Caches in the forest

Just curious what everyone thinks about caches in the forest? I dont see myself having enough money anytime soon for some bug out property so I was thinking what if you went far enough out and started burying supplies?

 

There is millions of acres of land that belong to us all that many should prepare to abort to, if needed. If homeless can live under our bridges, I can't see any reason the rest of us can't homestead a National Forest.

 

It's a great idea, so long as you can find your way back to all of your caches, and you can be reasonably sure that they aren't likely to be surfaced or swamped by natural or man-made conditions.

As that little patch of woods likely to be developed? Or perhaps submerged as part of a dam project? Is it in the flood plain? Or an area that erodes and reshapes itself?

 

Yea too bad the homestead act isnt still in effect, but, I imagine if it was, there wouldnt be much left. I do qualify for Hawaiian homestead land though, but, I cant afford to move to Hawaii not to mention, their gun laws suck.

 

Caching can be a good way of using stuff.....

Caching can be a good way of using stuff.....that you may otherwise throw out or sell rediculously cheaply.

There is no reason why one couldn't plant disposable caches on public land, provided that one is prudent and plans carefully their location, emplacement, camouflage and concealment, mapping and recording.

Clothing that is serviceable, but not perhaps not ready for conversion to car cleaning rags. surplus kitchen ware, perhaps some old tools...stuff that might get a pitiful couple of bucks selling it at a yard or car boot sale, but that would be priceless cached away on your E&E bug out routes (you do have more than 1 bug out route??), Perhaps a day pack that has seen bettter days, but still has a little more life in it...even an old rifle that you will rarely if ever use, together with some ammo for it. and some gear for fishing, hunting, trapping and a basic FAK. All put into a plastic bucket / pvc pipe etc and left for a rainy day. If someone stumbles upon the cache accidently...its compromise probably wouldn't represent much of a financial loss...its mostly stuff that would have been junked in the trash, sold off cheaply or just given away. But it is stuff that in a TEOTWAWKI situation, might be absolute gold!

Just don't forget to put the location information in some encrypted form for your NOK...perhaps in your will in a sealed envelope with the key made available to them seperately when the time is right...it may be a life saver for others that you love, even if you may not be around yourself to make use of it. You may also use it to cache stuff for your non prepping kinfolk (that you care about and would be prepared to accept into your retreat), to give them at least a fighting chance of making it to your retreat with more than just the shirts on their backs.

 

Keeping things from spoiling, growing mold, rusting, moisture damage etc is the challenge.

 

Were Monkeys not Squarrels

 

How do you know for sure if where you want to stash your stuff in the forest is the right choice?

What if you need to bug out in a different direction than where your cache is?

Do you feel comfortable caching your supplies out of your reach?

What makes you think you need to bug out to the forest?

Is the forest the best area to bug out to in your area?

Can you survive in the forest for a long duration?

Have you ever tried to live off the land in the forest?

Not saying that you should not bug out to the forest but you need to ask yourself is it the best choice are there any other options or people I know that could give me better refuge. You really haven't provided much information to give an honest answer.

 

Well you never really know where a good place to bug out is. My question was more about an alternative to bug out property that some people are buying. I have never tried to live off the land, but, if your in a total collapse of society/infrastructure, the woods to me would be the place to be. I think if I was back in Oregon where I grew up, my first thought would be to head to my moms house since she lives in a rural area in a small tight knit community.

 

Having done quiet a few caches over the years.I've found you REALLY have to plan your site and route well.Take advantage of modern materials and methods to cache and do not cache more than you can afford to lose. Very few plans will survive first contact with an emergency intact. Never see your cache as an end, only a means to an end.A permanent BOL will need more than a simple cache and a tree.

 

Yea I was thinking about what a location should have and what to use to store caches in. If I were staying here in Virginia, my BOL would be West to the mountains, but, being that its 3 to 4 hours away its not too practical for me to start making runs up there on a regular basis. If I was back in Oregon where I grew up, I can be in the middle of nowhere easily or at my moms house which is far enough out I think to be away from any looting, rioting or crime that may happen as a result of a SHTF situation.

