Scroll about 2/3rds down this article for the gear list and guide on how to flee through the northern wilderness into Canada. Sorry I got carried away with my stories but I think you’ll find them relevant and interesting.
May 20th, 2025
I’m thinking about how I’ll format this book. I could re-order the chapters so that it’s more coherent and better organized, but I don't think I will. I think I’ll keep it just like this. You get to read it in the same order as I wrote it, and you get to see the different mental states I go through as the nation hurtles toward an artificial intelligence powered fascist police state.
I had to take a few days off to reset and recenter myself. My last week was spent writing about civil war and genocide. It burned me out. And that’s the intentional strategy of this regime. They want to flood the airwaves with so much outrageous news that you burn out and stop resisting. They are intentionally trying to create learned helplessness in the population.
Don’t give in.
Jealously guard your attention. I only check my messages on social media once a day now and when I feel my capacity for responding is gone I just close my app. I felt myself burning out trying to keep up with every bit of breaking news. I’m shifting my focus to share three things with my platform: the most dangerous pieces of news, the actionable steps you can take to resist, and actionable guides to help you protect the peace and harmony of your mind.
Even in these crazy times I find the teachings of the Buddha to be paramount. Especially in these times I find the teachings to be paramount. The stressors we feel now are not new. They’re more intense and feel more urgent, but it’s not new or different in form. It’s the same worry in the end - “will I be ok, will my family and loved ones be ok?”
We can never have enough money, power, security or control the external world to the degree that you can absolutely do away with that worry. People like trump, Musk, and Thiel still have these same worries, even with their billions of dollars, private jets, secret service details, and New Zealand doomsday bunkers. They feel the stress that we do, especially as they get older and face their own mortality. Despite their billions they too will get old, get sick, and die.
Peace of mind cannot be attained through force of will or external means. It can only be attained through inner work. Part of which is to let go of our attachment to outcomes. I don’t know how this all shakes out. I hope we can pull together and kick the fascists out. But history has shown that once the fascist machine really gets rolling it’s hard to stop. But the machine will inevitably break down due to its corrupt gears.
All I can do is focus on my locus of control. I will do the right thing, take moral actions, and try my best. That’s all I can do. The outcome is out of my control, so I won’t waste my mental energy worrying about what’s to come. I’ll spend my precious attention and energy resisting tyranny in the ways that I can, and taking care of myself and my loved ones, and let the dice fall as they may.
I Broke Down Crying Yesterday
May 21st, 2025
I broke down crying yesterday in the middle of my writing. That’s why it’s so short. I was stressed about the paperwork I needed to fill out in order to stay in Germany past my 90 day visa-free entry. First I’ll need to take a 12 month intensive language course, then I’ll need to either find a job or study at university, and then somewhere down the road 5+ years later I’ll be able to apply for citizenship. Then wait more years while my application processes and then finally I’ll feel safe enough to travel again.
Right now any number of things from bureaucratic hiccups to targeted retaliation could force me back to the US and put me at the mercy of the government. Does that sound far-fetched and crazy for a US citizen? Absolutely. But this is what authoritarian governments do. The DOJ just indicted a sitting congresswoman, Rep. LaMonica McIver, for “assault” of ICE officers when she was trying to inspect an ICE facility in New Jersey. If the US continues down the path of authoritarianism they absolutely will use passports as one of the ways to control its citizens and dissidents. That’s part of the reason that I’m in Germany. If the US charged me with some BS crimes and cancelled my passport and demanded that I be extradited I think Germany would protect me. I think if I were in Thailand or Vietnam they’d ship me right back, because they don’t have the power or political capital to stand up against the US.
Russia Cancels Passport of Anti-War Student Who Fled Country.
A university student who fled Russia last year to evade prosecution for criticizing the war in Ukraine said Monday that the Russian authorities canceled her internal passport.
“I’m not worried since I didn’t have any rights before anyway,” Olesya Krivtsova wrote in a Telegram post announcing her passport cancelation. “The only thing that’s worrying is how the insane government of R[ussia] comes up with more perverse ways to pressure those who left the country.”
Russians banned from traveling abroad must hand in their passports within five days of the date when they were notified of the travel ban, according to a government decree from November 22 published on the official portal of legal documents. The measure is due to come into force on December 11. Authorities can impose foreign travel bans on conscripts, Federal Security Service employees, people with access to state secrets and “information of special importance” as well as on convicted persons. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-travel-bans-passport-confiscated/32706332.html
Yesterday I was overwhelmed by the frustration of having to yet again move to a new country with a new culture. That I have to learn a new language and then waste my time getting a job or a degree I don’t need just so I can stay in the country. And this is the second time in my life that I have to go through this. All because enough is never enough for these insecure men in power so they repress and oppress the little person just trying to live their lives in peace.
