Before I get into this I should point out that I am very thankful that I am not on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. My wife was reading out some of the posts and comments on the local community FB page with respect to this virus, hilarious and sad at the same time. I think the only thing worse than a community FB page is a bunch of people in their homes with nothing but time to speculate and post to a community FB page.
- I saw a helicopter fly over, what does it mean?
- Here is a video showing military movement, martial law and power outages coming…
- To the person who wore a mask in the local supermarket
- Crazy drivers piss me off
- If we get 1000 likes that means 1000 prayers sent
- Here is a video proving the republicrats are something something
- Trumptards
- Brainwashed liberals
- I’m right
- You’re wrong
I mean honestly, can we stop with this. I’ve gotten by just fine by ignoring all that crap and manage to stay in touch with the people who I really care about via my phone (voice or text). I need to get along with this article but had to toss this mini-rant out there. If you are one of those who stays glued to the FB I hope you do so as a means by which to collect relevant information pertinent to your area. Other than that, I see no value in it for the most part. Don’t even get me started on NextDoor.
Why This Topic?
The idea of folks heading up from the city when T-SHTF is something that concerns me and my fellow mountain folk up here. I stopped and talked to a few local deputies a few days ago and it concerns them as well as we have thousands of acres of Federal and State National Forest and the last thing we need is a surge of folks dragging campers up from the city thinking they are going to set up shop. It happens during normal times every weekend during the warmer months. Friday afternoon the camper parade heading into the mountains, Sunday afternoon they are heading back to their subdivisions after almost setting the entire forest on fire because little Tommy wanted a hot dog. I hate to say it but the delineation is true: you either live up here or you don’t.
The Fantasy
I’ve seen it over the years, misplaced fantasies by urban folks who live the subdivison life – if things get bad enough they’ll just pick up and head to the mountains and thrive. Maybe someone used to be in the military, maybe they have a travel trailer, maybe the go to the gun range once a month. The idea that a suburban family is going to pick up and head to some unknown spot out in the wilderness and set up shop and thrive is not only hilarious, it is concerning. Give that experiment 2 weeks and the kids will start going nuts, food starts running lean and the wife starts hating the lack of showers and bug spray. In short, it is not sustainable and for these people who weekend camp a few times a year to actually believe that they will escape the city to do so for weeks or months is delusional. Allow me to explain why.
The Reality
Right now we have orders for shelter in place, some of which discourage city folks from coming up into the mountains. There are Federal and State parks which have been closed and as this gets worse I suspect more of them will completely close not allowing camping / recreation / people from the city to set up shop. For me one of the biggest fears is fire, a massive consideration up here. When I stand on my deck I have a 270 degree view of the National Forest and there is a massive burn scar maybe 10 miles out which goes for over 50 miles and burned countless homes back in the 90’s. All that said I think it’s good practice that they shut it all down and keep the city folks in the city. Don’t come up here: there are no resources, no land, no good times to be had. If they wanted to live here they should have bought a place out here and lived like the rest of us, too little to late.
The Future
I see law enforcement patrolling for violators, take your a$$ back to where you came from. I also see folks slipping under the radar and causing issues, starting fires and leaving their trash. I also see our local small town (1 gas station, no stop light, small hardware store, 2 restaurants and a propane store) screening visitors who show up and potentially turning them away as things get worse. If we don’t know you, you won’t get served type thing. Sounds harsh but when things get tight I can see it going that way.
Final Thoughts
When I started this blog we lived in the Midwest, vinyl sided 4 bedroom house with 10 feet between neighbors, HOA fees, a pool and strip malls just outside our subdivision entrance. At the time there were no mountains where we lived but there was plenty of countryside maybe 20 mins from our house, still my plans never included just rolling out there and hoping for the best. I had to do the best I could with what I had and most of it involved hunkering down at the house. I was fortunate and blessed enough to be able to travel to the Rockies and to literally within 3 months, pick up and move the entire family out here 4 years ago. Life out here is obviously different but much more in line with where I want to be and how I want to live. Now that this threat has hit our country the location becomes even more of an asset. I will tell you that during this time folks should do the best they can with what they have, attempting to play out some fantasy where one drives out to the high country to thrive while the cities burn won’t really work out well. That I can promise.
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Irony
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Good catch! Haha
Spot on.
Well said! I too am blessed to live on the slopes of the Rockies, and just as you said….every spring and summer, our little burg gets over run with folks from out of state. Every year is a culture clash, because they come here and trash the roads, trash the trail heads, clog up the roads with their mindset of ” you should be thankful we are here to spend money in your hillbilly town”. We too had a huge fire 2 years ago that we are still reeling from.
I hope and pray that if a lockdown is mandated…that everyone is ok….but also that everyone will comply!
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Totally agree on trashing everything, they had to shut down trailheads last year because people just left their crap everywhere. Animals…
Couldn’t have said it better. We are only seven miles in from the wildland-urban interface where the weekend warriors and the homeless campers find an easy trek into the Federal, State, and yes private lands in the foothills/mountains. We live on edge most of the year with our bug out bags and the travel trailer ready to go due the ongoing fire threat; however, it isn’t the lightening that starts most of our fires it is the people who have little or know respect for our communities. Since we have no live stock we do not fence our property and I am constantly chasing people off in the warm months as they are unable to see the florescent orange no trespassing signs posted every 200 feet or so, one visible from the other. I get “oh, this is private property…but we’re in the mountains BS” I have been asked to move my truck, off my own driveway, “hey buddy, you’re blocking the road.” and all of this during “NORMAL TIMES!”
