Quote Originally Posted by tmckay2 View Post
i don't get the hate of colorado for bugging out. in my opinion its better than almost anywhere in the country for many reasons. first, finding drinkable, right out of the stream, water is not difficult. anyone who has spent reasonable amount of time in the backcountry knows that. you have to get to higher elevations sure but so what. also, all we have to worry about in colorado is giardia, which while unpleasant it won't kill you so long as you can stay hydrated. also, its not like every time you drink from a stream that has giardia in it, you will get giardia. finally, there is a simply solution, boil the water.

second, you can find some incredibly difficult to traverse, isolated areas. if you spend a few days packing stuff in and out you can get to areas that are 100% unable to be reached by vehicle and will take a lot of effort to get to on foot. fortifying such an area would not be difficult and with a few people it would be fairly easy to defend.

people talk about the winters but in my opinion they are a good thing. who the F is going to come try to walk around in the back country to find some random small group of people in the middle of winter? you can hunker down during the winter in the mountains and you shouldn't be bothered by anyone. game is plentiful during that time of year. our mountains are nice in that there are few predators or dangers but many types of game. one elk or even a good sized deer could feed you for quite some time. rabbits can be found readily as can birds, fish, etc. it wouldn't be that difficult to find food.

as for the growing season, sure its short. you couldn't rely on planting seeds in the ground, you would need to plan ahead and have some potted supplies to grow some various plants. the nice thing is that while the soil isn't great the mountains get plenty of sunshine and water can be easily found. you can grow plants fairly easily if you really put in the effort. now for during the winter, besides meat, yes you are going to need to plan ahead. you will need some nonperishible types of foods and some canned/freeze dried stuff. again, to survive up there over a year you can't expect to just slap a few things on your back and go for it, you will have to prepare a bit and make several trips from your vehicle. but come on, whats a few days of packing stuff to a site for a year or more of security?

now as for the cold. look, you can't make some make shift shelter and survive, i agree. heres how i would do it. i have a cabelas bighorn tent. its 12x12, extremely durable including in winds, waterproof, and thick enough that its actually pretty warm. it weighs 70 lbs. it has a stove jack and i have a four dog stove that can heat a 12x12 area from -30 degrees to a reasonable 50 degrees and fires last quite a while. although pine is not ideal as a burning wood, there is plenty of it. during the days (i know because i have camped in it in the winter) the sun actually makes it pretty dang toasty in there. the stove also provides a surface to cook on. i have a vestibule for it that allows you to put all your wood and everything inside from the elements. to carry this, i have an eberlestock skycrane. if you take it apart you can put almost anything in there and strap it all together. carrying the 70 lbs is not bad, ive tested it. if its tiring, take the poles out and the tent then weighs around 35 lbs and the poles 35 lbs, so two people can't split it. the stove is fairly heavy but two people could very easily carry it up a trail. this shelter will be all youll need in the summer and winter, but of course you can use natural elements to protect it even more, such as building a wooden stacked wall around it to help insulate it and such.

again, if you are up there in the winter you are probably safe from people. snow will provide plenty of water and while food won't be cake, if you spend most of your days foraging and hunting for it, youll survive, particularly if you came prepared with some non perishable foods.

you could find a nicer place in the country, sure. but the point is, so will other people. you need to be in a semi difficult place to survive where preparedness are necessary. otherwise a whole bunch of other people will sooner or later move to place you are at.
I do not hate Colorado as a BO option, I am going to BO to a Colorado location myself. But As One Of The Best Places to BO to Colorado is not as "useable" as other locations could be. In Colorado if you go to the plains you essentially have no water unless you find a working well that is deep enough and not being defended by the owner of the well. There are reservoirs like Sterling and Two Buttes but those will probably be commandeered by the blue helmets and guarded. If you go to the mountains you can find water more readily but unless the stream flows right near your location you most likely will spend a lot of energy carrying water over rocky, non-flat terrain to get it to your secluded location. The closer you are to an open water source the closer you are to people wandering through and finding you. A couple more years of drought here in Colorado and neither the mountains or the plains will be very sustainable for living, the forest fires and grass fires will be much more prevalent and destructive. Read about the Dirty Thirties to get an idea about prolonged drought conditions in Colorado. People salted and canned tumbleweeds just to have something to eat all winter. That is why I say SE Kansas or NE Oklahoma would be more of an ideal BO place. There are small secluded mountains with ample wooded cover that could be defended with small groups of people. There is more water in these locations, even in a drought there are more natural springs so there would be better chances of finding water. If you survived the first weeks or months you could dig a well without having to dig 90 feet or more just to reach the water table. The growing season there kicks the butt of our non-irrigated fields and mountains. There is more game for hunting and trapping in SE Kansas and NE Oklahoma then there is here in Colorado. Less predators such as bear, wolves, and mountain lions to compete with and deal with also. Being a native of Colorado I love it here and have lived both on the plains and in the mountains and have hunted in both areas. If you know what you are doing you could do well bugging out in Colorado. I just understand that other locations would be easier to survive in.