepping grew, I often sat, while stuck in traffic, and wondered a few things. “How can I beat this traffic if a SHTF scenario arose?” Or how could I get around all of this traffic? I also thought about how vulnerable I would be if I were stuck on the freeway in gridlock. Given the urban gangs and how ruthless a lot of people are these days, it would not take the gangs and thugs long to figure out that those individuals sitting on the freeways are actually people who have jobs…and money….and would be easy pickings since after all, you’re not going anywhere anytime soon. So I began to think of alternate routes (off-road) and what to do if my vehicle was approached by thugs or looters. I also need to note that I have my youngest daughter with me that I drop off and pick up from daycare daily and my ultimate priority is keeping her safe and getting us both home.
Let me begin with my route. I live in the outskirts of Los Angeles, California. The freeway I use for my daily commute is the only freeway in my immediate area that goes in to the Beach cities where I work. Basically, there is only one way in and out of my area either going to or coming from Los Angeles. There are other freeways north of my location but they are just as congested if not worse and would take me out of my way not to mention much more time. The freeway I use has no service roads running parallel with the freeway. There is a few miles of the freeway where it is a bottleneck. No side roads or surface streets to use. Once you get past the bottle neck, there are some residential streets but these are even further congested with traffic lights, schools and other commuters thinking that they are getting to work faster by taking the residential streets not to mention that a lot of these streets are not through streets. So, there is basically only one way in and out along my route. The freeway is also under construction for lane widening and bridge retrofits which make the commute even that much worse.
So, I began looking at the terrain around the areas of the freeway during my commute and also began looking at overhead aerial maps of my route on line. I was surprised at what I had found. I actually found several alternative routes should the freeway become too dangerous or congested to traverse. I need to mention that my truck is 4X4 so traversing these routes would be easy for me. If you do not have a truck for your daily driver, I would suggest that you make sure to check and drive any alternative routes before you actually use one in a SHTF scenario.
1. Railroad tracks- There are sets of dual tracks with a service road on each side of the tracks for the maintenance crews that run parallel along side of the tracks. The only thing that I would need to carry is a set of bolt cutters should any of the access gates be locked. I did a few test drives and found that the access gates to the tracks were almost never locked. I haven’t actually driven the entire route along the tracks but from viewing the overhead maps, it’s a wide road on both sides of the tracks. It would be smooth sailing and get me past all of the congestion on the freeway. This would be my first choice.
2. Bike Path- There is also a paved two-lane (the pavement alone is at least 12’ wide) bike path that runs parallel to the freeway for several miles. It has an easy access from a residential street and ends at a service road that also runs next to the freeway, past the bottle neck. Being that there is never a lot of bicycle or foot traffic on the paths, this is also a route that I would consider should the freeway be impassable.
3. Flood Control- Here in California, the natural streams and rivers have been turned into giant, wide concrete ditches (like those in movies such as the Terminator). These flood control areas run for miles in all directions through the cities and are almost all connected to each other. The ones close to my work are easily accessible and would take me to far enough away from the more dangerous areas of the city. As I get closer to my home, they seem to be less maintained and nature has reclaimed them to an extent. Upon further viewing, I found these to be overgrown with brush and littered with large rocks. I haven’t investigated them any further other than the aerial maps but I am almost positive that there is a service road that runs along the flood control. I would only use this route as a last resort.
4. Off-road Vehicle Trails- I’ve noticed a few fire roads and off-road vehicle trails that go off in all different directions. I purchased a BLM map and found that these trails would get me home. Though they are primitive roads, they would eventually get me home. This would also be a last result as it would take hours to get to my home using these roads and time is not on my side in a SHTF scenario.
In Your Vehicle
Well, there’s not a whole lot one can do to secure their vehicle other than spending thousands to armor plate it and add bulletproof glass and maybe a gun turret but we’ll stick to reality. The best thing you can do is to make sure you properly maintain your vehicle, check your spare tire, have a few tools in case you need them and always have plenty of fuel in the tank.
For my truck, it’s a diesel, has huge tires and I also added aftermarket heavy duty bumpers in case I need to push vehicles out of my way. If someone is gunning for me, I need to do everything possible to get my daughter out of the line of fire and to a safer place….like home. I also tinted the back window and the back door windows with a dark tint so that no one could see how many people might be inside. The less the thugs know, the more likely they will leave you alone. Keep ‘em guessing.
In a G.O.O.D. scenario, remember to keep your bug out bag (BOB) as close to you as possible. If you are legally carrying, make sure to have it at ready.
