Bug Out & Preparedness Course — 3-Day BYO Bag Training

Bug Out & Preparedness Course — 3-Day BYO Bag Field Training

The Gray Bearded Green Beret Bug Out & Preparedness Course is a 3-day, 2-night immersive field training event built around one premise: you bring your own bug out bag, and you learn how to actually use what's inside it. This isn't a classroom weekend or a gear review session. It's a live bug out training course where you move, navigate, build shelter, manage fire, and sleep in the field — running your real-world setup under realistic conditions with experienced instructors watching every step.

Developed and taught by former Army Ranger and Green Beret Joshua Enyart and GB2 cadre, this preparedness course blends no-nonsense bug out planning, foundational wilderness skills, and stealth and security discipline into a single cohesive field curriculum. You leave with a tested system, a realistic plan, and the field experience to back both of them up.

Why This Bug Out Training Course Exists

Most people stop at building a bug out bag. They research gear, pack it carefully, and set it by the door — and then never actually move with it under load, never sleep away from their vehicle using only what's in it, and never find out whether their plan holds up when the conditions aren't ideal. This bug out course closes that gap. The only way to know whether your bug out system is realistic is to test it in the field, and the only way to improve it is to have experienced instructors watching you work through it and telling you what actually matters.

Every student arrives with their current bag and uses it for the entire three days. By the end of the course, you know exactly what works, what doesn't, what you're carrying that you don't need, and what you're missing that you do. That clarity is worth more than any gear list.

What You'll Learn in This Preparedness Course

The curriculum covers the full spectrum of skills a bug out scenario actually demands — not just gear selection, but movement, concealment, sustainment, and navigation. Every topic is taught, demonstrated, and then applied in a real field scenario before the course moves on.

Preparing and Refining Your Bug Out Bag

The course opens with a full bag evaluation. Students carry their current setup for the duration and discover through use — not theory — what they packed versus what they actually reach for. Instructors work with each student to identify dead weight, refine the loadout, and rebuild the pack organization around the principles that govern a real bug out: speed, access, and stealth. You leave with a system you can shoulder and move with for real distances, not one that looks good in the garage.

Stealth Fires and Low-Profile Shelters

Fire craft in a bug out context is not the same as campfire skills. The course covers stealth fire construction — fire lays designed to minimize smoke, reduce visible flame signature, and concentrate heat for cooking and warmth without advertising your position. Students also learn low-profile shelter selection and construction: site criteria that prioritize cover, concealment, drainage, and escape routes, and shelter configurations that blend into the environment and can be pitched and struck quickly. Both skills are practiced under field conditions across the course, not just demonstrated once.

Critical Knots for Fast Setup

The course covers the core set of knots and lashings that matter in a bug out context — the ones you can tie under stress, in the dark, with cold hands. The focus is on speed, repeatability, and direct application to tarp and poncho shelter systems, ridgelines, and gear management. Students practice until the knots are automatic, because a knot you have to think through is a knot that costs you time when time matters.

Water Purification on the Move

Bug out water strategy is fundamentally different from static camp water management. The course covers locating and accessing water sources while avoiding high-visibility areas, selecting and using portable purification methods appropriate for a moving scenario, and building a realistic water plan that supports sustained movement rather than camp life. Students work through field scenarios that require them to find, collect, and treat water under realistic conditions — not in a controlled demo environment.

Emergency Rations and Food Strategy

Food choices in a bug out scenario involve real trade-offs between weight, shelf life, caloric density, preparation time, and morale. The course covers how to select and pack emergency rations that fuel sustained movement, how to manage energy and decision-making through proper eating discipline, and how to understand the cost-benefit of every item taking up space and adding weight to the bag you're carrying for miles.

Critical First Aid for Bug Out Scenarios

The course addresses first aid from a movement-first perspective — the skills and kit you need to treat injuries without stopping, without full medical infrastructure, and without compromising your security or pace. Topics include bleeding control, blister prevention and management, sprain assessment and field treatment, and the decision framework for when to treat in place versus initiate movement toward help. Students bring whatever first aid or medical equipment they currently carry in their bug out system — and the course evaluates whether it's actually adequate for the scenarios they'd face. What's missing, what's redundant, and how to deploy what they have efficiently under field conditions.