Did you know that English isn’t my first language? I grew up speaking Mandarin. I was in third grade when my parents gave me away for adoption. I could read and write Mandarin and even translated Mandarin words into phonetic English using pinyin for the visiting American professors who would eventually take me back to the US. I have since forgotten all of my Mandarin.
I learned English on the fly after I moved to the US. I don’t remember it being difficult or having a hard time understanding people. One of those weird quirks of young children, the brain is fluid enough that pesky things like not speaking the same language doesn’t stop you from communicating with each other. I remember being in Taco Bell with my friends Bryson and Emily as they explained hot sauce to me. “But it’s not hot!” I said.
“Yes but it means SPICY, hot means spicy,” said Bryson. Sticking out his tongue and panting for effect while fanning himself with his hand.
“But this is cold.” I knew exactly what he meant but I guess I wanted to be a butthead at that moment.
“No no it’s not hot or cold, it’s spicy,” Emily responded, exasperated. She stuck her tongue out and joined Bryson in his pantomiming.
I actually had a funny little encounter like that with a man cutting grass the other day. I was walking back from Muay Thai and it was a chilly morning, mid 50s. The man stopped and asked “Bist du kalt” or something like that, asking if I was cold. “Nein, ich bin sehr heiß." I replied, because I was hot and sweaty from training. When I told my girlfriend about the interaction she laughed and laughed because apparently I’d told the man that I was very sexy. Heiß means hot in German, but the context matters. If you say es ist sehr heiß, it means it is very hot, meaning temperature. But if you say ich bin sehr heiß you’re telling someone that you’re very hot and sexy. I hope the old man mowing his lawn didn’t think I was coming onto him.
Do you know what it feels like to leave your country, all of your family, all of your friends, to a new place where people speak a different language? To a completely foreign culture. A completely foreign way of life. And to need to adjust to that? Do you know the permanent trauma that this inflicts upon you?
And then thirty years later to feel threatened again by your own government and have to go through it all again! I would love to be training Muay Thai in Thailand right now, but I can’t. Even though I’ve finally built the financial freedom to be able to freely travel the world now I need to worry about the US government canceling my passport and extraditing me back to the US, so I’m effectively stuck in Europe until either the government changes or I get a new citizenship.
There is nowhere in the world that I feel at home. I’ve never felt completely comfortable in the US. Growing up in rural Missouri I faced constant racism. Even in Asia I don’t feel at home. To the Thais, Japanese, Vietnamese, and even Chinese I’m just a western foreigner. I certainly don’t feel at home in Germany. Here I feel the most comfortable around the numerous Turkish immigrants. The Germans are nice but also cold and standoffish.
Is it any wonder that I’ve spent my whole life moving from one place to another, never settling down? That I’ve literally spent years of my life just wandering the world with a backpack, sleeping in a strange place every-night? I don’t get home-sick because I don’t have a home. Where would I settle when everyone sees me as an outsider? Nowhere feels safe for me. Even now I’m thinking that if AFD takes power in Germany, I’ll have to move again. Where would I go? I’d probably go to Hong Kong because the Chinese government would at least protect me from the US. What a fucking nightmare.
All this from a country that I served and defended. I swore an oath to defend the constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. I signed up to kill and die for this country during the height of the war on terror. I joined in 2009 which was one year after “the surge” where troops were stop-lossed and kept in the Army and deployed past their ETS dates. We had almost 300,000 troops(out of a 1.8 million military) deployed at the time and it was a foregone conclusion that an infantryman would deploy to a combat zone.
I was standing in formation during our OSUT infantry graduation watching families shuffle into the stands when I overheard the conversation of two young privates next to me. “Hey man, what if we die over there?”
“Yeah I’ve been thinking about that too, we should get someone pregnant before we deploy.”
“Yeah good idea we should definitely get someone pregnant. We could marry them too, we’ll get paid more and if we die they can get our life insurance money.”
Weird conversation right, but it wasn’t a joke to them. They were legitimately planning for their death because they knew they would see combat soon. Through a pure fluke of bureaucracy our unit didn’t deploy until the year after I got out. We were slated to deploy to Afghanistan in 2013 but they realigned our unit to a different Battalion, which had just deployed, so our deployment clock got reset. I didn’t know any of that when I signed up. I signed those enlistment papers knowing I’d likely see combat and being a bit excited for combat if I’m honest. I signed those papers because I believed in the values that America stood for.
I felt guilty for many years after I got out of the Army because I didn’t deploy overseas. It felt like I didn’t do my full duty. It’s part of why I joined the Sawtooth Hotshots. I didn’t feel like I’d done enough, that I’d faced real danger. After completing that summer fighting wildfires I finally felt like I’d completed my duty. We’d risked our lives on multiple occasions, damaged our physical health, and destroyed our relationships and mental health in order to protect homes and public land. I’m glad that I never risked my life in combat but instead risked my life to defend the homes and forests of America. I’m so thankful I never had to kill a poor Middle Eastern human in service to our military industrial complex.
