a young lady in a reply post expressed wanting to know - how and where she should go ... she asked about virginia and also does elevation make a difference or reason to go somewhere ... the way she worded it made me believe she has no clue and no planning as of yet ... also no understanding of the variables that go into a " bug out " location ... as i told her off post every person , every situation is different .. also bugging out should be an almost last resort procedure .. one does not bug out because the urbanites are setting fire to los angeles again .... she is in maryland ...... i have friends who live in various parts of maryland ... i was just there 5 weeks ago in the lovely rolling hills on the road hagerstown .... maryland is one place some of my friends would rendevous in ... they are not necessarily leaving maryland .... so here on post i will give an example as to where to go to ........... ok first a scenario is needed .......hummm .....swine flu overated ........nuclear blasts on DC and Baltimore ..to much chaos ... .. let me think ............. FEAR .....thats a good one ......... muslims get a nuke to New York City ....... BOOM .... ( its ok i do not like the giants , yankees or mets ) .... this creates nationwide panic ...and you can be sure every TV network will be showing the chaos with late breaking news .....people could be heading out to the hils in great masses ........ sorry but the easy pass lanes wont be open either ...... oh you have easy pass ?? to bad ....... following such a catastrophe looting / rioting in various cities could happen ....... dont forget a thousand variables exist even for the same scenario.. .. it may happen on a large scale or not .. or just a few isolated cases ....economic chaos in the days following is almost a given ...... my friends on the peninsula would hang tight ...watch and see .....those below DC like the area below Lexington Park .... easy boat access across the channel to the peninsula and those with the beer beyond Cambridge .. ...those north of DC and Baltimore would immediatly consider the " leaving options " .... the roads going anywhere towards Frederick - clogged possibly , ok probably but then again who is to say .. it depends on the FEAR FACTOR and how many morons rush to " jump ship " .........the back roads of upper Frederick , Carroll and Harford Counties would be ok for a while .... here the direction is to go to Hagerstown area or up onto southern Pennsylvania as some friends would do .. ...... friends between Cumberland ( Allegany County ) and Hagerstown ( Washington County ) would also stay put as the situation dictates ...and see which friends shows up . ... for the sake of agruement ......Lower Frederick County and Montgomery County ......the few small back road bridges that exist on the upper Potomac would be full of those locals .......tough call ... ...... My suggestion first is to get more than the one friend you have for your network ......... buy the state map ........ look at where you are ............... put a 7 inch plate centered to your location ... draw the circle around the edge of the plate . ........look at the scale of the map - one inch equals how many miles ??? who would you know in a 360 degree radius of you .. friends , cousins , college friends ,etc......what are their locations ?? center city Baltimore or DC ........screw them ....... who else and where are they ?? anyone over the border in West Virginia or Virginia ?? we have done this a hundred times if not a thousand as farmland , rural routes have become housing developements over the past 30 years ......... 2 lane roads have become 4 lane roads ........ population density has changed ........forest land replaced with malls ........ get yourself the map - pinpoint who you know and where they are in regards to your location .......