Your biggest obstacle to getting home...

I've been taking different routes to and from work trying to see if any one would be a better way to get home... I have one or two big obstacles depending on the scenario...

The biggest is a swamp that is around 5- 15 miles in width depending on where I cross... the Power lines cross the swamp and have very little dry ground in the area... If we have a heavy rain the swamp can be as deep at 8 feet since most of the higher ground runs off into it... average depth is somewhere between 4 and 6 feet with occasional holes that will drop you deeper. I have a inner tube with a can of inflate a spare in my BOB that I can use. But my best guess ( I haven't tried to walk back yet) if I have to stay low key and skip all of the bridges is around 4-5 days to walk the 17-25 miles back from work (depending on route). My second obstacle is my health and age...
I'm working on my health but I just seem to get older (not that I'm complaining).

My question is if you were caught out of place at one of your normal away from home locations when TSHTF other than physical health and age what would be your biggest Obstacle getting home?

 

8 lanes of expressway that I'd have to cross with great big wide clear vision shoulders.
either that or swim up stream under the xway .. and I can't swim that current.

 

Ghetto's and rednecks in every direction.

 

Distance. I could be anywhere in the state at the time.

 

I ponder this issue every time I leave the house, seeing that an EMP can happen at any time .
I have no water to worry about unless I'm in Escondido and an earth quake and tsunami hits If the quake takes out roads freeways then I know I'm on foot the whole way home, over 30 miles highly populated, and hilly terrain ..
I keep a trash bag on the bike for covering my gear but it can be used for floatation in a pinch .
Actually I do keep an extra inner tube on the bike as well so I got that covered.
I figure @ 10 miles or better a day 3 days I should be able to get home . I keep binoculars in my EDC bag which is also a camera as well ,
Even if the camera is fried in an EMP, the binoculars would continue to function ,most importantly to scope out the path ahead and avoid trouble .
Especially if there is an EMP I can dump all the dead electronics computer ,cell phone and such and fill my water flasks and be in good shape. I have a sawyer filter so I can treat water along the way as well.
I need to find another red lens for my flash light , it is stealthier than with out it. and do most of my travel at night .
I keep maps of my home town as well as southern California in the event I must take alternative routes.
In the event there is an EMP, it is likely all satellites will be toast as well, so I don't count on GPS at all, and strictly use map and compass.
I know a lot of the roads around the place, however if there are fissures too wide to travers, it is imperative to have a back up plan.
550 para cord is not going to fly. You need something far more significant ,and your dreaming if you think you can handle rope with out gloves.
If you run into people ,it is important not to give away where your going, or that you have any reserves where your headed you will be fallowed and don't trust any one either, people will promise any thing and stab you in the back when they are really hungry
.
If you must choose a destination to tell , choose one further then you are really going and know it well enough to be convincing, in the event they attempt to fallow you or go ahead of you.
There will be a lot of pressure to unite with strangers in this kind of situation, especially those that are manipulators , just mind your own business and move on .

 

It's not often that I'm more than 20 miles from home, so I'd have to say the weather. 100+ temps ain't the best for travel on foot, neither is hard, cold, horizontal rain + lightning and/or hail. Expecting more bad weather to hit here sometime tomorrow afternoon. Haven't checked to see about the possibility of tornadoes, but large hail is a definitely possibility....again.

 

About 18 miles of city, quite a lot of it not what you'd call nice neighborhoods even under normal circumstances. The other problem is 108 degree heat, depending on the time of year. No available water other than what you could steal from someone's garden hose, should city water still be available.

But then my place of employ is almost exactly three miles from a major Air Force Base as the crow flies. If it caught so much as a 10 megaton nuke, I wouldn't need to worry about getting home. No one from the area would.

 

I've traveled in 122 degree temps with 90 percent humidity before. Ain't for the faint of heart, or the out of water.

 

5 miles by main roads, 3 miles by back roads, or 1 mile as the crow flies from work to home....biggest obstacle would likely be insects and snakes...although gators are not out of the question. My biggest concern would be my wife getting back, as she has any where from 7 to 80 miles to travel, the longer distances involve multiple bridges over long expanses (think over 20 miles) of water.

