Post Bugout AAR #3: Witty Title Pending

So my final post on the bugout is going to be a matter of personal philosophy with regards to survivalism and training priorities.

As I've said before, we were pushing forward with a hardcore bushcraft event-no food, minimal water, buttpack only, hiking on foot through the wilderness living off the land, all that shit.  But we stressed something at the very beginning that should be brought up here: by the time you are in the situation we were in, you have already failed.

There is no good reason why a sensible, intelligent prepper should have to bug out to the wilderness with nothing more than a buttpack, one blade and a water bottle.  The reason we chose to do the bugout this way was because we were training for the absolute worst case scenario-both for training purposes and, let's face it,  for bragging rights with the rest of the tribe.  And don't get me wrong-it was both an awesome and educational experience for everyone involved.  But if this training is relevant, then there are many, many layers of fail that immediately preceded it and forced us into this scenario.

In short, if you have to ditch to the wilderness with almost nothing, you done fucked up son, and you better pray you get as lucky as we did.  Wild foraging is unreliable even for masters (which we aren't) and the sheer amount of calories you have to expend getting food makes even the most simple of diversions prohibitive.

So what's the big bugaboo here?  Well, the trend in survivalism has always been towards wilderness\bushcraft skills.  And I'm not coming out and saying that those skills are useless or impractical.  But the thing is, to even use those skills, I have to drive for 40 minutes-and thinking on it, perhaps my time would have been better spent practicing a group rendezvous at one of our rally points or doing some route recon on some of the hidden footpaths here in town.  For one thing, even if SHTF, I probably still have to go to work as I work in infastructure.  For another, there is basically no earthly reason for me to be wandering around with no food and no firearm in the back 9 of the Deam wilderness area during a SHTF event.  But perhaps the most relevant item has been this: the special forces commando thing is just not relevant to my AO and my plans, no matter how bad ass it is.

Our next bugout is actually going to be a practice bug in.  We're going to work through the steps of our SHTF folder in a simulated disaster.  We have done this in a virtual manner, by using a simulated disaster event as a gaming scenario using our real materials, but I want to do it in meatspace.

Communication.  Coordination.  Logistics.  Everything from rainwater collection to hand signals to deploying a fireteam from the back of a pickup truck without being seen.  I've got my rifle class scheduled in May.  I'm running three times a week.  I've got my homies on standby.  All of this is more relevant than snake eating.

So let's make it happen, people.  The clock is ticking.