Rant about very common survival advice

[hiwall]

This is my rant about the survival advice of many ‘experts.’ Just again today I read a survival expert say when the world collapses to go into the mountains to survive. Everyone always plans on going into the mountains.

Let me get this straight. Your situation is dire so to survive you will go where conditions are much harsher? Seems a little backward to me.

Some say the mountains are very lightly populated. Well, that’s true because the conditions there are harsh enough to keep most people out.

Or “I’ll go into the mountains and live off the land.” To them, I say, “You do know that pine forests are some of the most sterile environments, don’t you?”

There is a very valid reason all the flatlands are where people have always lived for centuries. It is because you can live there much easier. I can see living in the foothills. But trying to survive in the mountains is folly. I live in the mountains. I can do so because I have an excellent house that has a lot of extra insulation. And while we do grow some food that is more for our entertainment rather than for our survival. At any month it can drop below freezing and kill all your garden plants. We can live here because we buy our food that is grown on the flatlands, you know where all the food is grown.

Yes, there are big game animals here and they live here because they don’t like people and people have a tough time surviving here.

So when someone asks you where to go when world-wide disaster strikes give them good advice – tell them to run to where there is farmland.

 

[VThillman]

Don't need flatlands; do need valleys.

 

[SheepDog]

I like the idea of those 100s of thousands of people all heading for the mountains. It will feed the predators, enrich the soil and generally make life easier for the few that actually live in the wild. It will also help keep the dead bodies out of the cities where they cause illness and stench.

 

[Bacpacker]

Have to disagree Sheepdog. If they all go to the mountians to die, all they are doing is polluting the water supply heading to the cities.
At the turn of the century around here there were lots of families living in the mountians, most lived in the lower lands, valleys, and such. Very few up high year round. They would drive their herds up high in the mountians in summer to graze, then bring them down in the fall. But it was a hard life, rocky ground, had to clear land to build or plant on. But they made in for several generations, producing most everything they needed from housing, furniture, tools, food. Usually one or two families would build a gristmill for the area. It can be done, but there is a very strong work ethic and determination that is required above all else. Farmland in the rich bottoms will grow much more, but you generally are going to have the crowds of people to deal with.

 

[dademoss]

PLEASE let them head to the mountains

 

[Weedygarden]

This is my rant about the survival advice of many ‘experts.’ Just again today I read a survival expert say when the world collapses to go into the mountains to survive. Everyone always plans on going into the mountains.

Let me get this straight. Your situation is dire so to survive you will go where conditions are much harsher? Seems a little backward to me.

Some say the mountains are very lightly populated. Well, that’s true because the conditions there are harsh enough to keep most people out.

Or “I’ll go into the mountains and live off the land.” To them, I say, “You do know that pine forests are some of the most sterile environments, don’t you?”

There is a very valid reason all the flatlands are where people have always lived for centuries. It is because you can live there much easier. I can see living in the foothills. But trying to survive in the mountains is folly. I live in the mountains. I can do so because I have an excellent house that has a lot of extra insulation. And while we do grow some food that is more for our entertainment rather than for our survival. At any month it can drop below freezing and kill all your garden plants. We can live here because we buy our food that is grown on the flatlands, you know where all the food is grown.

Yes, there are big game animals here and they live here because they don’t like people and people have a tough time surviving here.

So when someone asks you where to go when world-wide disaster strikes give them good advice – tell them to run to where there is farmland.

After Trump was elected, a woman I saw regularly was talking about getting a place in the mountains, because the world was going to blow up. Now this is a woman who has never done yard work, let alone gardened, never worked on a car, even to check her own oil levels, change a tire, or anything that might get her dirty. However, her mother has a home that came with a bomb shelter from way back when that was a thing. These are the people we need to be afraid of, very afraid. They are the kind of people who will drown you when you jump in the water to rescue them, figuratively and really.

 

[hiwall]

We actually live in a valley. Our house is at only 7500 feet with mountains around it.

 

[joel]

I will stay in the flat farm land, where I have grown fruit every year for 50 years.
Some fruit with every little input from me.
Like pears, blueberries, walnuts. Grapes & asparagus.
I have found that many wild plants will grow with little to no help. Nuts, berries & greens make a good start.

 

[hashbrown]

By the time they figure out what has happened, they will be too weak to travel far. I don't see any hordes making the trip anywhere, my opinion is they will starve in the cities waiting for help.

