So disaster strikes and you’ve got to get out of the area, time to bug out. For some reason your vehicles are useless (quick, make a reason up here!).

We aren’t going to cover WHAT should be in your bag, as that is covered a billion times, here, of SHTFM. So lets not cover this ground again, K?

Chances are, you live in an area that has paved roads, or fairly decent dirt roads. This means hiking will be fairly easy at this point in time. So this brings me to this, you ALREADY have the Items in your BOB that you carefully thought out and decided should be there. But, HOW did you pack that BOB?

As for WHAT the type of bag you got, you only really have 4 choices: External Frame Pack, Internal Frame Pack, Day Pack (No frame), and Assault Pack, usually with stiff plastic as a sort of frame. We’re just going to concentrate on the 2 big packs, Internal Frame and External.

Packing your pack:

I’ll assume you know what type of pack you bought. So lets discuss how you want to pack. In theory, you want to make sure you are balanced. If you’re going over easy terrain, having your pack a bit top heavy will make hiking easier, if you’re going over rough terrain, you’ll want a lower center of gravity, and so heavy items should be lower.




First of all, lay out your items. Not in the pack, just lay them all out. Now, group them into functionality. Group heavy items together, and then group the others by function, like I said. Take items you’d use immediately throughout the day and set them aside.

Next, line your pack with either a heavy trash bag, a rubberized waterproof bag, or something like an ILBE. This is to keep your items dry in the bag. Make sure your clothes and anything else you don’t want wet is also put into bags, Ziploc type bags are great. Reinforce these with duct tape to make them last longer, and give you a surface to label them with.

{Tip: Taking your functionality grouped items and putting them into individual stuff sacks will help greatly with organizing your gear}

Now that you’ve all your items laid out, take your heavy items, and for the sake of an easy hiking condition, we’ll put those heavy items at about where your shoulder blades will be, and as close to your body as can be. Hold them there, and then take medium heavy items and place those below that. After that, fill everything else in, keeping immediate use items to the side.

Last, you want your rain gear, some snacks and maybe some food, survival kit, first aid kit, fire making materials, maps, water, and any fuel bottles for any stoves, put into the outside pouches.

Once all is in place, make sure that the pack is balanced left to right.

When you get to rougher terrain, repack by placing heavy items in the middle of your back, this will give you a lower center of gravity, allowing you more balance while navigating rough ground.

Even if you have a waterproof bag inside your pack, it will help more so if you have a waterproof pack cover as well (trash bags work here, too).

Great, NOW you’re all packed up and ready to go!

Maybe your pack is heavy, too heavy to just toss on. Here’s what you do: Put your foot on something. Lift the pack to your knee. Use your knee to help get the pack your shoulder. Slip one arm through the strap, then the other. Cinch the straps down. Another method is to LAY on your pack, put your arms through the straps, roll over with the pack on your back, and push up. A heavy pack can be a PITA to get on, trust me. BUT, if loaded right, it’s not so bad to carry!

Conserving Energy:

Hiking all day, you should conserve your energy. Not only will this save you from injuring yourself or wearing yourself out too fast, it could save your life should you need to run from danger in SHTF.

When planning your route, you should pick rest stops if able. For security purposes, if such is the situation, you could go into a thicket, such as Vine Maple, or Alder, and take your break there. It’s harder to see you, and you’ll hear anybody coming long before they get to you. I’d do this for meal breaks, not 5 minute breathers.

Between scheduled rest stops, make sure you walk at a pace comfortable for everyone in your group/family. A simple 5 minute breather goes a long way.

Watch for the “Slinky”. When walking in a group, the front tends to stretch out and the tail tends to slow down, stretching the column. What happens then is that the tail of the group has to hurry to catch up. Try to minimize this as much as possible, as it will wear you guys out and be counter productive.

Breathing… This is important. You don’t want to be gasping for breath. Regulate your breathing so that you’re taking in air and letting it out at a regular rhythm. If you’re on somewhat flat ground, and you’re getting out of breath, either you smoke too much, or you’re moving too fast. If you’re going up hill, it could be air thinning out (depending on elevation).

A rest step is achieved by locking a knee on the weight bearing leg, transferring all the weight to the skeletal structure. This shouldn’t be something done all the time, but it will help rest, while hiking, your leg muscles and allow you to keep going until you get to a break spot.