Wildland firefighting is traumatic. Wildland firefighters attempt suicide at 10x the rate of the average American. The year after I left firefighting one of our squad bosses had a burning tree fall and strike him on the head and required a helicopter evacuation. Two years after I left firefighting one of my crewmates would take his own life in a lonely hotel room. And for all of that most wildland firefighters are considered seasonal employees and don’t get any of the federal benefits like healthcare or retirement, and the starting pay is still below $15/hr. Seasonal firefighters are laid off after the season ends and after that have zero access to healthcare or mental health services. In 2020 we worked 2,100 hours in five months, fighting fires for 14 days on and two days off in a brutal schedule that lasted all summer.
I joined the Army because I believed in the propaganda that said America was the land of the free, home of the brave. I cherished our rights under the constitution. I could criticize our government openly and not be afraid to be sent to prison like my father was sent to prison in China for criticizing the CCP. My adopted grandpa gave me a Ruger .22 when I was 13 and I killed a lot of innocent birds with that rifle on our 20 acre property. Those poor birds. No one taught me that it was wrong to shoot innocent animals for fun.
The first thing I did after I got home from basic training was to buy an AR-15 from the local gun-shop. It took twenty minutes for them to run my background check and then I was out the door with a 5.56 caliber AR-15, 500 rounds of ammo(which only cost $95 back then), and ten 30 round magazines.
I wanted to do my part to protect MY country. And now everyday I get harassment and right-wing assholes telling me to “go back to China.” They tell me I deserve to be jailed for criticizing trump. They assume that I’m not a citizen and gleefully cheer my imminent deportation. Some send death threats. They tell me to get out of THEIR country. Well they got what they wanted, I’m not coming back to the US. I certainly wouldn’t feel safe living in the US today and wouldn’t return even if trump is elected, there are far too many racist hateful assholes now and I don’t want to end up in prison because I had to defend myself from one of them. I don’t want my tax dollars going to fund their tyrannical regime.
I follow many white liberal activists on social media. They get hate from MAGA, but it’s not the same. No one questions their citizenship status. No one tells them that they should be deported. No one tells them to leave THEIR country. They just call them communist democrats, woke liberal, whatever. But they’re not attacked for the very essence of who they are like they attack me for my race. They’re not told to go back to Ireland or England or Germany.
I am beyond frustrated with the pure hatred of a sizable minority of Americans. Of my fellow countrymen. They cheer these human rights atrocities as innocent immigrants have their lives ruined, families torn apart, and are sent to death camps in El Salvador. It reminds me of the lynchings throughout American history and the celebratory pornography of hate, violence, and racism. It reminds me of scenes where white Americans brought their entire families out to watch the brutal murders of their black American neighbors. The following quote is deeply disturbing and I warn you, but you need to read it, because this is American history. This is the hate that has been festing in America unchecked since the first civil war and now we are seeing the inevitable consequence of allowing that cancerous hate to metastasize.
[The following contains graphic details of the lynching.]
Mrs. Mary Turner and her unborn baby experienced a horrific and unimaginable death. Mrs. Turner was bound and hanged from a tree, set on fire, and her body was riddled with bullets, her screams of terror and pain only to be heard by her perpetrators, and the torture and mutilation continued. The life of her unborn baby ended when the baby was crudely cut from her abdomen and one of lynchers crushed its head with the heel of his shoe. https://rediscovering-black-history.blogs.archives.gov/2018/05/16/lynching-of-women-in-united-states-blog-series-the-lynching-of-mrs-mary-turner-and-her-family/
I am filled with an urge for strong action and yesterday that urge broke through as tears. It actually felt great and was exactly what I needed. I slept better than I’ve slept in months and today I feel renewed and refreshed. Reinvigorated to write. So I want to put my energy toward something good, something that can help people. I am putting together this guide to help people escape into Canada through the northern wilderness if it comes to that.
Escape to Canada through the Wilderness & PCT Stories
It’s actually quite easy to enter Canada through the vast wilderness of our northern border. I’ve met two people who have done exactly that, illegally.
The first was a woman I met on the PCT in 2021. I was camped at Upper Cathedral Lake, a gorgeous alpine lake just five miles from the northern terminus of the PCT. My plan was to hike to the border and turn around to start my SOBO thru-hike. It was late July and I had the pristine lake all to myself. I’d gone skinny dipping in the azure blue waters to cool off before turning in to cook dinner and go to bed. I hadn’t seen another hiker for three days.