 

[Caribou]

When my brother was between wives his plan was to go off into the woods. This was in an archipelago and not at his elevation. He is a better than average hunter and knows how to eat off the beach. He is also perpetually broke so his idea of the best way to survive just happens to fit well with a thin wallet. He sees himself as a prepper but if he had two cans of beans set aside for an emergency he'd eat them and spend his cash on some feel good experience.

I think many people are like him, they are not willing to make the investment in prepping. They don't have a viable plan and when things fall apart they will become desperate and dangerous.

 

[JAC]

When Obama was in office the customers at the gun shows were conservatives. Today many of the customers are liberals. Many of them spout the same rhetoric that was spouted by the conservatives when Obama was in office. When the great depression hit many many people moved from the cities into the country with family who had farms.

 

[Tank-Girl]

I still like river zones and remote water courses.

Meat Trapper on YT lives and shoots his video's on water courses very similar to what is in my region.
He also shows how easy it is to get around quietly and without leaving tracks.
Noise, light and movement discipline and being able to anti-track will be important as being able to find and sterilise
water and find food.

 

[hiwall]

Really anyone who plans to bugout anyplace that is some distance better know when to leave. Most people I think would wait too long. People will stay where they live because obviously your home is always where you are most comfortable. So people will stay put until everything falls apart until there is no shopping for food. Unfortunately that would also very likely mean there is no shopping for fuel either so they would have what is their gas tank and that is it. And their gas tank would likely be low. They just are not going to drive very far, not far enough to escape whatever they are running from.

 

[Weedygarden]

Really anyone who plans to bugout anyplace that is some distance better know when to leave. Most people I think would wait too long. People will stay where they live because obviously your home is always where you are most comfortable. So people will stay put until everything falls apart until there is no shopping for food. Unfortunately that would also very likely mean there is no shopping for fuel either so they would have what is their gas tank and that is it. And their gas tank would likely be low. They just are not going to drive very far, not far enough to escape whatever they are running from.

I read a discussion about cooking oil, and how it has a limited shelf life. One guy said he has an envelope with money to buy oil as soon as SHTF. My thought was that he was someone who dilly-dally's around. Do that too long and you will have missed it. Get a plan, get your stuff together and move.

I know this is my daughter. We plan to leave at 5 in the morning. We are in the car and she has to drop this off and that off and do this and do that. Well, now it is 6 in the morning and we are just getting on the road.

 

[fteter]

I live in a valley (5,000 feet elevation) surrounded by mountains. If I were to bug out, the mountains would be the last place I'd go - those harsh winters would be tough. Might do the foothills, but my preference is the flatlands on the other side of those mountains.

 

[Sourdough]

I doubt anyone is going anywhere if they did not leave pre-SHTF. Everything will be blocked tight. Not "only" gridlock blocked, but every street and every road will be blocked, small towns will have armed guards. Every on ramp and every off ramp. Bridges will be disabled, and tunnels. No one is entering or leaving. Trees will be felled, by the hundreds. Heavy equipment will be positioned, and disabled. This whole concept of "Bug'out" is the biggest snooker job ever.

Really anyone who plans to bugout anyplace that is some distance better know when to leave. Most people I think would wait too long. People will stay where they live because obviously your home is always where you are most comfortable. So people will stay put until everything falls apart until there is no shopping for food. Unfortunately that would also very likely mean there is no shopping for fuel either so they would have what is their gas tank and that is it. And their gas tank would likely be low. They just are not going to drive very far, not far enough to escape whatever they are running from.

 

[VThillman]

City life is a significantly delicate arrangement, quite reliant on things that are elsewhere. I have always lived elsewhere, so I take no credit for being there.

 

[Flight]

Well I think that if SHTF (hopefully never) that depending on the severity of it, that not many will survive. The old saying is so true, only the strong will survive. Even in the animal kingdom this saying is true also

 

[Amish Heart]

The strong or the sneaky ones.

 

[backlash]

Well I think that if SHTF (hopefully never) that depending on the severity of it, that not many will survive. The old saying is so true, only the strong will survive. Even in the animal kingdom this saying is true also

People tend to forget that humans are part of the animal kingdom and we are subject to the same rules the rest of the animals are. Survival of the fittest and only the strong will survive, unless they are better prepared than the other animals.

 

[Caribou]

It's, "survival of the fittest." Strength is good, as is intelligence, but attitude and adaptability are what get you through. There are lots of strong intelligent men out there but special forces look for the ones that won't quit, the ones with the right attitude. There are documented cases where the young and strong died and the apparently weaker died, just because of mindset. One of my goals here is to keep myself in the survival mindset.

 

[The Lazy L]

The strong or the sneaky ones.