Walking up hill:

When going up a steep incline, stand up straight. This puts you in the best position to recover, should you lose balance. Try to keep your steps small (max elevation gain 6” per step). 2 small steps uses less energy than one long one.

Walking Down Hill:

Don’t Jam your feet on the ground, step heel first, don’t lean back. Before you start your descent, make sure your laces are tight, especially around the ankles. This will help keep your foot from sliding inside your shoe.

Walking off trail through thick brush: Choose to go the path of least resistance. Don’t bull through the brush, use your arm to move it aside, and let it back gently behind you so it doesn’t whip the person behind you. Don’t break branches. You want to leave as little of a trail as possible.

Take your time going across the top of rocky outcroppings. Make sure that the rock you are about to step on is solid before you put your weight on it. You want to try to avoid kicking rocks down hill. If you DO kick one loose, tell those below “Rock!” so they have warning. If YOU are below, and you hear “Rock!”, turn away from the projectile and hunch over, placing your pack between you and the rock. This is the best way to protect yourself. Better you pack get hit than You!!

Scree Slopes




Scree is loose rock debris that accumulates on slopes under cliffs and ridges. Think gravel to baseball size rocks. When climbing up scree slopes, you may find yourself sliding back half a step for every step you take. This is REALLY exhausting and can be dangerous due to kicking rocks down hill. One way to mitigate this with a group is to get them to climb up diagonally, making it so rocks will likely miss them. The best way to deal with scree slopes is to use a rest step, and lots of patience.

Talus Slopes




Talus slopes are Scree slopes on steroids. We’re talking small boulders. A fall on a talus slope is MUCH more dangerous than scree slopes. You’ll do lots of rock hopping, jumping from one rock to another. Take your time and stay balanced!

For now, that’s it. Hope y’all learned something.

I would say if at all possible stay clear of the talus slopes unless your an experienced climber, even then still very tricky to walk these on a good day so hope it hasn't been raining or anything. It's always good to take that little extra time maybe to find a different way up or down.

Should also go without saying that extra magazines of ammo are immediate use items. For me, I put these toward the top of my pack. Anything that is in boxes will go lower in my pack and taped up to maintain the rounds in their boxes, don't need rounds floating all over my pack, but that extra combat load (7x 30 round mags) will sit on top of everything because if I need them, I need them 10 minutes go, not after I've dug through my pack. This lets me have to immediately available combat loads at my disposal if need be, one on my LBE and the other in the top of my ruck. Of course, this is a personal choice. It does make the top of the pack a bit heavier as well, but if you end up in a good fight, it'll get lighter in a hurry

As for moving into the brush and leaving no trail at all, I will deferr you to wulf as the subject matter expert here. Not so hard to do with just one or 2 people, as long as one person turns around, wipes out tracks, and places foliage back the way it was. But, wulf has the expert experience here on that, if he wants to add to it, I'll let him do so

I agree Txtree, avoid these places if possible. I call them hazzards, one little slip could ruin your whole day. Taking the time to go around such an obstical is much more advisable. Heck, I'd avoid scree, too, but that's because I'm lazy

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Txtreeman wrote:I would say if at all possible stay clear of the talus slopes unless your an experienced climber, even then still very tricky to walk these on a good day so hope it hasn't been raining or anything. It's always good to take that little extra time maybe to find a different way up or down.

Exactly, even an experienced hiker should avoid these things if they can. If you're bugging out, you've got your family with you, or friends, people you care about and wouldn't want to see hurt. Roll a rock on a talus slope and an emergency bugging out could turn into a major emergency of serious injuries or even a death. HOWEVER, here is ANOTHER important point on these sort of slopes; It goes against survival to cross these open areas. Doing so leaves you exposed, and so doing as Txtreeman says and taking the time to route yourself around these sort of obsticals is in your best interest. Being exposed does all sorts of things against you, such as losing secrecy for your chosen BOL meaning if someone sees you, you could be followed. You could be running from someone hostile, so crossing such open areas, known as "Danger Areas", could get you killed because you were spotted. AND, last but not least, you want to get to your place of safety in one piece. Even if what you're bugging out from isn't hostile aliens with lever action .357 carbines and a taste for human colons, you want to do all you can to avoid injury as much as you can. HOWEVER, if you find no other choise (there should ALWAYS be a choice), the post I made tells you how to cross these areas.