Hi Steve
You make very good points, and I've tried to think about most of these things ahead of time, but I'm sure I still missed stuff.
***However no matter which route you take out of LA there is a LOT of desert between there and your BOL. Sorry but no one is walking through that without resupply, no matter what H.M. taught them. Hopefully you aren't one of them but many foreigners have no concept of the distances involved in moving around America.***
I have had the benefit and pleasure of travelling around America for about the last 15 years from time to time. I have ridden three quarters of the way around the US (Seattle to San Diego, the southern route to Key West, up from Key West to Connecticut) - still got the "top one" to go. Also ridden a couple of times east to west and west to east again, through the ‘middle’, although not yet Route 66 in its entirety. So I do have a good idea of the distances and difficulties involved. If there was a near-complete collapse in LA I’d be trying to buy a bicycle w/cash and get the first 40 miles out of the way with what I could carry. Over the years I have staged 10,000 calorie caches every 30-40 miles in un- or sparsely-inhabited terrain, a few hundred yards off the interstate between Torrance and Phoenix. I don't have water stashed but I do have a GPS and a paper record of all of the potential water points between those two places, on the ’10. Plus, if push came to shove, I'd be scouting abandoned hotels etc and picking up water from the toilet cisterns (no, not the bowls
). My first stash approximately 40 miles from Torrance has an extra Sawyer filter in case the one I habitually carry in my BOB doesn't come with me for whatever reason.
***Walking from Phoenix is more doable but still iffy depending on weather conditions and again finding water sources is key.***
Indeed yes. This is presently a weak point. I have at the time writing zero caches buried on the way out of Phoenix. On the plus side, I have a very reliable motorcycle & 250 miles’ gas staged in storage in Mesa, plus also an old-fashioned pedal-powered tricycle with a basket in the same place. I have about one month’s food supply @ 2000 cal a day also stored there, mostly freeze-dried. But I could not carry it all with me. If I buy the place I hope to buy, I'll be looking to rent discreet storage for 3 to 4 months of 2000 cal a day, or digging a cache for some water and much food/hygiene supplies, probably both, in the next few months.
***You also need to consider that despite the buried cache you are still in a world of hurt if you do manage to get to your one acre BOL. Living off the land is not a viable option and as a guy that just showed up in the area after shtf, you won't have a network of local friends to rely on.***
You're absolutely right, I will be in a world of hurt when stored food runs out. In a near-complete collapse I won't survive much more than half a year, if that (but heck, I could get taken out by ferals as I pedal my cycle out of South LA…). If it works out, I have marketable medic skills. And if it doesn't work out, Whisky Tango Foxtrot. I never expected to get out of here alive anyway
I do however think that if I'm trying to enter my BOL of choice without any claim to residency there as a property owner, I would really be SOL. I looked at closer places, like Camp Verde, Rimrock, Prescott - but, no offence intended to the folks who live there, all the vacant land is well out of my financial reach, and Prescott / Sedona in particular seem to be both juicy targets for neobandidos and focal collection points for uppercrust stoners in long-term rehab. But maybe it was just the days I was passing thru
***Harvesting from a garden to feed yourself could be as long as a year away depending on the season you arrive. To say nothing of the water required for that garden if you don't have a well on property. Also since you weren't there to take care of them there won't be chickens, goats, etc waiting on you either.***
Again, hundred percent agree. I don't wanna be a parasite, so my plan is if I make it I turn up with skills and a food store and then, I will see what happens. My biggest concern has always been water, which is why I want to be within walking distance of potable water, or water that can be made potable without high-tech.
But like I say to myself - Self, like everybody else you are not getting out of here alive, sooner, or later.