So I was surprised when I heard someone walk up to my campsite after the sun had already set. She asked if it was okay that she set up by me and of course I said yes. I was already in bed and we only exchanged brief pleasantries before I was asleep. That night I was woken up by something cold on my foot. I sat up with a jolt, my half-asleep brain told me I had a frog on my foot. Turns out it was actually a small mouse who had chewed a hole through my tent and I spent a few frantic moments wildly waving my hands at it until it ran out the same hole it’d entered from. I patched the hole with duct tape that I kept rolled around my trekking poles and went back to sleep.
The next morning I woke early and hiked down to the border. My neighbor was still in her tent when I started hiking. I took my time at the terminus taking photos and videos to document what I thought would be the beginning of my 2,650 mile journey from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. As I was packing up to get going again I saw a woman stumbling down the trail carrying a chihuahua. You ever have those moments where your brain just breaks. It’s the feeling you get when you walk into the wrong class in school, do you remember that feeling, where your brain just stops working for a second because it’s so confused.
That’s what I felt as I watched this woman walk down the trail to the Canadian border, 100 miles from the closest highway, carrying a chihuahua. “What the hell?”
“Can you help me, I just fell and hit my head,” she said.
I recognized her voice. It was the same hiker that had camped with me last night. “Yeah come here sit down, I’m actually a certified wilderness EMT. What happened?”
“I fell a few times hiking here from the lake. I’m finishing my NOBO thru hike and I’ve had giardia for weeks. It got really bad after I left Stehekin. The last few days I haven’t been able to keep any food down.” She looked emaciated, she legitimately looked to be on the verge of starvation, I could see her veins clearly under her pallid legs. “Yeah look what happens when I push my fingers into my calves.” She pushed her finger into her right calf and the indention remained there. It was bizarre. Her legs had edema, fluid was building up in them. They didn’t teach us about that in EMT class but I knew it wasn’t normal and it wasn’t good.
“How long has it been since you ate a meal that you kept down? And is it okay if I take your pulse?” I asked, and then took her wrist in my hand as she nodded her consent. Her pulse was weak and erratic and I clocked it around 120 beats per minute even though she’d been sitting on the ground for five minutes now. Way too high.
She’d let go of her dog and it was getting comfortable by burrowing into my melly which I’d laid down on the ground. “Are you thru-hiking with a dog?”
“Yeah I’ve had her my whole trip. She likes to ride in my hoody pouch and I give her sips from my camelbak when she gets thirsty.” Ah that probably explains the giardia, the dog is licking its butt and then sucking on the same camelbak hose that she drinks from.
“Do you have a SOS button you can push for me?” She asked. “I don’t have one.”
“Sorry, I don’t have one either.” That was the last trip where I hiked without a SOS button. I’ve still yet to need to press it for myself but I’ve come across other injured hikers who have needed that. You should always carry a satellite SOS device, even if you don’t need it, someone you meet might.
“I can’t make it 100 miles back to the road,” she said dejectedly. “I’m so stupid, I should have gone into town at Rainy Pass.” She started to cry. “I can’t make it back to the highway.”
Normally hikers could go back to town from Hart’s pass which is 30 miles from the Canadian border, but wildfires had closed Hart’s pass a week before. I had hiked about 70 miles using the Ross Lake trail from Highway 20 to get to the border, and that would be the closest exit for the woman with giardia as well.
“I think you’ve gotta go into Canada.” There was a small town and a major highway just eight miles downhill on the Canadian side of the border.
“Yeah but I don’t have permission, that would be illegal.” In previous years hikers could apply for a permit and enter Canada via the PCT legally. This program had shut down during Covid.
“I don’t think you can make it all the way back to the highway and they would understand because it’s a medical emergency. They’re not going to jail you because you had to hike into Canada in order to save your life. You haven’t kept food or water down for days. This is literally a medical emergency that requires immediate evacuation. You could die today if you don’t get treatment.”
“But I don’t have my gear.” This was her final objection. She’d left her expensive ultralight gear at the lake thinking she’d just touch the border and come back. I told her I’d pack it up and mail it to her when I got to town. Finally she was convinced. I hugged her goodbye and wished her luck and watched her hike into Canada with her chihuahua. I wonder if this is the only chihuahua who has hiked the entire PCT?
I hiked out of Upper Cathedral Lake with my pack bursting at the seams. I now had two tents, two sets of cooking equipment, two sleeping bags, two food-bags including seven days of food from her because she hadn’t eaten anything, and a bag of random things she’d left in her tent. My pack easily weighed 55 lbs coming out of that lake and now I had to carry it for a hundred miles before civilization. No good deed goes unpunished.
I eventually mailed all her crap back to her and sent a few text messages checking in but never heard back. Months later I googled and found her social media. Turns out she blogged for The Trek. Her final posts didn’t mention anything about her illness or her ordeal of having to hike into Canada to seek medical treatment. Just a photo of her at the northern terminus holding her little chihuahua(a photo which I took for her) and some platitude about how it was about the journey and not the destination. At least I knew she hadn’t died on her way into Canada.