But the most valuable item you can get or have is information. The best tool for this is the radio in your vehicle. I’m sure most of us saw what happened during the Los Angeles riots of 1992. You saw on the television reports as people were driving blindly right into the areas where the rioting was going on. They were totally unaware of everything around them (probably listening to some music--a bad idea.) and you all saw the brutality that ensued from the thugs and rioters on the streets. My tip for all of you is to keep your radio tuned to local radio news stations so that you can get up to date news of what’s going on in your area. You might want to take the time to search on line for the local radio networks in your area and save them on your radio presets. While listening, don’t stick to just one station, tune to different ones because the news reporters will be in different areas of the city and you can get more information by surfing the stations you have stored in your radio by listening to more than just one station. Use their reporting to your advantage. There are a lot of AM radio news stations. Again, don’t stick to FM or just one AM station. Since their studios are usually located “downtown”, they may not be on the air for long.
The bottom line, study your areas and have more than one route to get home or to your BOL. Properly maintain your vehicle at all times and keep the tank full of fuel. Listen to the AM news stations in your area to receive the latest traffic reports or other invaluable news reports of things going on around you and get going as soon as you can. These three simple steps can make a big difference: the difference of getting home safely or sitting in hours of traffic, vulnerable to the two legged vultures..even life or death. I hope and pray this may help others out.
Two Letters Re: Getting Myself Home to Bug Out
I want to disagree with anyone who might suggest that during a SHTF event that the highways and byways will suddenly be overcrowded with millions of sheeple trying to get home. I was on the road from work just after the second plane hit the second tower on 9/11. I was pretty convinced that this was an attack as soon as it happened. I had 20 miles in front of me on Highway 270 surrounding Saint Louis, and other highways and it was smooth sailing all the way. Most people were at work by then and while this was going on people were glued to the office television or radio if they could find one.
The sheeple were paralyzed pure and simple.
Any event be it a high profile terror attack, earthquake, EMP, etc is going to leave the public in a state of shock for a minimum of at least an hour maybe 2 or 3. That is when you act. That is when you move. Even if something happens during non-work hours when most people are home like in the evening or on the weekend, you will have at least a good 24-72 hours of shock time where they all stand around and say to themselves, “What just happened. What does this mean? What do we do now? Is this for real?”
Take advantage. Move at the first sign of something going on. I think this fast acting approach will give plenty of people who are already ready to move at a moment’s notice time to get in place at Bug Out Retreats or get to family pick-ups before the sheeple start to stampede. Even in case of EMP you can be 3 hours further down the road before people figure out they are going to actually have to walk home from work or spend the night in place hoping that the magical electricity comes back on in their car somehow.
People are ignorant and stupid in our modern age. Take advantage and move when you see what they don’t and you will be at a better starting point then those who live with the blinders on. - Ready to Move in Saint Louis
I don't know about the railroad companies out in California, but here in Pennsylvania, the railroad company seems to leave a lot of old railroad spikes and random pieces of metal laying near the tracks on the services road, and sometimes right in the middle of the service roads. One time a friend of mine was driving along a railroad service road in his truck and he got a large slash in his tire from a railroad spike. His flat tire was flat and luckily he had cell service to call me or he would have had a 5 mile hike to the nearest town. That was not life or death, but it could be in a SHTF scenario. Make sure your spare tire is in good condition and throw a tire repair kit and a small compressor in the truck. A good tire plug kit has at least 15 or 20 plugs (I've used 12 in a 2" sidewall gash before, and it worked!), the hole reamer, the tire plug inserting tool, and rubber cement. Small compressors that work, although slowly (1-2 CFM), can be had for cheap and they fit under your seat. The ones that Advance Auto Parts sell are junk (trust me), but I've seen a lot of people have good luck with some from Harbor Freight. Don't just throw it in the truck and assume it works. Test it! Other products like Fix-a-Flat and Green Slime also work as advertised for bead leaks, but not slashes like you would see driving on a railroad service road. Thanks for the blog and God Bless, - Josh in Pennsylvania
Personally I work over 50 miles from home, and frequently hunt or fish 200+ miles away. An incident while I am away, is always on my mind be it simply a winter blizzard or summer fire that shuts the highways down, or something more nefarious.
This is an article submitted to the blog, and a couple letters that followed it up.
for those of us who work away from the home... Or play away from the home.
Say you're miles away, hunting or fishing or shopping...
