KLR650 Camping Trip

I suppose since I write about bug vehicles and bug out locations, I could call a recent motorcycle trip to North Carolina and Tennessee work - or at least research.  But truth is that a short getaway trip to the mountains, camping off my KLR650 was really more of a great way to unwind after a few long weeks of  finishing up the revisions and final details of my latest book - the novel that will be released in July.

I've written about the Kawasaki KLR650 here before, and I'm sure many readers have either owned one or know somebody that does.  It's not a motorcycle that excels at any one thing, but rather one that does everything well enough.  For this trip, that meant everything from surviving the truck traffic on the interstate at 75 mph, to negotiating twisty pavement in the mountains, such as the infamous "Tail of the Dragon" stretch of North Carolina's Highway 129.  But most importantly, it meant the freedom to explore off-road on gravel forest service roads and beyond.

I went alone on this ride so I wouldn't have to do much scheduling or planning, and besides,  I needed time to myself anyway.  Mainly, I wanted to revisit some of my favorite areas in the regions, such as the Joyce-Kilmer and Citico Creek wilderness areas, where I've embarked upon many a solo backpacking trip in times past.  Hiking this time was limited, but with the KLR I was able to get to some nice, secluded campsite with the bike and all my gear, some of them places few four-wheeled vehicles could reach.

As anyone who's visited this area knows, the driving (and especially motorcycle riding) is spectacular.  Going in the off-season and during the week makes it easy to avoid the crowds.  One of the most scenic roads is the Cherohala Skyway, which runs through some of the wildest areas of the southern Appalachians, from  Tellico Plains, TN to Robbinsville, NC.

This is a view out into the Citico Creek Wilderness Area, which is described on p. 158 of my book: Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before It's Too Late.  A black bear encounter I had one dark night deep in the middle of this wilderness reminds me to choose campsites carefully and take all the precautions to keep a clean camp when in these mountains.  This a place where you can seriously disappear if you have a need to, especially if you don't mind bushwhacking into the rhododendron thickets in the deep ravines along the drainages.

But as nice as the paved mountain roads like the Cherohala Skyway are, the KLR really comes into its own and proves its worth on the endless miles of gravel forest service roads that lead off the beaten path.

Exploring them leads to all kinds of great places, like this fantastic stream.  One thing these mountains are not short of is water, so carrying a lot of it is not necessary as long as you have a means to purify it.

It's hard to leave a place like this and ride back home, but after this little escape I'm now planning a longer motorcycle trek out West to some of my favorite hang-outs there, like New Mexico's Gila National Forest.  I have no doubt that the trusty KLR will get me there and back.

Bug Out Regions: The Southwest

Whitewater Canyon, Gila Wilderness, New Mexico

In my book, Bug Out, one of my favorites of the eight regions I've broken the lower 48 states into is the Southwest.  In Chapter Eleven, Deserts, Canyons & Mountains of the Southwest, I describe bug-out locations in West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Nevada, and Southern California.  This part of the country ranks high among my favorite places on earth.  I've returned time and time again to the Southwest region to explore the remote and wide open spaces found there.

In the early stages of writing the book, I planned on interweaving my personal narratives of my trips in many of the bug-out locations described, and had especially looked forward to writing about my experiences in such places as the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico.  As it turned out, there was not enough space to include the narratives in the book and still cover all the necessary details of bug out locations that might be helpful to readers.  So the narratives got left out, but in the future there will be unlimited room to write about them here.  Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the chapter on the Southwest Region:

Like the Rocky Mountains, North America’s Southwest is synonymous with wilderness and rugged independence. This region is the “West” of most people’s imagination and the setting for countless movies, television shows, and novels about the difficulties faced there by early explorers, prospectors, cowboys, and other settlers. In reality, it has not been all that long since the Southwest was still truly wild and untamed, and even today huge areas of this region are uninhabited and roadless. 