Some things I would consider.

Water
There are plenty of rivers in Oregon, but, due to the amount of rain out there, you need to make sure you pick a spot well above the high water mark, but, not so far away that its a real pain to get to it.

Access
I would look for a spot that was well off the beaten path. Some place where I would have to blaze a trail to, but, maybe a place that I could get to multiple ways in case I dont want to lead people right in to my BOL.

Storage
I was thinking for things like blankets, bedding, tent, long term storage food, cooking supplies, ammo etc. I would use some 8" PVC pipe sections capped off and buried. Maybe put some desiccant in there to keep moisture down.

Maybe some other considerations would be an open spot suitable for planting seeds to grow your own food.

 

I buried some stuff (interesting stuff... it's amazing what a kid could get hold of back in the late 1950s!) in the woods all those years ago... easy to imprint the location in my mind. Three years later, when I tried to recover it, the plants had grown up, died and fallen down, changed shape, and, long story short, I had to spend hours on my hands and knees with a metal skewer probing through the forest floor before I found the cache - about 30 feet away from where I thought it was. But not before I had probed 50 feet in several other directions from where I thought ground zero was !

A good way to fix a hidden location was used by surveyors who didn't have GPS... drive a nail in two proximate trees that are easily findable and use a string with a nail tied on the end to scribe an arc on the ground from each nail, the string long enough to where the arcs will intersect. The intersection is where the cache is to be buried, and subsequently found.

Remember or write down how long the string is, though ! Details tend to slip with the passing years.

 

Try to pick an area that is not going to be logged or sold. I know of several cashe that have been found by fire fighters during forest fires. Dont forget to stay away from the local dope grower in the woods. He will also take your stuff and shoot you when you return. I dont know about Va but the west coast has these almost everywhere int the forests now.

 

The single most thing you can do for an alternative to bug out property, is to excercise the muscle between your ears with knowledge/skills and to practice your skills while you have the chance to do so. Trying to learn the skills necessary to live in the forest/off the land is not something you are going to learn overnight and after the fact is not the time to break out a survival book and hope for the best.

A person can have a stock pile of supplies cached but your supplies will eventually run out. If you do not know how to procure water, filter/disinfect water, make a natural shelter and concealment of your existence, hunt/fish, trapping skills, prepare/preserve meat, know how to make fire w/o modern technology, know what edible plants are in the area, etc.........

I know this does not answer your questions about caching supplies but it is something you need to consider before heading to the forest to survive if that is your intent. Maybe you already know this and if so, my apologies. I thought I'd mention it because you said you have never lived off the land or practiced the skills to do so.

 

I have considered those things. I would like to find someone to learn from and practice. Kinda hard to do some of those things around here and the places I need to go are 3 to 4 hours from here. Doesnt help that I just got laid off either.

 

I have 15 seperate caches and a 200`x 200` base we generally take 2# 55 gallon screw top plastic barrels and dig a area the size of the drums down about 3` deep then burry them with the dirt and we add rocks to slow the erroding and then we simply have to locate the small hump.

 

we place a moisture wick crystal in them both(like a diper avalible at certian landscape stores)
ours will supply a group of 5 for a short time .
we store food ,water, ammo,sleeping items rain suits a fishing drop net, fire tools, you wouldn`t believe what $25.00 in barrels can hold.

 

OP It may seem odd but consider this. Your 4 hours away from you target area..... take a single barrel and drive 1 hour find a dirt road and hide it there then next month just drive farther.
we simply found dead end roads to place ours.

it may not be the same there but here we can simply find natural ditches throw them in and backfill the ditches with other trash in that ditch and it looks like hillbilly garbage dump

 

Nice. Have you gone back to your caches and and dug them up to see how they are holding up?