For BOL - how far away is too far?

I have a first refusal on a sweet parcel, but: 4.5 hours by vehicle from my current AOL, and traversing a few medium size cities if by interstate. It's 56 A, two steams, a few springs, a roughed in log cabin. Power, but no well. South side of a hanging valley, elevation @ 3,700ft. Road access requires a high clearance vehicle, (my truck did just fine). Is that too far if SHTF?
Edit:
Current owner has a run of 1" ADS pipe run from the upper spring for water when he's there, drains it when he leaves. Would need to be buried, and a permanent purification system of some sort added. There's nothing man-made above that spring for a couple thousand feet additional elevation to the top of the ridge, so it's "probably" safe. Aside from that rotting deer carcass 30' uphill...
Not septic either, a single holer 75' down hill from the cabin right now.
The closest locals all have drilled wells about 300' depth or so, but a lot also have usable dug wells from the original site development 150 years ago.
Traversing the cities is my biggest concern, although there are longer alternatives that take a tour of the boonies, and 3 times longer.
Did I mention $45k and he'll hold the note if need be?

 

Yes - if you have to walk.

No - if you move in now.

 

In a word, yes.
Looking at a worse case scenario, you would be very lucky to cover that distance on foot with the supplies you'd need to carry. I figure that to be 67 hours of walking, maybe more with a full pack.
I have a location 58 miles away and I really consider that too far, but doable.

 

If access is impossible for regular cars and trucks, it sounds good. Distance from cities is good.
But you'll need to start there before the highways get clogged.

 

4.5 hours by vehicle [on a good day with no traffic].
Going through 'a few medium size cities',
and 'a few springs',
and this BOL has no water.

Now picture that when EVERYONE is evacuating, the roads will be grid-locked parking lots.

 

Move.

 

It's better to have somewhere to go , than nowhere . In my opinion , the farther , the better .

 

can't just take into account distance & travel time >>> you need to examine the possible problems in transit - like crossing state lines - choke points - metro areas - geographical obstacles - weather conditions per season - fuel cache locations and permissible routes in numbers & quality ...

if the obstacles are toward the BOL destination end vs the beginning - more problematic - we all hope to get days of warning prior to the SHTF - more likely it could be hours - 3 hours into the bug out and the crap could be rolling already ....

 

Personal view is take it and plan on retiring there as soon as you can. No BOL over 1 hour on foot is really dependable if things really fall apart. The weather radio calls incoming or the alert goes off on TV and if you are in a populated area, 5 minutes and it will stop moving. Normal situation in Boston on a Wed morning with 2 in snow, boss took 3 1/2 hours to get 50 miles to New Hampshire on 4 lane road and he was heading away from major traffic and there was no panic or "excess traffic.". They spent about 18 billion dollars on the 3 rd harbor tunnel and road improvements in Boston a few years ago and last Wed the average speed on that road at 7 AM was 6 MPH. One jack knifed semi or a car out of gas and a half dozen related accident caused by people trying to get around the accident and all traffic stops. If there is warning, 4 1/2 hours isn't bad, make sure you have enough fuel to make it without buying gas, and if no warning, 20 miles is too far.

 

@ghrit nailed it.
Buy it, and make improvements. In the future if you find something better you can sell for a profit. Keep a weather eye out on things and you'll probably have a good start on the herd.
The thing about ground is God only made so much of it. Get your piece while you can-and at a very good deal.

 

Also depends on age, experience, and physical ability. The type of emergency requiring bug out as well as how soon you start to bug out also come in the play. I agree with the buy it option. Maybe after putting in some improvements you might be able to move there for retirement or whatever.

 

OK ghrit is the winner!
I'll refer to it as our mountain cabin - to the "Civilized" folks I work with.
Going back tomorrow to talk with a local well driller - crazy old coot that has a dowzer available and refers to her for every job up there. His brother-in-law can put in a legal septic for cash. He says he can run a 6" wide trench from the spring while he has equipment in for backup water line. Looking at sat pics I think I can site in about 6KW of panels with minimal tree removal. I'll know better tomorrow. No high-speed internet, and sat always sucks... Cell is marginal. A mountain to the north may make vhf/uhf iffy.
Wife says I should clean up the "driveway", ie; crusher run logging road, to allow her older Bimmer in. I'll buy her a Subaru instead.
Just put a sell order in for all the company stock I have available...might be enough to pay cash, the improvements out of pocket as I go. Hoping for no oddities in the deed, and the seller says he surveyed when he bought it...
we'll see.....

 

Count on walking. Too far to not run into problems driving. Mine is 1 hr away and everyone got bikes for Christmas two years ago with one bike trailer, baskets, and saddle bags. Big seats and tires.

 

How long will it take you to walk there?

 

Exactly how big is the property ? Sounds like something I'd take a chance on .

 

280 miles
Driving - 60 mph. 4.6 hours
Walking 3-4 mph. 280 miles 70 to 93 hours walking
Biking 11-12 mph 23 - 25.5 hours biking

 

You also need to find secondary roads and routes to this property, and keep extra fuel on hand. Get some maps and start exploring.

 

More like 15-20 miles per DAY with minimum load! That turns into a 2-3 week death march, unless you're a 20 year old infantryman, marine or Jackson's Foot Calvary. Since you will have to forage for water and food your pace will be greatly reduced. Also, if any member of your group is unable to keep up, are you prepared to leave them behind?
You're going to need handcarts to simply transport your FOOD and a few basic items...so you can forget about taking extra guns, ammo, etc.. You will HAVE to preposition ALL of your preps at your BOL.
Bikes will get you there way faster and can carry more supplies, but they can't do both at the same time. Go for speed and you could be there in 2-3 days, if you are in good shape and bike regularly. Hauling preps will slow you down and still might take 2 weeks.
Scout alternate routes, have extra fuel, and pray that you can drive the entire way. I'm reminded of a fictional account of a family "bugging-out" written by one of the Monkeys. I forget the title, but everything goes wrong and they don't make it. I plan to 'bug-in".

 

Walking...
My personal speed of advance when backpacking, 5 days food in the three "nice" seasons is 3.1 mph averaged over all the trips the last four years. That's on clean Appalachian Trail or Mountains to the Sea trails, and with no bushwacking. WITHOUT long guns/ammo or water, and with no real security concerns.
That alone makes this site infeasible for a sudden SHTF BO scenario. Fortunately we already live 50 miles out of anything more dense than a very small village, and the in-laws are another 30 miles further, and on larger property. That's always been our BOL if unable to sit tight.
So - I'm going ahead with the purchase, assuming the details work out, with an eye toward vac/retirement/investment. It will be an excellent place to spend summers at when Piedmont areas are 100+F, and 110% humidity levels.