Wilderness Evacuation Scenario

Our first full on practice of a disaster scenario was a wilderness evacuation.  We loaded up our 72-hour kit (plus a very few extra camping supplies) and drove about three hours away to a small campground we had never visited before.

The goal of this trip was to practice using our 72-hour kit in a semi-wilderness scenario.  (The campground had pit toilets and potable water, which a true wilderness situation would not have.)

Bugs!

The first thing we noticed when setting up is that the quaint campground near the river provided an abundance of mosquitos.  They were so bad that we were relegated to the tent most of the time.  Bug spray helped, but we still got quite a few bites.  This made the whole trip rather miserable.

Depending on where you live, preparing to deal with bugs needs to be a serious consideration of your wilderness evacuation plan.

Fires Need Firewood

Like in most well-used campgrounds, scavenging for firewood proved to be a problem.  There were only a few twigs around and those were fairly wet.  Fortunately some guys came by in a truck selling firewood.  We paid the price and noted that we should not expect to find firewood at a campground in the future.  (Get firewood locally, however, if you live in areas infested with the emerald ash borer to help prevent its spread.)

If I remember correctly, I did get the fire started with just half a tinder-quick and the spark-lite.

72-Hour Kit Food

Meal preparation with our 72-hour kit was successful. A one-burner stove meant we ate each dish in courses or half of it cold (we opted for the latter).  Then we noticed that trying to eat spaghetti with (now cold) green beans in the same bowl caused an unwanted mixing of the two dishes.  Plates would have been a fair addition to our eating kit.

Other than that, our other meal preparation went well.  No major issues with our food selection or preparation gear.  Since there was potable water available at the campground we didn't have any issues with water or cleanup.

Cotton bandanas proved to be exceptionally useful.  We had lots of them in our kit and they were used as pot holders, for washing dishes, drying dishes, covering food, etc.

We also noted that we needed to add some trash bags to our kit.  Fortunately we had some in the car, but had we evacuated with just our 72-hour kit we would not have had any.

Summer Solace

Since we went camping in the middle of summer it didn't get dark until around 10:30 PM.  The kids’ normal bed time is around 8:00 PM.  But, it was so light in the tent the kids didn't fall asleep until after it was dark outside.  They were a bit insecure about being left in the tent by themselves, so we had to be in the tent with them until they fell asleep.  Not exactly the way we had planned to spend the evening.

Basically it was a pretty miserable time.  Had there been no bugs it would have been tolerable, even mildly enjoyable.  But the bugs along with the other inconveniences of surviving a (simulated) disaster in the (almost) wilderness really put a damper on things.

Wilderness Evacuation Conclusion

Successfully surviving an evacuation to a wilderness location requires a lot more gear and training than you might initially think.  You are providing your own support infrastructure.  Shelter, water, food, sanitation, and warmth (in cool weather) are all up to you.  This requires more gear and the knowledge on how to use it.

If I had better choice, such as a friend’s house, I would certainly take that option over the wilderness.  A hotel or developed campground could also be an in-between alternative, but those get expensive quickly and availability would be limited if lots of people were evacuating.

The wilderness does provided some advantages that more civilized options do not provide (such as isolation/privacy, growing your own food, or hunting), but most of those advantages would be realized in a more long term situation, which would make the drawbacks also more acute.

If evacuation to the wilderness is part of your disaster survival plan, make sure you have a well thought out and practiced plan.