Yes, I am very concerned and unfortunately there is little we can do other than try chase them off and then call the sheriff who might show up in three hours if they refuse to go. Fortunately, other than being extremely firm, in their face standing my ground I have never ever threatened physical harm to anyone.
I keep a shotgun handy with less than lethal loads for the occasional bad bear wanting to break into our garage or barn. I just hope it there doesn’t come a day when the plight to the mountains doesn’t include plans of “hey, we can stay in there” as I don’t want that legal battle to ruin our lives.
I do not live in the mountains former military and yet it does happen with fantasy types. My neighbor brought this idea up a couple of months and I just nodded ok and asked a serious question. Have you ever hunted before? His response no but I watch a lot of hunting tv. I chuckled inside and said good luck with that idea my dead friend.
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I watched hunting on TV once….haha
We live east of a very large city. Lots of folks have decided to isolate here on the lake. We see pontoons full of people ( not 6 feet apart) going by, pulling 3-4 kids on a tube. Wake boats with 4-5 passengers & a wave rider. How is this isolating? Our little road population is staying in, waving from a distance and texting. We are not on Facebook, Instagram either. No need! Don’t want to read a bunch of fussing & fighting! Can get that all from DC! Do I want to live in the mountains? Oh course! Could I be totally self sufficient there, probably not! Have I watched a couple of hunting shows, sure! Plenty more fishing shows. People here heart broken that the Masters Golf Tournament will not be played! Sad for them!! My health & that of my family comes first. People are getting a real awakening.
I say, stay in you own home in the city. Do your part to stop this virus. Hopefully we will all be better people in the end.
Keep tabs on your elderly neighbord. They are so afraid just now. Help where you can and still stay safe.
I have always laughed at the people that think they will “bug out ” to the mountains. I live in the Sierra Nevada’s so I understand your article. For some reason they think they will be able to hunt,fish ect and supply themselves with food but as anyone in the mountains knows even we don’t always find game or catch fish and we KNOW the area. I wonder how many of them have ever seen DARK. Not dark like in the city where you have ambient light but true dark. if power is out at my place I can’t see to the end of my porch if the sky is full of clouds. I had 4 ft of snow fall a couple of weeks ago. Wonder if they ever tried to walk through something like that. Do they think the locals are going to welcome them with open arms?
If I was a meaner person I would just wish they would come in some of these circumstances and maybe the amount of deaths would work to discourage others
Just in today: DNR rangers will be patrolling the lake. Breaking up cove parties, checking boats full of people. I’m sure there are multiple families isolating at one house. Mom, Dad, kids & grandkids. So that would be a boat full. However we have seen numerous boats with 5-6 young males on same boats. We are close to two major colleges. Hopefully they are friends isolating at the folks 2nd home. Golf courses are closing. Don’t know about the driving ranges. Thousands were expected here for the Masters Golf tournament. Maybe some came on to the rental house or 2nd home to get out of the city.
Puts a strain on our one big chain grocery store and the Dollar General (locals call it the mall). We are not leaving the house for anything just now due to this influx of city folks. We do not live in a resort community. Our road is mostly vacant. A few retirees ( like us) are home. I am concerned about the local people who have lost their jobs or businesses closed with an unknown future. Heading to the mountains of heading to the lake, not a good idea! Stay where you are familiar with your neighbors, access to what you need to get through this trying time for all of us.
Bug out to the lake? No! Please no!
Just in todat: DNR Rangers will be patrolling the lake, breaking up cove parties checking boats full of people.
It is possible that Mom, Dad, kids & grandkids are isolating at folks second home. So that would account for a boat load. We have seen wave boats full of young men going by. Being between two major colleges it is possible that a group of students are isolating at a parent’s 2nd home. Lots of city folks fled to the local resort community putting stress on the one grocery store and the Dollar General (locals call it the mall). We are local residents, not resort folks. We are not leaving the house at all. Our road is mostly vacant except for the few retirees like us living here all year around. So glad to be here and be prepared!
People are much better off to stay in their communities where they have friends and resources.
Praying for all our health care workers on the front line!
And YES! It is dark thirty here too!
Long story short: if you haven’t “bugged out” already, you’re probably not going to.
People will do what they feel they need to do to survive, nothing any of you say, write, think, or otherwise, will make a difference when it comes down to it. City dwellers will go where they feel they can protect the family from whatever it was they had to leave the urban disaster for. Expect it, it will happen, there will be masses, and they will be unprepared, hungry, desperate and radical. Dangerous to say the least. It is the reality of the situation, death, crime, looters, robbers, killers, no rule of law, chaos will be the constant. There will be murders for a cooler with 6 hot dogs in it, a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of water . The human race is filled with people who are one step away from maniacs, especially when something happens that they cannot mentally handle. Millions of angry, frightened and mentally unhinged people will be spreading out from the cities, loaded to the teeth with their weapons and ammo they bought “just for this scenario”.. ready to use the gear they collected, never tried out, only to find they failed to understand just what they really needed was not what they invested in, Human Nature, it is not pretty, like it or not. This scenario could be prevented by simply getting rouge government actors removed that control millions of lives with their insanity and one sided agenda. Americans, most Americans have no clue what their government is up to. Think, “Purge”
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I think nature is pretty? Good stuff.