survival : mapping and recce

hi , the core of my reply in the water thread revolved around the nessecity for :

mapping / route planning and terrain awareness

having good uptodate mapps @ 1:25000 scale - of at least the area around your home is vital

as is a degree of route planning :

to ensure that you can " hop " from one water source to the next on your bug out route

this also applies to caches , safe bivvy sites , freinds places etc

do NOT just have one route in mind - you have to be flexible - you will not always get to choose your start point

but KISS , rooute planning should be general and vaguely fluid

you do not need to attempt to plan every eventuality

ideally - project a 10mile square grid over your map - from your start point to j=your objective

10 miles is a reasonable expectation for 1 day or 1/2 a days travel assuming on foot

so being able to " hop " through two

PS - never bypass a safe bivvy or other rescource , just because you have 5 hours light left

its often better to rest / restock / re evaluate the plan - than press on

But allso remember that a healthy individual can walk 30km in a day if packed lightly. Sustained rate is around 25km/day. (these are tried and tested distances in a forrested area with very heavy loads)

As for water, check if there are farms along your route, they will most likely have wells, you may be able to either steal or bargain water from those or just take if they are abandoned...

IMO this is an often overlooked aspect of survival planning. I'd also add that it is vital that you have the means to collect intelligence about what is going on in the larger picture. Your map may have a perfectly nifty route calling out to you but if you did not know that it had been blocked or that hordes of panicked, desperate refugees were massing somewhere along it you might find yourself screwed. I started this thread some time ago broaching the importance of intelligence gathering as part of survival planning. Having the necessary maps are important whether you are planning on bugging-out or sheltering-in-place. There's no way to build your security plans unless you know all the likely approach paths and egress routes.