How to Choose and Set Up a Bug-Out Location (BOL)

A bug-out location is a pre-selected, pre-stocked destination you retreat to when remaining at home becomes untenable. Whether it’s a family member’s rural property, a remote cabin, a piece of owned land, or a carefully chosen public land area: having a planned BOL transforms “bug out” from a vague intention into an executable plan with a specific destination, route, and cache of supplies waiting for you on arrival.

Most people who plan to “head to the woods” in an emergency have neither a specific destination nor any supplies there. This guide changes that. A well-chosen BOL with even basic pre-positioned supplies dramatically improves your family’s resilience in extended disaster scenarios, whether that’s a regional natural disaster, prolonged grid failure, or more severe civil disruption.

When to Bug Out vs. Shelter in Place

Bugging out is not the default response to every emergency: shelter in place is usually safer, more comfortable, and requires less logistical complexity. Bug out when:

• Your home is structurally damaged or uninhabitable
• Your home area is under mandatory evacuation order
• An approaching threat makes your home indefensible (wildfire, rising flood water, advancing chemical/radiological hazard)
• Urban civil disruption has made your neighbourhood dangerous and continues to escalate
• Your utilities are likely to be out for weeks and your home lacks heating, cooling, or water independence

Do NOT bug out impulsively. Every mile of travel is a mile of exposure to road hazards, fuel uncertainty, and the general chaos of a regional emergency when everyone else is also trying to leave. Shelter in place unless you have a clear, specific reason to leave and a clear, specific destination to go to.

BOL Site Selection Criteria

Distance and Accessibility

• 50–100 miles from home: Close enough to reach on one tank of gas even in traffic, far enough to escape most regional emergencies. Events rarely affect areas 100+ miles away unless they’re truly national-scale.
• Multiple access routes: At least two completely independent routes: if one highway is jammed, flooded, or blocked, you need an alternate that doesn’t converge with the primary route.
• Accessible by your vehicles: If your BOL requires 4WD to access in winter and you drive a sedan, it’s not a viable BOL. Match site to your actual vehicle capability.
• Accessible on foot if necessary: In worst-case scenarios, vehicle travel may become impossible. Can your family walk the last section if needed?

Terrain and Defensibility

• Elevated position with sight lines: Higher ground provides warning time (you see approaching threats before they reach you) and inherent defensibility. Avoid low ground that can be approached without your knowledge from multiple directions.
• Limited access points: A property with one or two natural access points (ridge approach, road in a valley, peninsula) is easier to monitor than open flat land accessible from all directions.
• Natural concealment: Forested land is less visible to aircraft and distant observation than open fields. Your BOL should not be immediately visible from major roads.
• Not on a major evacuation route: Avoid properties immediately adjacent to major highways: they’ll be crowded with evacuees in a regional emergency.

Natural Resources

• Year-round water source: A stream, spring, pond, or well on or immediately adjacent to your property is non-negotiable for long-term habitation. Know whether it runs year-round or dries in summer.
• Timber resources: Sufficient standing timber for firewood, shelter construction, and heating.
• Arable land: Even a small area of growable soil for a garden: not rock or sand.
• Wildlife: Surrounding habitat that supports game animals and fish provides long-term food potential.
• Not in a flood plain: Check FEMA flood maps. A BOL in a flood zone that floods during the exact type of regional emergency you’d be evacuating from is useless.

BOL Options: Owned Land, Family, Rentals, Public Land

Option 1: Owned Rural Property

The gold standard. You control the site, can develop infrastructure (well, cabin, storage), and have legal right to be there. Rural land is surprisingly affordable in many regions: 5–20 acre parcels well away from major cities can cost $20,000–$100,000 in many states. This is a long-term investment in resilience, not just a preparedness expense.

Option 2: Family or Trusted Friend’s Property

The most practical option for most people: a pre-existing arrangement with rural family or trusted friends whose property you could go to in an emergency. Formalise this arrangement in advance: discuss it explicitly, clarify that you’d arrive with supplies for yourself, contribute to their preparedness rather than drawing from theirs, and establish mutual aid expectations. Don’t assume the welcome will be there without the conversation.

Option 3: Hunting Club or Recreational Land Lease

Hunting leases, hunting club memberships, and recreational land leases give legal access to rural land at lower cost than ownership. Typically $5–$20/acre/year. You can pre-position a supply cache (with the landowner’s permission) and have a legal right to be on the property. Less control than ownership but far more accessible than ownership for most families.

Option 4: Public Land

National forests and BLM land allow dispersed camping for typically 14 days before requiring a move. This is a fallback, not a true BOL: you cannot pre-position supplies legally, tenure is insecure, and in a major emergency many people may have the same idea. Use as a last resort. If considering public land, identify specific dispersed camping areas with water access, far from popular trailheads, on secondary forest roads.

Water at Your BOL

Water is your most critical site resource. Even with stored water, your long-term BOL viability depends on a renewable source.