Some of the longest and most difficult Indian wars the U.S. Army ever fought during the settling of the West were waged here against the elusive Apaches, who were masters of survival in this tough environment. The Apaches and other Native American tribes in the region adapted to the conditions and were able find resources in places that seemed to European settlers to be unfit for human habitation. They knew where to find the isolated springs and water holes of their territories and moved between various “islands” of wooded mountains and canyons where living by hunting and gathering was possible. Even for people as resourceful and tough as them, the barren wastelands inbetween these islands could not sustain life for long.

Many parts of the Southwest are surprisingly well watered, however, and are teeming with wildlife and a diversity of plant and tree species. Most of these areas are in the various mountain ranges that are sub-ranges of the Rockies and the Sierra Madre, which extends north into this part of the U.S. from Mexico. Other areas that are lush oases of plant and animal life are found in the canyon country that this region is famous for. Several large rivers course through the Southwest, draining both to the Gulf of Mexico and to the Pacific Ocean at the Sea of Cortez. Among them are the Colorado and the Rio Grande, both of which flow through some of the most spectacular canyons on Earth. 

Just as in the Rocky Mountains region covered in the previous chapter, there are far more bug-out locations in this region than I can begin to cover in this limited space, but I’ve picked out a cross-section of some of the Southwest’s most outstanding wild areas to give you an idea of the possibilities. If you live in this region you are lucky to have so many great options to get far away from the crowds in times of trouble, as many of these places receive virtually no human traffic. But
if you plan to bug out in the Southwest, you certainly need to be aware of the region’s unique challenges and be prepared to deal with them.


Recommended Equipment

In the dry Southwest, an adequate supply of drinking water is a top survival priority. A reliable means to carry an adequate supply of water will be of utmost importance when choosing gear for bugging out in this region. As compared to other regions, you will need to carry more water at any given time while traveling in most of the bug-out locations described in this chapter, as resupply opportunities may be few and far between. I would suggest distributing your supply in several separate Nalgene bottles or other containers to decrease the risk of losing your entire supply if a single larger container is punctured or otherwise fails. When traveling in desert areas, you should also carry a means of collecting water from unconventional sources. One of the best such sources is early morning dew found on the blades of grasses and leaves of plants. Although this can be mopped up and squeezed out of a T-shirt or bandana, having a large sponge will make it an easier job. You should also carry some clear plastic and a tube for making a solar still, as well as a copy of a diagram and instructions on how to construct one if you are not familiar with the process. Equally important as your water supply is protection from the sun. A wide-brimmed hat, bandana, and long-sleeved shirt should always be in your bug-out bag here, and a tube of sunscreen is a good idea as well. It’s also important not to overlook clothing and shelter to protect you from the cold, especially at high elevations, where weather can be just as severe as in the Rockies or North Woods. 

In most parts of the Southwest, you will have more travel options than in any other region of the U.S. Wide-open deserts, often devoid of fences, make it possible to drive off-road even where there are no trails in sturdy four-wheel-drive vehicles or on ATVs or off-road motorcycles. Horses, mules, and donkeys are just as practical here today as they were 150 years ago, and mountain bikes can also serve well in many areas. In many parts of the mountains, though, foot travel may be the best option for truly getting to places where you will not easily be found. 

Weapons here should include a .22 rifle for small game as well as a rifle for taking larger game at longer distances. Any caliber sufficient for black bears and mountain lions will suffice for protection. Be aware that some parts of this region, especially close to the Mexican border, have become extremely dangerous due to illegal human and drug trafficking, and you should use extreme caution to avoid being seen by the people carrying out these activities.

Over the years I've made many long combination road trips/backpacking excursions throughout the Southwest.  I would have moved there long ago if not for my addiction to sea kayaking and sailing on the Gulf, which has kept me in the South.  I would like nothing better than to load-up my camping gear on my KLR 650 dual-sport motorcycle right now and leave tomorrow for New Mexico.  But, as it is, I'm in the middle of the manuscript for my next book, which has to be completed by Septermber 1.   After that, there's a possibility....

