There’s seems to be a lot of emphasis placed on bugging out and having a bug out bag among preppers.  In fact, for many preppers, making a bug out bag is their first order of business when they start their prepping efforts.  The reality is that you are far more likely to need your bug out bag to get home than to actually bug out. This is why many preppers call it a “Get Home Bag” rather than a bug out bag. 

What is bugging out?  Well, its grabbing what you can carry on your back and setting out (usually on foot) for a safer area. Some preppers have a predetermined bug out location where they plan to go if everything hits the fan.  In most cases, it will require survival skills.  It all seems pretty cool until you actually have to do it.  Most people that make a bug out bag have never gone to the trouble of putting it on and carrying it for a single mile, let alone ten miles or more.  Added to that is the fact that sleeping on the ground and living off the food in your pack is a very temporary solution to a potentially very long-lasting problem.  If you doubt this, then put on your bug out backpack and set out from your home for a couple of days.  Avoid other people and survive on what you are carrying.  Once you’ve done that, try to imagine living that way indefinitely.

Bugging out is very different than evacuating.  Generally, evacuation involves temporarily leaving your home because of an approaching hazard.  There’s usually some sort of support system or evacuation location where you can seek shelter and get what you need until you can return to a hopefully intact home.  Bugging out is when you have decided that giving up all that you have and hitting the road out-weighs the dangers of staying home.  Unless you have a prepared compound to go to, there are very few scenarios in which you should leave your home and bug out.  Afterall, your home is your shelter, its where your supplies are and, if you have prepared, it’s defendable.

You should only bug out as a last resort, when the danger of staying home is so insurmountable that you have no choice but to leave. Bear in mind that if you are bugging out and think you will be living off the land, you will be faced with the thousands of other people that have left their homes because of the same hazards.  They will be desperate to find anything useful, including the supplies you are carrying.  You and the other thousands of people will be hunting the same game and foraging the same areas. Just imagine if the population of New York City suddenly set out on foot to find a better situation.  There would be no place to go that was not already overrun with people.

If you think that bugging out may be a potential necessity you should make a plan now in regard to bug out locations, stockpiling supplies at those locations and how to defend your new home.

So, make your bug out/get home bag and make it a habit to take it with you every time you travel more than a few miles from home.  You will find it invaluable if you’re cut off and forced to get home on foot.  You should also have certain supplies that you always keep in your vehicle.  You can find a list of those supplies here.