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Maverick

Top Poster
Joined
Mar 8, 2013
Messages
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Location
Washington State - between 2 mountains and a river
My primary home is out high in the country, I have several bug out locations. I have prepped for bugging in (long term) and bugging out short term and also in a I.N.C.H situation, I have several modes of transportation depending on the circumstances and now we get hit with a double whammy that challenges us in every aspect of prepping with a monkey wrench thrown in, now I'm having to rethink everything and I mean everything.

As most know, Washington State is in a drought and as a result many fires are all over the state. One of my gardens had to be curtailed because the creek we rely on that we pump out of for the garden has gotten to low and because of the lack of snow in the mountains last winter and the outlook for this winter isn't much better I chose not to use my wells water for this garden and cut back in other water usages.

Now, we have large fires all over the state 1 of them 22 miles away from my home with smoke covering the whole state, my cabin (our main bug out location) is a half mile away from one of the fires, our other bug out location all up in the hills further out from the cabin are now in trouble. If I need to evac I would have no choice but to head into Vancouver Washington suburb (a 'city') It's a little hard to head out to one's bug out location(s) when everything is burning around them! Whats going on around me is forcing me to head to heavily populated area in case of evac. I think by now many of you already see were this is heading?

Now, imagine this being in a SHTF or a T.E.O.T.W.A.W.K.I.

Today we have communication devices that tell us we are heading into a drought, where the fires are at, places to avoid. Today we have Fire Fighters. Today we can drive to the store for food and water. Today we have family and friends if we need to evac. Today the cities/suburbs are civilized however tomorrow, we have none of the above, the drought has sucked the creeks dry, the lakes have evaporated to the point of heating up killing the fish (my current situation) we would normally harvest for food, the animals are scarce heading further out or leaving the area all together (current situation), very little water for the garden (current situation), foraging is becoming very difficult to obtain anything tangible.

Now if we add fires to the drought (current situation) and one are up in the hills and you smell smoke, you see smoke, the smoke is getting thicker though one is unable to locate the fire nor locate the direction of the smoke but the light winds are blowing South, logically one would head South thinking the fire is North of their location but in reality this isn't always true never the less most would head South and unknowingly one heads right into a fire forcing one to head north and you keep going and going and going then you find out the smoke is thicker, darker and warmer, one soon finds out they ran right into another fire, there were two fires (that's the situation at my cabin right now, luckily I am not there, luckily we have fire fighters), now one has to make a choice East or West (it's a crap shoot) (does one have a compass? does one know how to read a compass and map?) what's your mode of transportation? if by foot and at this point what is one going to do? Now take into account one has their family one can't simply run zig-zag Southeast or Southwest in hopes to get the edge of the fires but by this time one has been breathing in smoke and the energy level has already depleted, One can dig in but in forested area the fire would suck the oxygen right out of the air, at this point there is very little options left, one has essentially been running in the smoke blind.

I have dealt with these fires for a number of years to the point we have had to move the live stock on numerous times but none that jeopardizes everything like it currently does here, home, cabin that's 70 miles away bug out backup locations 30 and 45 miles from the cabin, when everything is in jeopardy at the same time that forces one to head to the cities to escape leaves much to contemplate! Remember, this isn't a worst case 'scenario' this could have 'easily' been happening now Luckily we are in peaceful times luckily we have communications that keeps us informed.

If anyone is romanticizing bugging out in the mountains then one is in for a rude awakening, it's tough up here. One will find out in short order one is never prepared enough nor can one imagine everything, I didn't see the possibility of all my bug out location being lost at the same time by different fires!
 
My primary home is out high in the country, I have several bug out locations. I have prepped for bugging in (long term) and bugging out short term and also in a I.N.C.H situation, I have several modes of transportation depending on the circumstances and now we get hit with a double whammy that challenges us in every aspect of prepping with a monkey wrench thrown in, now I'm having to rethink everything and I mean everything.