Gearlist for Escaping into Canada
Much of this gear list comes from this list: https://www.couchtotrail.com/blog/thru-hiking-appalachian-trail-with-383-of-gear-full-gear-list
It’s the cheap gear I used to thru-hike the Appalachian and Long Trails in 2023. I’ll make a few tweaks here but it should suffice, and even with the new 30% Chinese tariffs it will be far cheaper than buying name-brand ultralight gear.
I have backpacked over 20,000 miles to date. I have thru-hiked the Appalachian Trial 3x, the CDT 2x, and the PCT, Colorado Trail, Long Trail, and Arizona Trail. The following advice is born from that experience.
Backpack
3F UL Gear QiDian Pro $86.33
“At only 880 grams, this Qidian Pro backpack is an upgraded version of the Qidian. UHMWPE material ensures that this backpack will perform in the harshest of field environments.”
It’s under 2lbs. It’s made from UHMWPE so it’s super durable and mostly waterproof. Should hold up great and it cost me $86.33 shipped. Shipping took about 10 days.
This pack held up for 1,800 miles and was super comfortable. The hip belts tore off eventually. Alternatively find a Osprey 48L, 55L, or 65L pack from FB marketplace.
Tent
Lanshan 1 Pro Tent $123.01
690g/1.5lbs. Made of silnylon and requires one trekking pole to set-up. The internet is full of rave reviews for this tent, definitely the best budget to performance tent I found. You do have to seam seal it, but that’s not a big deal, seam seal costs $8 and can be done in 20 minutes.
Please note this tent requires a trekking pole to set-up, so definitely carry trekking poles. If for example you want your hands free so you can protect yourself with the 2nd amendment, you could still carry one trekking pole folded up in your pack. That would still be lighter and cheaper than buying a free-standing tent.
Sleeping Bag
Widesea 400B Ultralight Quilt $44.46
Weighs 1.7lbs and filled with duck down. This is rated to 40F. Should be warm enough for the AT in the summer, but that’s why I chose the AT. Lots of margin for error and I won’t freeze to death at night.
I want to try my hand at making my own gear so I’m also making my own quilt that should be much warmer and one I will have more confidence in.
Rip Stop By the Roll Frontcountry Quilt Kit $61.40
You’ll have to do your own research on fabrics and such but I chose 5oz/sq yd climashield which should equate to a 30 degree quilt. It’s nice that you can buy all the materials you need from Rip Stop by the Roll and get these kits where you know you have all the required gear. Don’t forget thread and needles like I did!
Those were for a thru-hike, for this kind of trip I recommend a Decathlon sleeping bag: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/sports/camping/lightweight-sleeping-bags
20 degrees is a good all-purpose bag. Remember temperature ratings are what temps they’ll keep you alive, not comfortable. If you’re escaping in the dead of winter you’ll need minimum a zero degree bag. If it’s the summer you might get away with a 40 degree bag.
Sleeping Pad
Widesea Foam Sleeping Pad $14.13
Total Z-lite knock-off. The foam feels a little bit more thin than a Z-lite and likely has less R-value, but shouldn’t matter too much on the AT in the summer. Worst case scenario I can just buy a regular Z-lite for $57. I’ll cut this down to save weight and space, you only need it to cover your back and hips, I’ll put my feet on my pack.
This worked just fine but might as well get a Z-lite or Nemo foam pad for a little extra, they’re more comfortable and not that much more expensive.
Cooking Kit
BRS Isobutane stove $12.96
This thing is so tiny! 25g! You can find it on Amazon for ~$25, but you can find it for half that on Aliexpress. Literally the same product. This is another one that has been tested by many others and seems to work well. It’s loud. I think it probably wastes more gas, but, it works!
Widesea Titanium 1300ML Pot $19.00
This one I’m really excited about. You can’t really screw up titanium. Just a quick google search similar titanium pots are all above $50! I like this cause it’s got a lot of volume and it’s wide and fat so it’s easier to clean and easier to eat out of.
Titanium Spork $4.32
Again exact same thing as you’d find stateside, but at a fraction of the price. Buying titanium on Aliexpress is the smart move.
These worked great, I used them the entire 2,200 miles.
Puffy
UETEEY Ultralight Down Jacket $18.94
Another product that advertises as real down. Buy it 2 sizes up, I got a XXL, but it’s pretty good. Good zippers, good stitching, and good loft. I think this will be plenty warm and so much cheaper than something name brand.
Again great puffy just have to size it up.