Getting Myself Home to Bug Out, by H. Billy
If the Schumer hits the fan (SHTF) and you’re at work miles away from your home and/or Bug Out Location (BOL) what will you do? Have you planned your route to get home? What if it’s not possible to use your route? Do you have alternate routes? Getting home to or to your BOL should a SHTF scenario arise will be trying, slow going and stressful enough unless you plan for it properly. I’m not talking only about physically planning but mentally planning as well. Giving yourself more options should you need them will hopefully lessen the stress and get you through a little easier.
If you’ve ever lived in a big city, you know firsthand what the traffic is like during rush hour. A daily commute of 40 miles, one way, can sometimes take three hours are more. As the economy has worsened and my seriousness for prepping grew, I often sat, while stuck in traffic, and wondered a few things. “How can I beat this traffic if a SHTF scenario arose?” Or how could I get around all of this traffic? I also thought about how vulnerable I would be if I were stuck on the freeway in gridlock. Given the urban gangs and how ruthless a lot of people are these days, it would not take the gangs and thugs long to figure out that those individuals sitting on the freeways are actually people who have jobs…and money….and would be easy pickings since after all, you’re not going anywhere anytime soon. So I began to think of alternate routes (off-road) and what to do if my vehicle was approached by thugs or looters. I also need to note that I have my youngest daughter with me that I drop off and pick up from daycare daily and my ultimate priority is keeping her safe and getting us both home.
Let me begin with my route. I live in the outskirts of Los Angeles, California. The freeway I use for my daily commute is the only freeway in my immediate area that goes in to the Beach cities where I work. Basically, there is only one way in and out of my area either going to or coming from Los Angeles. There are other freeways north of my location but they are just as congested if not worse and would take me out of my way not to mention much more time. The freeway I use has no service roads running parallel with the freeway. There is a few miles of the freeway where it is a bottleneck. No side roads or surface streets to use. Once you get past the bottle neck, there are some residential streets but these are even further congested with traffic lights, schools and other commuters thinking that they are getting to work faster by taking the residential streets not to mention that a lot of these streets are not through streets. So, there is basically only one way in and out along my route. The freeway is also under construction for lane widening and bridge retrofits which make the commute even that much worse.
So, I began looking at the terrain around the areas of the freeway during my commute and also began looking at overhead aerial maps of my route on line. I was surprised at what I had found. I actually found several alternative routes should the freeway become too dangerous or congested to traverse. I need to mention that my truck is 4X4 so traversing these routes would be easy for me. If you do not have a truck for your daily driver, I would suggest that you make sure to check and drive any alternative routes before you actually use one in a SHTF scenario.
1. Railroad tracks- There are sets of dual tracks with a service road on each side of the tracks for the maintenance crews that run parallel along side of the tracks. The only thing that I would need to carry is a set of bolt cutters should any of the access gates be locked. I did a few test drives and found that the access gates to the tracks were almost never locked. I haven’t actually driven the entire route along the tracks but from viewing the overhead maps, it’s a wide road on both sides of the tracks. It would be smooth sailing and get me past all of the congestion on the freeway. This would be my first choice.
2. Bike Path- There is also a paved two-lane (the pavement alone is at least 12’ wide) bike path that runs parallel to the freeway for several miles. It has an easy access from a residential street and ends at a service road that also runs next to the freeway, past the bottle neck. Being that there is never a lot of bicycle or foot traffic on the paths, this is also a route that I would consider should the freeway be impassable.
3. Flood Control- Here in California, the natural streams and rivers have been turned into giant, wide concrete ditches (like those in movies such as the Terminator). These flood control areas run for miles in all directions through the cities and are almost all connected to each other. The ones close to my work are easily accessible and would take me to far enough away from the more dangerous areas of the city. As I get closer to my home, they seem to be less maintained and nature has reclaimed them to an extent. Upon further viewing, I found these to be overgrown with brush and littered with large rocks. I haven’t investigated them any further other than the aerial maps but I am almost positive that there is a service road that runs along the flood control. I would only use this route as a last resort.
4. Off-road Vehicle Trails- I’ve noticed a few fire roads and off-road vehicle trails that go off in all different directions. I purchased a BLM map and found that these trails would get me home. Though they are primitive roads, they would eventually get me home. This would also be a last result as it would take hours to get to my home using these roads and time is not on my side in a SHTF scenario.
In Your Vehicle
Well, there’s not a whole lot one can do to secure their vehicle other than spending thousands to armor plate it and add bulletproof glass and maybe a gun turret but we’ll stick to reality. The best thing you can do is to make sure you properly maintain your vehicle, check your spare tire, have a few tools in case you need them and always have plenty of fuel in the tank.