Bug Out Regions: Appalachian Mountain Corridor

Much of my new bug out book deals with specific bug out locations, which is information that I found missing in other survival and prepardness books and is the reason I decided to write this one.  Since my plan was to cover the lower 48 states in as much detail as was reasonable in a 300-page book, I had to first divide the country into distinct regions based on climate, terrain and types of ecosystems found there.  This led to eight distinct regions, each of which has a chapter devoted to it in the book. 

Here on Bug Out Survival, I will be expanding on the details included in the book for specific bug out locations, and eventually will get around to posting photos and narratives from my many trips into some of my favorites.  For those who have not seen the book yet, I want to give some previews on what to expect in the descriptions of each of these regions.  Each regional chapter begins with an overview of the region to give you an idea of what to expect there.  Here's an example in the overview of The Appalachian Mountain Corridor:  

The Appalachian Mountains form the backbone of the eastern United States, dividing the drainages of the Atlantic Ocean to the east from those of the Mississippi River to the west and Hudson Bay to the north. This 1500-mile-long mountain range provides a corridor of rugged wilderness areas stretching from central Alabama and northern Georgia to Maine and the Canadian island of Newfoundland. The Appalachians as a whole are made up of many smaller mountain ranges linked together, including the Blue Ridge Mountains, Smokey Mountains, Allegheny Mountains, and many others. The mountain corridor averages 100 to 300 miles wide, with individual peaks averaging 3000 feet in elevation. The highest peak in the range and in all the eastern United States is 6684-foot Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. 

The Appalachian Mountains are within easy reach of many of the biggest population centers of the nation yet contain extensive tracts of protected wild lands in a variety of national forests and parks throughout their length, including some of the largest virgin forests remaining in the East. The Appalachians create their own weather and are much wetter than much of the surrounding low country around them (as well as the more arid western mountains). This rainfall allows for a lush and diverse ecosystem and the resultant dense forests make it easy to disappear in virtually any valley or on any ridge. A wide variety of edible plants flourish in these mountains, as do healthy populations of deer and other game animals.

Unlike the Gulf Coast Southeast and the Islands and Lowlands of the East Coast discussed in the previous two chapters, the Appalachian Mountain Corridor offers many areas of wild country that can be considered true wilderness and in many cases can only be accessed by rugged foot trails. Boats are of limited use here, except on a few of the rivers and larger man-made lakes. One of America’s longest hiking trails, the 2178-mile Appalachian Trail, runs almost the entire length of the corridor and makes it possible to walk from northern Georgia to Maine almost entirely in the wilderness or  semi-wilderness of the mountains.

In the Appalachian Mountain Corridor Bug-Out Essentials section, I've included a more detailed discussion of weather and climate, land and resources, edible plants, hunting and fishing, wildlife hazards, and recommended equipment. 

Here's the excerpt from the last category, recommended equipment:

The wildest parts of Appalachia can only be accessed on foot. You’ll need good boots and a bug-out backpack as described in Chapter Two, as well as warm, waterproof clothing and sleeping gear. Cold rain that lasts for days on end is common in these mountains, and in the winter, deep snow and even blizzards can catch the unprepared off-guard. It is essential here to have good shelter and a reliable way to make fire. Hunting equipment should include a .22 survival rifle for shooting elusive squirrels and small birds in thick cover, as well as a larger-caliber handgun or rifle that can take deer and double as bear protection. The .357 magnum is a good choice as a minimum caliber for eastern black bear. There are also other transportation alternatives besides hiking in this region, if you’d rather not walk or need to carry more supplies and equipment. Many parts of the various state and national forests in Appalachia can be accessed by four-wheel-drive vehicles, dualpurpose motorcycles, ATVs, mountain bikes, or on horseback.

If you live in the Appalachian Mountain Region, I would love to hear about your experiences in the wild areas there.  Living in Mississippi, this area has been a frequent destination of mine when I want to get away to the mountains for some rugged backpacking.  I can reach some of the best areas of North Carolina and Tennessee in a day's drive.  One of my favorite areas is the Citico Creek Wilderness Area, which I will  post about in more detail in the near future. 

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