As most know, Washington State is in a drought and as a result many fires are all over the state. One of my gardens had to be curtailed because the creek we rely on that we pump out of for the garden has gotten to low and because of the lack of snow in the mountains last winter and the outlook for this winter isn't much better I chose not to use my wells water for this garden and cut back in other water usages.

Now, we have large fires all over the state 1 of them 22 miles away from my home with smoke covering the whole state, my cabin (our main bug out location) is a half mile away from one of the fires, our other bug out location all up in the hills further out from the cabin are now in trouble. If I need to evac I would have no choice but to head into Vancouver Washington suburb (a 'city') It's a little hard to head out to one's bug out location(s) when everything is burning around them! Whats going on around me is forcing me to head to heavily populated area in case of evac. I think by now many of you already see were this is heading?

Now, imagine this being in a SHTF or a T.E.O.T.W.A.W.K.I.

Today we have communication devices that tell us we are heading into a drought, where the fires are at, places to avoid. Today we have Fire Fighters. Today we can drive to the store for food and water. Today we have family and friends if we need to evac. Today the cities/suburbs are civilized however tomorrow, we have none of the above, the drought has sucked the creeks dry, the lakes have evaporated to the point of heating up killing the fish (my current situation) we would normally harvest for food, the animals are scarce heading further out or leaving the area all together (current situation), very little water for the garden (current situation), foraging is becoming very difficult to obtain anything tangible.

Now if we add fires to the drought (current situation) and one are up in the hills and you smell smoke, you see smoke, the smoke is getting thicker though one is unable to locate the fire nor locate the direction of the smoke but the light winds are blowing South, logically one would head South thinking the fire is North of their location but in reality this isn't always true never the less most would head South and unknowingly one heads right into a fire forcing one to head north and you keep going and going and going then you find out the smoke is thicker, darker and warmer, one soon finds out they ran right into another fire, there were two fires (that's the situation at my cabin right now, luckily I am not there, luckily we have fire fighters), now one has to make a choice East or West (it's a crap shoot) (does one have a compass? does one know how to read a compass and map?) what's your mode of transportation? if by foot and at this point what is one going to do? Now take into account one has their family one can't simply run zig-zag Southeast or Southwest in hopes to get the edge of the fires but by this time one has been breathing in smoke and the energy level has already depleted, One can dig in but in forested area the fire would suck the oxygen right out of the air, at this point there is very little options left, one has essentially been running in the smoke blind.

I have dealt with these fires for a number of years to the point we have had to move the live stock on numerous times but none that jeopardizes everything like it currently does here, home, cabin that's 70 miles away bug out backup locations 30 and 45 miles from the cabin, when everything is in jeopardy at the same time that forces one to head to the cities to escape leaves much to contemplate! Remember, this isn't a worst case 'scenario' this could have 'easily' been happening now Luckily we are in peaceful times luckily we have communications that keeps us informed.

If anyone is romanticizing bugging out in the mountains then one is in for a rude awakening, it's tough up here. One will find out in short order one is never prepared enough nor can one imagine everything, I didn't see the possibility of all my bug out location being lost at the same time by different fires!
I told my wife about your post here. I like to think I too have a lot of bases covered for prepping like you do. Life has a way of throwing a curve ball at you once in a while. No one and no where is completely safe from disasters or emergencies.
 
as I have apparently "adopted" this dog of my oldest son,just realized I haven't done any preps for him....
 
lots of good points here about not being fully prepared. the 2011 drought we had got me to thinking about that.and it taught me that im not at all prepared for something like that what so ever.there's one place thats 1 mile from me,by the way of road where i live.in which they had a fire that got started when a power line came down.luckly there was a fire crew close by.and im thinking that their less then a half from me,when going cross country.and WHAT IF there wasnt a fire crew close by? and WHAT IF it got out of hand before they got started on putting it out? we would of lost so much if that fire got to us,and it would of burned the house to the ground.i'm liveing in a old wood frame home.in which it was built in the 1930's.which means i would of come back to nothing.
 