Direct Alpha Hoody
Rip Stop By the Roll MYOG Direct Alpha Hoody Pattern $20
Some people are paying 50%+ markups for direct alpha hoodies like senchi because they’re hard to find in-stock. So… just make your own! It’ll be like $40-50 total and shouldn’t be that difficult. I am making my own, on a custom printed direct alpha too, excited to see how it turns out. Direct alpha is one of the best midlayers, great warmth for the super light weight, completed this should be under 6ozs.
If you don’t want to make your own any kind of grid layer mid-layer will work. Many different companies sell them.
Headlamp
Nitecore NU25 400 Lumen Headlamp $26.72
Exact same headlamp as you will find on Amazon except it is branded for sale in China.
Headlamp is essential especially for bushwhacking.
Trowel
Titanium trowel $7.10
These same ones sell on Amazon for $25!
Sidenote it appears that titanium doesn’t show up on TSA scans. I’ve brought many a titanium trowel through my carry-on during backpacking trips and these suckers by all rights should definitely not be allowed as they’re basically giant serrated metal knives.
Shoes
Anything comfortable and durable. If you’re bushwhacking I’d recommend boot-type shoes like Merrell Moab’s as you’ll be encountering more blowdowns, sticks, etc. and want to protect your feet.
Rain Gear
I bought a rain jacket off Aliexpress but I’m not sure how it will hold up. There’s already a good solution for cheap raingear and that is Frogg Toggs $17 on Amazon. If the Aliexpress rain gear doesn’t cut it I’ll just wear Frogg Toggs.
I ended up going with the Frogg Toggs and they worked fantastic. If you have higher quality rain gear take that, but if not Frogg Toggs work fine.
Battery Pack
Anker 20k MAH $29
I’m not going to trust my electronics to a Aliexpress battery, but thankfully anker 20ks are really affordable and only slightly heavier than Nitecore 20k batteries(which run $100).
If you’re hiking on a budget having a big battery is a good idea that way you’re not forced to go into any towns unexpectedly just to re-charge your electronics.
I would take minimum two of these Anker 20k batteries. You don’t know how long you’ll be in the woods and your phone with its GPS and downloaded maps will be a critical piece of kit.
Maps
You should have paper maps of your route but that may not be possible in this scenario. Regardless of whether you have paper maps you should absolutely have digital maps downloaded on your phone. Smartphones act as fantastic GPS devices and can tell you exactly where you are. Gaia GPS and Avenza are two great mapping apps. Make 1000% sure that the maps you need to navigate are actually downloaded to your phone as you likely won’t have cell reception.
Water Filter
Sawyer Squeeze $45.99
Just can’t beat it. This is the water filter I’ve carried on every thru-hike and this is the filter I’m going to continue to carry. The only time I’ve gotten sick on-trail is the time in Colorado when I didn’t filter my water lol. Cow ponds, poop water, water with dead animals in it… all filters just fine with the Sawyer. The only thing it can’t filter is viruses, so this is not a good solution for going to places like SE Asia or South America, but for hiking long trails the Sawyer Squeeze reigns supreme.
Lighter
Having minimum two lighters is always a good idea even if you’re just on a regular camping trip.
Emergency Mylar Blanket
In a pinch it can be used to set-up a thermal blind against thermal imaging. It can also add warmth to your sleeping bag.
Trash Bag
This is a VITAL lifesaving piece of equipment. Your tent, sleeping bag, and extra layers need to live inside the trash bag. If it rains and your sleeping bag gets wet you could die from hypothermia.
Food
Your food carry will depend on how long you expect to be out. Since this isn’t a regular camping trip it might be more difficult to determine how much food you’ll need and you’ll need to balance weight with calories. Calculate your food carry based on calories. For example I aim to eat 5,000 calories per day on trail. So for three days I’ll carry 15,000 calories. I’ll add up all the food I plan to bring and see if it’s close to 15,000 calories.
For escaping into Canada you won’t need that many calories. 3,000 per day would be a good estimate for most people. Bring a mix of fats like nuts, peanuts, peanut butter, along with quick sugar in the form of candy bars and then savory snacks like chips. 15,000 calories for five days would be a good rule of thumb. Add more if you’re a larger person that eats a lot and reduce calories if you’re a smaller person. Aim to keep the weight of the food under 15lbs if possible.
Water bottles
The northern wilderness generally has plentiful water but you should still have minimum 4L carrying capacity. Eastern Montana and North Dakota can be arid, but the Cascade and Appalachian Mountain ranges have plenty of water(and rain). Bring light plastic bottles, thru-hikers love to use Smart Water bottles.
Route for Escaping into Canada
If you’ve read or watched The Handmaid’s Tale you realize how eerily similar the actions of the US today reflect that book. We are now unironically talking about routes to escape a repressive regime. A regime which has been taking away women’s rights in brutal ways including keeping a brain-dead mother in Georgia alive just to be an incubator for her unborn fetus. This is because Margarett Atwood studied repressive regimes and spent time traveling through Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin wall. She spoke to people who had lived through the repression of the USSR and based many of the themes in her book on the real lived experiences of the people she spoke with.
