BOL Overview: Aucilla River

The Aucilla River:  A Potential BOL on Florida's "Nature Coast"

Florida's coastlines are not all tourist beaches and condominiums.  Much of the so called "Nature Coast" of the Big Bend section of Florida's Gulf Coast is undeveloped and sparsely populated.  There are good reasons for this, particularly the expansive areas of shallow water off this coastline and the lack of good harbors navigable by deeper-draft vessels.  The lack of long natural beaches here is another reason this area wasn't ruined long ago.  Unlike the panhandle area to the west and north, and the coastline south of Tarpon Springs, this part of Florida's Gulf Coast is mostly low and swampy, and broken up by the entrance of several sizable rivers, including the Suwanee, the Chassahowitzka, the Withlacoochee, the St. Mark's and the Aucilla.

Google Earth view of the swampy hardwood forests along the lower reaches of the Aucilla River

The Aucilla River is one of many good potential hideaways along this coast that could be accessed by shallow-draft larger boats and small vessels like canoes and sea kayaks.  In it's lower reaches this river flows through a sub-tropical hardwood forest that is about as jungle-like as anything you'll find in North America, complete with tall palm trees overhanging the waterway from the bank.  Back in the '70s and '80s when drug smuggling by fast boat was rampant in Florida, the remote estuary of the Aucilla was a favorite drop point.

 

Another view near the mouth of the Aucilla:

The Aucilla and other rivers in this area have a lot to offer for someone who can navigate them in a small boat, especially a canoe or sea kayak.  Camping conditions here can be tough due to mosquitoes, no-see-ums and other pests, but in this kind of environment, the woods are so dense and impenetrable that even a relatively small area can make a good bug out location.  Fishing will be good, as well as foraging for all sorts of aquatic animals and plants.  Just watch out for big 'gators and don't forget the machete if you plan to go anywhere off the river.  

The Aucilla River

Location: Florida's Big Bend section of the Gulf Coast east of St. Marks.

Additional Resources:

Books:

Waters Less Traveled: Exploring Florida's Big Bend Coast (Florida History and Culture)

A Canoeing & Kayaking Guide to Florida, 2nd (Canoeing & Kayaking Guides - Menasha)

Florida Atlas & Gazetteer

Online:

http://www.aucillariver.com/v1/home/home.htm

BOL Overview: Chickasawhay River

Here's a Bug Out Location from right here in my local stomping grounds in Mississippi:

The Author's Sandbar Campsite on a Kayak Trip Down the Chickasawhay

Mississippi is blessed with fine rivers - many of which have long stretches of uninhabited bottomland hardwood and mixed pine forests along their banks.  The Chickasawhay is one such river, with more than 160 miles navigable by canoe, kayak or light John boat from its upper reaches near Enterprise to its confluence with the Leaf River, where the two merge to become the Pascagoula River.  The river winds through the sparsely populated counties of southeast Mississippi, which is not real wilderness by the definition of big tracts of roadless land, but is nevertheless remote enough in many stretches to serves as a viable bug-out location.  Hunting, fishing and foraging for edible plants is good along the entire course of the river. Deer, wild hogs, wild turkey, gray and fox squirrels, rabbits, armadillos, bass, bream and catfish are all especially abundant.

A Google Earth view of the upper Chicksawhay, near where the photo at top was taken. Big sandbars and heavily-forested banks are found along most of the river's course.

The areas along the river that are not naturally wooded in mixed pines or hardwoods are mostly forested in pine plantations at various stages of growth, so there is a buffer between the river and nearby roads, farms and dwellings along most of its route.  In a few places you will see open pasture land or scattered camp-houses, but for the most part a trip down the river is a journey through what feels like a much wilder area than it really is. 

Some parts of the upper Chicksawhay are bounded by high bluffs of mixed clay and rock.  Springs like this one feed the main river and make finding drinking water easy.

The farther downstream you travel, the bigger the river becomes.  Sloughs and oxbow lakes like this one off the main river become more common, and the bottomland hardwood forests become more extensive.

In 2004 my canoeing partner, Ernest Herndon, and I set out to paddle the entire Pascagoula River System from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico.  The Chicksawhay and the Leaf Rivers run mostly parallel to each other, with the Leaf to the west, until they merge together to form the Pascagoula, which runs another 80 miles before reaching the Mississippi Sound.  We spent two weeks on this trip, and wrote about our experiences in our co-authored book: Paddling the Pascagoula, linked below.  Having made this trip and many others on these waters, this would be one of my prefered bug-out locations if I had to hit the woods close to home here in Mississippi. 

The Chickasawhay River

Location: Southeast Mississippi, from Enterprise to Merrill.

Additional Resources:

Paddling the Pascagoula
Preserving the Pascagoula
Canoeing Mississippi
Mississippi Atlas & Gazetteer

BOL Overview: The Henry Mountains

The Henry Mountain Range:  A little-visited potential Bug Out Location in Utah.

The Henry Mountains of south-central Utah are one of the most remote and little-visited ranges in the Lower 48 states. This high range rises to peaks of over 11,000 feet in a vast tract of BLM land north of Lake Powell and west of Canyonlands National Park. In the satellite image below, you can see the high elevation areas of the range as forested slopes that stand out in stark contrast to the surrounding desert and canyonlands:

In this Google Earth image of the Henry Mountain Range, you can clearly see the forested higher elevation areas standing out in contrast to the surrounding desert canyonlands.

These remote mountains offer water and abundant game, including a free-range herd of over 500 bison, not to mention plenty of mule deer, pronghorn antelope and smaller game. With two million acres of BLM land here that few recreational outdoors enthusiasts use, the Henry Mountain Range could offer superb bug-out hideaways in the rugged folds of its isolated slopes and valleys.

This zoomed-in view shows the convoluted valleys and ridges of this mostly roadless wilderness.

The Henry Mountain Range
Location: South of Hanksville, Utah, west of Highway 95 and Hwy. 276.
Further Resources: 

Hiking & Exploring Utah's Henry Mountains and Robbers Roost
Utah Atlas & Gazetteer