• Well: Ideal but requires drilling ($5,000–$20,000+ depending on depth) and ideally a hand pump backup for when grid power is unavailable. Well water typically requires testing for coliform bacteria and mineral content.
• Spring: A natural spring is invaluable: gravity-fed, no power required, often clean enough to drink with basic filtration. Develop and cap springs to protect them from surface contamination.
• Stream or creek: Flowing water is safer than still water. Filter and treat before drinking. Know the watershed above your stream: upstream livestock or industrial activity affects water quality.
• Rainwater collection: On a cabin or roof structure, collect and store rainwater with a proper first-flush system and filtration. See our Rainwater Harvesting Guide for detailed setup.
• Water storage: Pre-position 50–200 gallons of stored water at your BOL even if you have a stream: the first days of arrival may require water before you establish your filtering setup.

Shelter at Your BOL

The spectrum from a tarp in the woods to a fully equipped off-grid cabin represents a range of investment and capability. Work toward permanent shelter but plan for realistic scenarios:

• Primitive camp: Tarps, tents, and bivouac. Viable for weeks in good weather; challenging in cold/wet conditions. A good starting point but not a long-term solution.
• Wall tent or canvas tent with wood stove: A quality canvas wall tent (Kodiak, Montana Canvas) with a wood stove provides genuinely comfortable shelter through winter. Cost: $500–$2,000. Requires a cleared platform.
• Cargo container (conex box): A used 20′ or 40′ cargo container provides dry, secure, rodent-proof storage and with basic modifications (insulation, venting, windows) becomes liveable space. Cost: $2,000–$5,000 for a used container. Can be pre-positioned on rural property.
• Cabin or outbuilding: The long-term goal: a simple, solid, insulated structure with a wood stove. Can be built gradually over time. Check local permit requirements; many rural counties have minimal building regulations on small structures.

Caching Supplies at Your BOL

Pre-positioned supplies at your BOL mean you don’t have to carry everything when you arrive exhausted from an emergency evacuation.

Minimum BOL Cache

• 72 hours of food per person (ideally 30 days)
• Water storage containers + filtration (Sawyer, Berkey)
• Fuel: propane, firewood, or both
• First aid kit: extended wilderness-capable
• Shelter: tarps, sleeping bags rated for the coldest temperatures you might encounter
• Fire starting: ferro rods, lighters, waterproof matches, tinder
• Tools: axe, hand saw, Mora knife, shovel, multi-tool
• Lighting: headlamps, lanterns, extra batteries
• Communication: NOAA weather radio, walkie-talkies
• Maps of the area (paper)
• Medications: 90-day supply of any essential prescriptions
• Seeds and basic gardening tools

Cache Security

Supplies stored at a remote location face security risks from theft, wildlife, and environmental damage:

• Store in sealed, rodent-proof containers (metal ammo cans, sealed 5-gallon buckets, conex box)
• Use a quality padlock on any lockable storage
• Rotate perishable items annually: visit your BOL at least twice a year to check and refresh supplies
• Keep a supply manifest at home so you know exactly what’s there
• Don’t store anything at the BOL you can’t afford to lose

BOL Security

A remote location provides inherent security through obscurity: most people don’t know it exists. Maintain that advantage:

• Limit who knows the location: Only family members and explicitly trusted individuals. A location known to many people is not a secure refuge.
• Site lighting: Solar motion-activated lights at key access points provide detection capability without grid power.
• Noise deterrents: Simple perimeter alarm systems (fishing line with cans, motion sensors with battery-powered alarms) are low-tech and effective for early warning.
• Physical barriers: A locked gate on your access road provides meaningful access control and psychological deterrence.
• Community with neighbours: If you have rural neighbours near your BOL, establishing a relationship with them before an emergency creates mutual watch capacity. They’ll notice unfamiliar vehicles; you’ll contribute to their security in return.

Planning Your Bug-Out Routes

• Primary route: The fastest, most direct route under normal conditions
• Alternate 1: A completely independent route that doesn’t converge with the primary until close to the destination: in case the primary is blocked or dangerous
• Alternate 2: A third option for worst-case scenarios, possibly involving unpaved roads, back roads, or a longer but more certain path

Drive all routes under normal conditions before an emergency. Note: fuel stops, water sources, potential choke points (narrow bridges, mountain passes that close in winter), and rally points where you’d meet family members traveling separately.

Mark routes on paper maps. Do not depend on GPS: in a major regional emergency, cell networks and GPS infrastructure may be degraded.

BOL Community and Mutual Aid

Lone families in remote locations are more vulnerable than communities. If possible, coordinate your BOL with like-minded family members, friends, or preparedness community members who would converge on the same location. A group of 6–12 adults provides:

• Watch rotations (no individual watches all night alone)
• Division of labour (someone is always doing productive work)
• Medical capability (more likely to have medical skills in a larger group)
• Psychological resilience (social support in prolonged stress)
• Physical security without any individual being continuously on guard

Recommended BOL Setup Gear

Frequently Asked Questions