Map Reading, Land Navigation, and Caches

A bug out plan that depends on roads and GPS is a plan with two single points of failure. The course covers the map reading and land navigation skills needed to navigate off roads, avoid chokepoints, and move by terrain — pacing, terrain association, and navigation by features. Students also learn cache strategy: how to plan, site, build, and retrieve resupply caches that extend your operational range without requiring you to carry everything at once.

Camouflage, Cover, and Concealment

The course covers the principles that govern low-signature movement and positioning — visual, noise, light, and track discipline applied to clothing, gear, shelter siting, and movement patterns. Students learn how to observe others and how to avoid being observed, in both day and night conditions. These principles are woven into every other curriculum block throughout the course, not treated as a standalone lecture.

Instructor Credentials and Safety Infrastructure

As a former Army Ranger, Green Beret, and government contractor, Joshua Enyart has spent more of his career living out of a pack in austere environments than most people have spent in a comfortable bed. That is not a figure of speech — it is the operational reality of extended service across some of the world's most demanding environments. Since transitioning to full-time wilderness survival instruction, that reality hasn't changed. Teaching live courses in remote terrain means living out of a pack for sustained periods, season after season. There is no other context in which someone develops a genuine understanding of what a bug out system actually needs to do — and no better qualification for teaching it.

The Bug Out & Preparedness Course is led by Joshua and GB2 cadre with operational and instructional backgrounds. The curriculum applies the same methodology that governs every GB2 live course: real field conditions, hands-on repetition, and instructor feedback that tells you the truth about your gear and your plan.

Every GB2 course site operates with an on-site Medic Station staffed with a dedicated medic and SAR (Search and Rescue) personnel. All instructors are CPR/AED certified and Wilderness First Responder certified at minimum. The course is fully insured, and every safety protocol reflects what responsible field instruction actually requires.

Who This Preparedness Course Is For

This bug out training course is built for anyone who has a bug out bag and wants to know whether it actually works — and whether they can actually use it. That includes preparedness-minded individuals and families who want a realistic plan rather than just gear, outdoor enthusiasts who want to integrate wilderness skills with bug out strategy, and students of the No-Nonsense Bug Out™ digital curriculum who want hands-on, instructor-led field time to complement what they've studied. No prior experience is required, but students should be comfortable hiking with a loaded pack and spending two nights outside in changing weather.

How This Course Fits the GB2 Curriculum

The Bug Out & Preparedness Course is the live course through which the GB2 System of Training™ delivers its preparedness curriculum — designed to move students from gear-reliant to self-reliant for a real-world get-home scenario. Students who want to build a stronger foundational skill set before attending should start with the Wilderness Survival Course — 3-Day Foundation Training, which covers the underlying skills — fire, shelter, water, navigation, medical, and tools — that every bug out decision draws on. Students who want to study the No-Nonsense Bug Out™ curriculum before or after the live course can access the full No-Nonsense Bug Out™ Course on the GB2 Network — an 11-module digital series covering preparedness principles, bag builds, supplemental kits, caches, stealth fire and shelter, water, navigation, and firearms. For a comprehensive field reference across all 8 Survival Priorities, Joshua's book Surviving the Wild provides the full methodology in a single volume.

Event Status and Travel Policy

Courses listed as "Scheduled" are planned events pending minimum enrollment. Once minimum enrollment is reached, the status changes to "Confirmed" and the course is guaranteed to run. "Confirmed – Limited" indicates only a few seats remain. Students are advised to make travel arrangements only after a course is marked Confirmed. Gray Bearded Green Beret LLC is not responsible for airfare, lodging, rental vehicles, or other travel expenses in the event a Scheduled course does not meet minimum enrollment or must be rescheduled due to circumstances beyond our control.

Course Details and Packing List

The Bug Out & Preparedness Course runs 3 days and 2 nights in a field environment. The course is fully field-based — students live out of their bug out bag for the entire duration, sleeping in shelters they build from their own kit. Multiple dates and locations are available. A full packing list covering required and recommended gear is available for download before you register: Bug Out & Preparedness Course Packing List. Your bug out bag and its contents — including food for the duration — are required. The goal is to run your real-world setup, identify its weaknesses, and go home with a system you trust.

View all available GB2 live training dates and locations at the Live Training Events & Courses collection.