Did you know that the last person killed while attempting to cross the Berlin Wall was killed in 1989? His name was Chris Gueffroy, and he died on February 5, 1989. He was shot while trying to escape from East Germany to West Berlin along the Britz canal, near the border between Treptow and Baumschulenweg.
1989! This is recent history. So why do Americans hold this mistaken notion that it couldn’t happen here? Outbound border check-points have sprung up in the last weeks searching every vehicle leaving the US. We don’t know why these checkpoints have started, but it doesn’t bode well for the people of the US. History shows authoritarian regimes close down their borders in order to keep their labor pool and military conscripts from fleeing the country.
Professor Randal Blazak teaches on hate crimes in Oregon just reported that he was stopped by men in black uniforms, holding rifles, with no identification showing what agency they were with. They searched his car as he was trying to leave the US and enter Canada.
He posted this video at 1am Pacific Time on May 21st, 2025.
How to find a route into Canada
If the US does shut down its border and tries to prevent citizens from fleeing into Canada then they’d likely close and watch the existing trail systems that connect the two countries, like the PCT in Washington, the trails between Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park in Montana, and the trails extending into Canada from the Appalachian Mountains in northern Maine.
Your best bet would be to find a wilderness area that you could access via a road that is close to the Canadian border. You can find many such roads just by pulling up maps and looking along our northern border. If this becomes an actual need I will plan real routes, but for now I will write about this in generalities. This isn’t my idea, I was inspired by an old Dead Head that gave me a hitch on the AT.
Last year on the Appalachian Trail my friends Pyro, Matcha, and I were trying to hitch unsuccessfully into Rutland, VT. On the other side of the road six hikers were sitting waiting on a shuttle they’d called after they’d given up on hitchhiking. We knew that if we stood out there long enough eventually someone would stop, but I still felt a bit anxious as the sun was setting soon and it’s more challenging to hitch in the dark.
Just as I was contemplating going back in the woods to pitch my tent, a beat up Subaru pulled over. The old man inside motioned for us to get in. We didn’t even have to explain, he knew that we were AT hikers needing to go into town.
“You know I hitchhiked all over the country when I was a young hippy. We hitchhiked from California to New York and back following the Grateful Dead. Those were the days.” He told us all about his life, how he’d grown up in California and then eventually moved to Vermont after his stint in a Canadian prison. He just dropped that little bomb so casually.
“Wait, why were you in a Canadian prison?” We asked as one.
“I got caught smuggling weed into Canada. It was far-out, man! I did it with two of my buddies, they dropped me off on the highway five miles away from the Canadian border and I hiked through the wilderness with a backpack full of weed and I navigated using the light of the full moon. My buddies crossed the border in their car and picked me up on the Canadian side the next morning. It was really easy.” You could tell he loved recounting this story and was still proud of his misadventure.
“So how did you end up in a Canadian prison?”
“Well the guy we were selling the pot to was an informant. He ratted us out. I spent three years in Canadian prison and that’s where I learned carpentry. I’ve been a carpenter ever since. Funny, prison in Canada taught me more useful skills for life than the so-called ‘US education system’.” He took both hands off the wheel, turned around in his seat, and made little air-quotes as he said that last part. We all nodded in furious agreement so that he would put his eyes back on the road.
“You dudes be safe now and if you do smuggle drugs remember never trust a french Canadian.” Those were his parting words as he dropped us off in downtown Rutland.
Terrain
“Tracers work both ways.” That’s a common saying in the infantry meaning that tracer bullets fired from your machine gun helps you to see where your rounds are landing, but they also help the enemy to see exactly where you’re firing from. Similarly, terrain works both ways. Difficult, mountainous and dense terrain will help you stay hidden and make it much more difficult for CBP to detect you. Even if they do notice you it could take them hours to reach your last known location, you could be long gone by then. But difficult terrain works against you as well. Difficult terrain makes it much more challenging for you to navigate and push through.
That’s the logic and the brutality of the southern border wall. They close off the areas most easy to cross and force migrants to brave the most dangerous parts of the desert, leading to many more unnecessary deaths of desperate people seeking a better life.
Unless you are extremely fit and have extensive backcountry experience(i.e. thruhikers) you should not plan to escape via the mountains. If you are extremely fit and have extensive backcountry experience escaping via trail systems and then breaking off those systems for the last few miles into Canada is likely your safest and best route. You could gear up and pretend like you’re going on a multi-day backpacking trip. You’d have plausible deniability if any law enforcement stopped your vehicle and asked what you were doing. You could follow existing trail systems for easy miles until you got close to the border and at that point break off from trail and bushwhack to Canada.