 

About 45 miles by water, 4 mile hump.
We keep 2 boats on location and 30 gallons of gas + what's already in the tanks
Pretty sure I can get real close to La Maison

 

Good question @Witch Doctor 01 the biggest obstacles are people but most of the people I should meet, will just be zombies and trying to figure out what to do. One question I do have is correctional facilities and jails. I wonder how fast they will empty out and how far the guests of those facilities will spread out. Q: things break down- will the criminals hit the road and head to wherever or do you all think they will stay within a 5 mile radius for the first 24-48 hours? I know we cannot say for sure what criminals will do but how fast would they evacuate the area of the jail.

CO has a Supermax down in Canyon City. Those are really bad people. That is a long ways away but I do wonder about if society totally collapsed what are those bad guys going to do.

 

Unless they are released by Marauders from the outside they will die in their cells. Electronic locks can fail two ways when the power dies. Either fail-safe or fail-secure. On banks, prisons, jewelry store, ect. They will be fail-secure (requires power to open). Emergancy exits and other controlled points will be fail-safe (require power to be locked).

 

For me, the distances will always be either either easy or impossible. If I happen to be in AZ or AK when the poop hits the prop the won't be any realistic chance of getting back to the Old Homestead--assuming that it's still standing. Other than that, I'm pretty local.

But in any case, survival always seems to boil down to landing on your feet when the unexpected happens and getting off the X when you do.

 

About 25 miles to get home if I'm at school. The bridge is a four lane, though you can only access two lanes at a time. The median is open air that leads to the bay underneath. There is a roadway that leads over land though it adds a few miles. My work is closer to home at about 15 miles. My biggest obstacle would be people if travelling from work. Biggest obstacle from school depends on if cars died.

 

I ride a motorcycle/w electronic ignition, so if an EMP hits the bike may well be dead.
So I know I'm n foot for the duration .
However a friend of mine has a folding bicycle in her car she uses for both emergency and pleasure riding.
If you get a bike , it's important to condition ones self and to use it and work out any bugs in it.
keep it out of direct sunlight and the tires will last longer,and less change of tempting some one to steal it.
Do not expect to wear a back pack on a bicycle , it puts one's center of gravity even higher and a crash with a back pack on is far worse.
A small trailer behind the bike however would allow one to cary more than usual, (pet or loved one) say you just went shopping.

 

A bike has the advantage of being able to haul things on the bike, rather than on your back. A rear rack, panniers and a handlebar bag are a must. That said, Murphy dictates that you may have to abandon your bike in a hurry, which is why I would also have my FILBE hydration pack on my back, which is not only good for 2.5 gallons of water, but has enough space for some essentials. I would also have my HPG kit bag on my chest, again with some essentials...including my pistol. I keep both in my vehicle along with my get-home-bag...which would get strapped to the bike's rack...or go into one of the panniers of my Big Dummy long bike, if I happened to have one of my bikes in the van. Moral of the story...don't put all your eggs in one basket...a small pack on your back isn't a big concern as long as you still have good 360 visibility (a mirror is a must) and don't mind getting a little sweaty on you back (which can be mitigated somewhat by the water in a hyd pack). A chest pack is my preferred way to carry a pistol on a bike.

My route home from work is 12-15 miles, depending on the route a take...more like 15 if on a bike. Whether I have a bike with me is a coin toss...so my first option is the one I use every day...drive it...next option is to walk it...bike it if I have a bike with me (which I often do on longer trips).

As far as my biggest obstacle? Nothing and everything. Nothing obvious, but Mr. Murphy has a way of turning nothings into somethings.

 

My biggest obstacle is probably my health. I'm trying to improve it, but it's slow work.

Kajun

 

That's a good question, and something to think about. For us in the metro area, there is Denver County, along with others, and another correctional facility that I know of along the I-70 corridor. If I'm at work, I will have to pass through all of this.

Normally, I'm either at work or home. From work, I'm looking at about 38 miles to home. Along with the above, plus some unsavory neighborhoods, the remaining stretch is open farmland. Keeping a low profile here will definitely be a chore.

 

Last hurricane I was across the waterway from home. I ended up going 70 miles South and then back up the coast on the East side of the waterway to get home illegally. Cops and National Guard are my largest concerns. It's 12 miles from work to home but they will have about 5 points roadblocked in that distance. Cops are always going to be the first big obstacle to normal travel.