What Is Urban Scouting?

Back on the 19^th of May 2021, we blogged about rucking – or yomping or tagging, as it’s also known. We talked up the benefits of this practice as a way preppers can help themselves to keep fit.

Urban scouting is rucking and more. It’s a version that will not just keep you fit but also teach you and give you valuable – potentially life-saving – insights into the patch of the country you’ll probably find yourself in when an emergency or disaster strikes.

Urban scouting is designed to help you have a much better and first-hand knowledge of the lie of the land – so that in the event of disaster, you will be familiar with areas of safety, and short cuts etc.

Urban scouting – scouting with purpose

Urban scouting is an ideal prepping activity because it delivers on two fronts:

Fitness

• You are out and about – on your own two feet, independent of any kind of motorised transport – keeping yourself fit through the simple and steady exercise you are taking; and

Familiarity

• You are not moving about with your eyes closed but constantly alert to what is happening around you, ever-open to whatever you can learn about the terrain, the people, the buildings, and the infrastructure in the area you have chosen.

Staying fit

It is beyond any doubt that exercise is good for you – body and mind. So, carry a weighted backpack and step up your pace rate while urban scouting – being in the best possible physical shape remains one of the keys to any amount of prepping.

Familiarity with the lie of the land

As important as the physical shape you’re in is your knowledge of and familiarity with the area in which you and your loved ones will be sheltering – or bugging out – come any manmade or natural disaster.

It’s as important to know the lie of the land in any urban environment just as intimately as any backwoods location – you might say it’s even more important, given the wealth of resources you are likely to find in suburbia to help you weather any emergency or disaster.

The chief difference in your post-disaster situation is likely to be that you will be getting around under your own steam – fuel for your car might be unavailable or in very short supply while public transport is likely to have come to a grinding halt.

During your urban scouting expeditions, therefore, you will be discovering all the useful – if previously hidden – trails and pathways that might, one day, guide you out

Visit your nearest town, familiarise yourself where everything is, potential places of security and shelter etc. and look for “hidden” walkways – behind commercial buildings for example. These may be a potential escape route in the future.

In short, these will be your opportunities for an intimate familiarisation with the lie of the land – how your environment will come to your aid, and the extent to which it might throw up the occasional danger or challenge.