For my truck, it’s a diesel, has huge tires and I also added aftermarket heavy duty bumpers in case I need to push vehicles out of my way. If someone is gunning for me, I need to do everything possible to get my daughter out of the line of fire and to a safer place….like home. I also tinted the back window and the back door windows with a dark tint so that no one could see how many people might be inside. The less the thugs know, the more likely they will leave you alone. Keep ‘em guessing.
In a G.O.O.D. scenario, remember to keep your bug out bag (BOB) as close to you as possible. If you are legally carrying, make sure to have it at ready.
But the most valuable item you can get or have is information. The best tool for this is the radio in your vehicle. I’m sure most of us saw what happened during the Los Angeles riots of 1992. You saw on the television reports as people were driving blindly right into the areas where the rioting was going on. They were totally unaware of everything around them (probably listening to some music--a bad idea.) and you all saw the brutality that ensued from the thugs and rioters on the streets. My tip for all of you is to keep your radio tuned to local radio news stations so that you can get up to date news of what’s going on in your area. You might want to take the time to search on line for the local radio networks in your area and save them on your radio presets. While listening, don’t stick to just one station, tune to different ones because the news reporters will be in different areas of the city and you can get more information by surfing the stations you have stored in your radio by listening to more than just one station. Use their reporting to your advantage. There are a lot of AM radio news stations. Again, don’t stick to FM or just one AM station. Since their studios are usually located “downtown”, they may not be on the air for long.
The bottom line, study your areas and have more than one route to get home or to your BOL. Properly maintain your vehicle at all times and keep the tank full of fuel. Listen to the AM news stations in your area to receive the latest traffic reports or other invaluable news reports of things going on around you and get going as soon as you can. These three simple steps can make a big difference: the difference of getting home safely or sitting in hours of traffic, vulnerable to the two legged vultures..even life or death. I hope and pray this may help others out.
Two Letters Re: Getting Myself Home to Bug Out
I want to disagree with anyone who might suggest that during a SHTF event that the highways and byways will suddenly be overcrowded with millions of sheeple trying to get home. I was on the road from work just after the second plane hit the second tower on 9/11. I was pretty convinced that this was an attack as soon as it happened. I had 20 miles in front of me on Highway 270 surrounding Saint Louis, and other highways and it was smooth sailing all the way. Most people were at work by then and while this was going on people were glued to the office television or radio if they could find one.
The sheeple were paralyzed pure and simple.
Any event be it a high profile terror attack, earthquake, EMP, etc is going to leave the public in a state of shock for a minimum of at least an hour maybe 2 or 3. That is when you act. That is when you move. Even if something happens during non-work hours when most people are home like in the evening or on the weekend, you will have at least a good 24-72 hours of shock time where they all stand around and say to themselves, “What just happened. What does this mean? What do we do now? Is this for real?”
Take advantage. Move at the first sign of something going on. I think this fast acting approach will give plenty of people who are already ready to move at a moment’s notice time to get in place at Bug Out Retreats or get to family pick-ups before the sheeple start to stampede. Even in case of EMP you can be 3 hours further down the road before people figure out they are going to actually have to walk home from work or spend the night in place hoping that the magical electricity comes back on in their car somehow.
People are ignorant and stupid in our modern age. Take advantage and move when you see what they don’t and you will be at a better starting point then those who live with the blinders on. - Ready to Move in Saint Louis
I don't know about the railroad companies out in California, but here in Pennsylvania, the railroad company seems to leave a lot of old railroad spikes and random pieces of metal laying near the tracks on the services road, and sometimes right in the middle of the service roads. One time a friend of mine was driving along a railroad service road in his truck and he got a large slash in his tire from a railroad spike. His flat tire was flat and luckily he had cell service to call me or he would have had a 5 mile hike to the nearest town. That was not life or death, but it could be in a SHTF scenario. Make sure your spare tire is in good condition and throw a tire repair kit and a small compressor in the truck. A good tire plug kit has at least 15 or 20 plugs (I've used 12 in a 2" sidewall gash before, and it worked!), the hole reamer, the tire plug inserting tool, and rubber cement. Small compressors that work, although slowly (1-2 CFM), can be had for cheap and they fit under your seat. The ones that Advance Auto Parts sell are junk (trust me), but I've seen a lot of people have good luck with some from Harbor Freight. Don't just throw it in the truck and assume it works. Test it! Other products like Fix-a-Flat and Green Slime also work as advertised for bead leaks, but not slashes like you would see driving on a railroad service road. Thanks for the blog and God Bless, - Josh in Pennsylvania