…so don’t try bugging out to them:
“People have already been ALL OVER the Sierra back-country for the past hundred and seventy years. I’ve been on Enduro races and dual-sport rides up in what we thought was in the back-freaking-nothing, places where you could barely stand upright because there was no level ground, and come across houses and people in the most unexpected places. There are mountain passes with names on them, on little twisty broken asphalt roads, with a development in the pines nearby. All the Sheriffs drive 4×4’s because they know the dirt and backroads that lace the area.” –Dirtcrashr
I’m just skeptical of the head-for-the-hills crowd, because if it and they are that prevalent, there’s gonna be one helluva traffic jam up on Highway 4 around Angel’s Camp, all heading to Uncle Jed’s Cabin or something – and once you get way-up past the tree-line your options dwindle and exposure increases.
But California was made by people who bugged-out – out of Indiana and out of Ohio and out of Oklahoma…
Oh, and when you DO get to the Federal Land that’s NOT open to development, you will find it already occupied by the Mexican Drug cartels, farming cannabis.
We ran into some of that freelance horticultural entrepreneurship up around Oroville during an off-road ride from there to Quincy – a guy with a shotgun and a dog said keep ridin’! 🙂
The Lost Coast beckons, although some of the locals have their own clandestine gardens back amongst the 2nd growth redwoods.
Much of the land is owned by timber interests. They won’t be around to object when TSHTF. Take a ride to Petrolia or canoe up the Mattole River. The entire Kings range is very sparsley peopled with the exception of a few small coastal developments. All the primary and secondary evacuation routes bypass the entire area. You have to really try to get there. No doctor, no chain restarants, or stores, or stop lights, and barely any cell phone reception.
There are plenty of fish in the Mattole and plenty of deer, and even elk in the woods. You just have to be able to get along with the hippies who ran away to rural Humbolt county back in the early 70’s and have been there, STONED, ever since. A fair number of the local “growers” are community icons and upstanding leading citizens. Many have Concealed Carry permits. They live and let live with the local law enforcement, what there is of it.
Unless you start encroaching on their land or committing wholesale needless environmental destruction, the old hippies are a live and let live, mind thier own business bunch for the most part and good friendly neighbors to boot.
All paved highways on evac routes out of metropolitan areas of Kalifornia will be parking lots when the TSHTF. Live near a river that connects to the ocean, and think 17 to 22 foot sail boat and/or sea kayaks for your bug out plan. A sealed up sea kayak towed behind a 21 foot sailboat provides a fair amount of cargo to sustain a family until you can reach your coastal bug out spot.
Marine mammals, mostly seals and sea lions have been protected for decades now and their populations have rebounded. Most folks wouldn’t have a clue about how to hunt them. A 300lb sea lion will feed a lot of people for quite a while. A heavy duty fishing bow & tackle with plenty of spares is the way to go.
Good luck with your bug out…hopefully we won’t need it any time soon.
Best of all, move the Hell out of Kalifornia ASAP. The whole shebang is a slow motion train wreck.
Dirtcrasher- sounds as though you must’ve been up here in beautiful, downtown Berry Creek. One guy grows that stinky Afghan stuff, must be a couple of hundred plants. When he harvests the stuff and starts dryin’ it, you’d swear somebody ran over a huge herd of skunks with a steamroller. Folks actually ask me what the bad smell is in the neighborhood. And when there’s that kind of money involved, we’ve had shootin’ erupt. Almost enough for me to grow a bunch of male plants and hope they fertilize all the growers’ prize stuff.
Of course, all these guys desire the right to use and sell their merchandise but want all the cookers run out of town.