For example here you can see the Long Trail extends into Canada from Jay State Forest. You could hop on the long trail 50 miles south of the border and hike north and cross highway 105. Instead of following the Long Trail to the northeast you could instead bushwhack and go downhill directly north to the border. From there you can pick up a trail on the Canadian side west of Mont Burnt and walk to a road.
You could also take a vehicle along Hwy 105 to W Jay road and then venture in the wilderness but this would be more risky as CBP would likely have check-points and patrols along that road to interdict people fleeing into Canada.
Even the most fit and experienced individuals should expect to move no more than half a mile per hour when off-trail. You’ll be dealing with constant blowdowns and dense undergrowth. Following streams is generally a safe method of navigating difficult terrain but you should be careful in mountainous regions as streams often create cliffs and sharp drop-offs. Generally avoid any routes that have you following a river in the mountains as rivers will have carved deep ravines which make for treacherous and often impassable terrain. On more flat ground rivers often are the easiest terrain to follow in the backcountry. But because of this ease of travel the rivers will be monitored and patrolled so don’t plan to cross into Canada on major waterways.
If you’re comfortable on the water there’s an extensive system of canoe trails in the north east that you could follow to escape into Canada. This terrain would be difficult to patrol and monitor, here’s a resource from the Northern Forest Canoe Trail: https://www.northernforestcanoetrail.org/plan/thru-and-section-paddlers/
Experienced outdoors people could follow this canoe trail in northern Maine and then break off from the canoe trail and head west into Canada over relatively flat and easier terrain. Similarly you could cross via water in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
In eastern Montana and North Dakota there’s flatter, easier terrain and much more road access. This is the land route that I’d recommend for most folks who aren’t experienced in the outdoors and are lacking in fitness. The danger here however is that the plethora of roads and easier terrain will mean more patrol presence and they’ll be able to send units out to you much more quickly once you’re detected. The strategy here would be to get smuggled via a vehicle to a point in the road just a few miles from the border and then make an all out break for the border before the authorities can mobilize forces to stop you.
I think the difficulty will be getting through the check-points that they’ll set up along all the access roads. Getting through these routes will likely involve brave people who live in the area to smuggle people past the check-points.
You want to hear a terrifying thought I just had? If we go full totalitarian I can imagine a day where they set up autonomous sentry guns powered by artificial intelligence along our borders. The USSR needed flesh and blood troops to shoot those trying to cross the Berlin wall. America will use AI powered robot guns to shoot our escaping dissidents. Again this sounds super dystopian and far-fetched, right? But Israel uses this system right now. “Israel deploys AI-powered robot guns that can track targets in the West Bank”
Amid increasing tension between Israel and Palestine in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s army has recently introduced artificial intelligence-powered robotic guns.
The twin gun turrets are installed on top of a guard tower overlooking the crowded al-Aroub refugee camp in the West Bank.
"It fires by itself without any difficulty from the soldier. When he [an Israeli soldier] sees a little boy, he presses a button or something and it fires by itself," said the resident of the al-Aroub camp.
"Also, it is very fast, even faster than the soldiers... The tear gas bombs that it fires can reach the end of the camp and all the way up there. I have seen it several times and I have videos," he added.
The company behind the remote-controlled weapon Smart Shooter says the purpose of the autonomous guns is to protect soldiers and civilians better by enhancing the accuracy of hitting the right target. https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/10/17/israel-deploys-ai-powered-robot-guns-that-can-track-targets-in-the-west-bank
If we get here these sentry guns will first go up on the southern border. It wouldn’t surprise me if they start installing them in the next four years. Time will tell.
Should you move during the day or night?
If you’re moving through wilderness areas you should move by daylight. It is unlikely that these areas are monitored and you’ll be under heavy tree cover so the likelihood of you being discovered in the vast wilderness will be low. It is simply too challenging and too easy to get lost when you try to move at night. It’s also very easy to spot white light at night. If you do move at night you should only move by red light.
Thermal and night vision equipment is so prevalent today that honestly I think for most cases it’s more detrimental to you to move at night. Any authorities patrolling the area will be able to find you regardless using their night vision and thermal technology so move during the daytime when you can move the fastest and hole up at night. In a pinch you can use a mylar blanket to hide your thermal signature but it’s much better to use a more expensive product specifically designed to block thermal signatures. Ultimately there will be no hiding from determined surveillance especially as they integrate artificial intelligence, so your best bet is to move through to safety as quickly as possible.
you are a fascinating writer. good luck where ever your life takes you. i hope to God your vision of America does not come true, but every day reveals more evidence you are right. your story of how to flee to Canada was fascinating. keep writing pal.
Thank you a million times over for your information. What a story you have to tell, never stop writing. I wish you all the best in this life. We definitely have some wild, challenging and frightening times that lie ahead in the US.