I suspect too many of the "Village Idiots" will survive too. Village Idiots will do something stupid that results in some of the strong and sneaky to die off.

 

[hiwall]

If you look at nature, many at the top of the food chain are very vicious. I would guess this might be the case with humans too if humans are ever forced to live in a uncivilized world.

 

[Sourdough]

If you look at nature, many at the top of the food chain are very vicious. I would guess this might be the case with humans too if humans are ever forced to live in a uncivilized world.

Viciousness is extremely specialized, and is subject to a specific environment. Peak viciousness is "not" transferable, not for humans or animals. That said, I do grasp what you communicated, and am expanding on that.

 

[The Innkeeper]

I live in a narrow valley surrounded by mountains. Where I live is likely what most people think of when “going to the mountains”, they talk about “bein* in the mountains” when they visit. Even with electricity and town water thi# can be an unforgiving place. Without it could be downright harsh for the unprepared.in the mountains themselves ... Idoubt 1 in a 100 would make the first winter. It’s a beautiful place, but even in the “safe” tourist areas we seem to loose some every year.

 

[WVDragonlady]

I know this is my daughter. We plan to leave at 5 in the morning. We are in the car and she has to drop this off and that off and do this and do that. Well, now it is 6 in the morning and we are just getting on the road.

SIL is the same way. I find that behavior to be manipulative, controlling , and a lack of RESPECT for others. What they do on their own time is their business but when with others you get your....act together and be respectful of the others you're with and THEIR time.

I would always leave without her. Hubby learned to go with me and not enable her to manipulate him. Only took him a couple of times having to have her drive him somewhere.

I don't play those games. I don't play alot of games and people don't like it




as for the original post, I live in WV. We have mountains....everywhere lol
I live in a valley where we can grow food. That is why you will find people in "hollars" ( small deadend cuts in the mountains with flatter land) here in the mountains. The mountains are where we hunt because to grow food in our forests would be a major undertaking. Unless of course you go with gorilla gardening. I image that would work but I don't think it would do well for supplies for the winter. Maybe. Just would take a lot of different places for the plants to grow enough I would think

 

[Weedygarden]

SIL is the same way. I find that behavior to be manipulative, controlling , and a lack of RESPECT for others. What they do on their own time is their business but when with others you get your....act together and be respectful of the others you're with and THEIR time.

I would always leave without her. Hubby learned to go with me and not enable her to manipulate him. Only took him a couple of times having to have her drive him somewhere.

I don't play those games. I don't play alot of games and people don't like it

If it wasn't my daughter, I would do the same thing. We leave early, or try to, because we have long travel days. One time we were driving from Colorado to Boston. She was going to be gone for the summer. That was really why things had to be dropped off here and there.

When it comes to other people who have asked if they could ride with us, the need to be in charge of when we leave and how often we stop freaking drives me crazy. There is a need for some people to run the show, all the shows, any show that they step into. I have had people who were riding with me who made plans to do stuff without consulting me. There is that group of people who really think they are the center of the universe. I once had a woman ask if she could ride with me when I went to go to some garage sales. I had an appointment to meet someone and told her I needed to drop her off. "Wait, I wanted to do this, and go there." Too bad you thought you were in charge and didn't listen to me when I said we were going to be done at X time. I didn't say that, I just told her I HAD to go.

Both my daughter and I have figured out that we drive wherever we go. We don't like to ride places with other people. Too many times, the person who has said, "Here, I'll give you a ride," has too many other agendas or is not the safest of drivers.

 

[backlash]

I couldn't tell you the last time I actually rode with someone else. My wife, my brother, and my parents went from Washington to Arkansas in 2001 and I drove every mile.
If people ask to ride along they find out pretty quickly I don't dilly dally around. I go from point A to point B and if they want to do something else they can drive themselves.
I guess I get that from my Mom. I once told her I wanted to stop at the mini-mart and kept after her till she stopped. I watched her drive off without me. It was only a few miles home. I also once complained about her driving. She stopped the car and told me I could walk if I didn't like the way she drove. Like a dumb teenager I got out. It was a lot further home that time, I hitchhiked.

 

[lonewolf]

forget about the "golden horde" that is only true in the minds of fiction writers, in reality most city dwellers wont make it out in time, most wont even think about it.

 

[hiwall]

forget about the "golden horde" that is only true in the minds of fiction writers, in reality most city dwellers wont make it out in time, most wont even think about it.

People want to live in areas they are familiar with. If they live in a city, they will want to stay in a city. lonewolf is correct