Fires is perhaps the biggest threat the most destructive that leaves very little options in a post-shtf situation, I planned for fires, that's why I had several backups to my backup but I didn't plan nor expected everything to be threaten at the same time given the distance between everything. Perhaps this was all an anomaly/fluke never the less it causes one to pause and take a step back.
 
A question my colonial cousin, A while back I think it was you posted a photo of the general area of where you live and I thought I saw a river or lake in the image? I actually thought most of your area was crisscrossed with creeks / rivers etc, is their nothing suitable you could use as a highway to AVOID going to the city??

My primary home is out high in the country,

Now, we have large fires all over the state 1 of them 22 miles away from my home with smoke covering the whole state, my cabin (our main bug out location) is a half mile away from one of the fires, our other bug out location all up in the hills further out from the cabin are now in trouble. If I need to evac I would have no choice but to head into Vancouver Washington suburb (a 'city') It's a little hard to head out to one's bug out location(s) when everything is burning around them! Whats going on around me is forcing me to head to heavily populated area in case of evac. I!
 
Fires is perhaps the biggest threat the most destructive that leaves very little options in a post-shtf situation, I planned for fires, that's why I had several backups to my backup but I didn't plan nor expected everything to be threaten at the same time given the distance between everything. Perhaps this was all an anomaly/fluke never the less it causes one to pause and take a step back.


Underground BOL ? cave, buried shipping container? railroad tunnel?
 
A question my colonial cousin, A while back I think it was you posted a photo of the general area of where you live and I thought I saw a river or lake in the image? I actually thought most of your area was crisscrossed with creeks / rivers etc, is their nothing suitable you could use as a highway to AVOID going to the city??

All those creeks are under heavy smoke and threaten by the fires, also the water level is to low to utilize. Being in an area that's under a blanket of smoke wouldn't be a good situation, if one is under this blanket it would make it difficult to detect a new fire and take a chance of being trapped and not to mention it would consume energy and shorten the breath over a period of time, I had a bronchitis attack one winter that forced me to the emergency room, the smoke from my smoke house during the summer and fall set me up for the attack deep into winter, my first and last attack.

Underground BOL ? cave, buried shipping container? railroad tunnel?

Fires create there own winds and super heated air that totally suck the oxygen out from caves, containers and bunkers, one would have to have enough oxygen bottles to last several hours, now if one has a large group/family members that's a lot of oxygen bottles ;)
 
Old mine pehaps or a fire proof door to stop the air getting sucked out ?? Clear the trees and foliage back a few hundred feet and fit a tin roof??, there has to be improvements you can make to reduce the risk.


Fires create there own winds and super heated air that totally suck the oxygen out from caves, containers and bunkers, one would have to have enough oxygen bottles to last several hours, now if one has a large group/family members that's a lot of oxygen bottles ;)
 
Sir, no Sir, you need a way to close off the entrance then you need a firewall or barrier about 30 to 40 ft inside the cave, you don't need to go charging around underground sealing off every hole, just make yourself a safe chamber. I have read of miners both here and over there who have become trapped by a rockfall between them and the exit and faced being gassed or killed by gases from deep within the mine , so they blocked the mine behind them as well as blockage infront of them it gave them a sealed chamber which they lasted many hours in.

the only way i see a cave or a bunker working at times like that..is to have a guaranteed way of closing off all openings that'd alway air to come in,or go out..
 
Mav with that lot all you need to do if a fire breaks out is start a stampede, fire your rifle and the herd of Mavericks will trample their way through the forest to safety :)

Surely that wonderful rock doctor you are married to can find a suitable cavern for y'all to hide in?
 
ok,carbon dioxide and a safe room has been mentioned.so does this mean a safe room thats completly sealed off from the cave or what ever? and a way to clean out the carbon dioxide? like some sort of air purifying unit that'll have it's own power bank,so it can circulate the air and filter out the carbon dioxide at the same time?
 

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