I'm not really familiar with the Hamilton area but dundurn castle kinda makes sense, I've never been inside it but it looks good from the outside. I would probably avoid banks because you would be likely to encounter the criminal element looking for some easy money. I seem to remember a shopping mall downtown with a nice underground delivery tunnel. Large enough to store vehicles, people and food. You could block off all but one of the stores delivery doors so you have access to the upper floors that is more easily defended.

I know in the city it is hard to find an out of the way place to meet up but if you are going to be standing around waiting you need to be sheltered. In the past we have used a mausoleum at the cemetery as a meet up spot or left a tarp and water at a cache in the park close to a path so we could set up a quick shelter . I am a big fan of caches specially water the more you cache in advance the less you have to carry.
If you have school age kids don't forget to make sure they have water and such in their locker in a pack for buggin separate from school bag.
A mall would not be a good choice to hold up in with looters or just common folks out to find the stuff they did not prep for in advance. A good spot to hold up in is a stone building, how big will depend on the size of your group.
Another good spot to hold up in is an "old" church they are usually made of good solid brick and have real solid doors.

Hello fellow Hamiltonians!

I've been away from the forum for a few months but know a couple of the admins from an Ottawa meet and I've met a handful of prepared Hamilton folks from the boards. I'd love to strike up more of a conversation about this, organize more area meets, and ultimately help eachother as best we can.

I grew up in west Hamilton, lived in T.O. for a few years, and I'm back home for studies at Mac. With that said, I go backcountry (crown land) camping roughly every month or so with a fellow prepared friend and I've been at this way of life since the lovely G20 Summit of 2010 opened my eyes.

Anyways, I look forward to chatting with everyone and sharing ideas. On the topic of meet locations: I would think about avenues of mass migration and the secondary or tertiary routes most citiots (citizen+idiot) will overlook. My routes so far take me through Dundas northwards towards Milton in an effort to avoid the millions of surburbanites near the lake. I like the idea of Dundurn as a rally point since most everyone knowns several ways to get there. Dundurn is also close enough to most of us that I'm sure it makes a viable gathering spot. I grew up in the west end of Hamilton near Mac so I know that side like the back of my hand. I would be happy to discuss what I know about the city with those who may not be as familiar with Hamilton right away.

Anyways, hope to hear from you all. Cheers!

Allegro

Again I'll mention Katrina. It was a very localized event, yet it impacted Texas and surrounding states as people went further afield, even as far as Canada. Regional campsites were quickly overwhelmed and people were instructed to 'keep moving along'. A return to normal meant driving sufficiently far.

In a general SHTF situation such as a pandemic, a collapse of banking or crop failure, Southern Ontario, with its high population density, would be under severe pressure. Deteriorating conditions in urban zones would send some people fleeing to the countryside, while most would be attracted to whatever emergency centers of distribution existed.

In Africa or Haiti, wherever the U.N. or World Food Program set up shop, people in distress instinctually flocked to them like moths to flames. Once they hitch their fortunes to a source, they stop adapting.

One thing that Haiti, Africa or New Orleans didn't have was the Canadian winter. In this climate zone, no relief service could cope with supplying life-sustaining energy. The only solution would be to depopulate and move people hundreds of miles south.

Hi Ottawa613, great insight. You're right on the ball with flows of migration moving people towards services. I'm not sure if you've ever been through hamilton but the area has both traffic bottlenecks from the Niagara region and a couple million more folks west of us in the Kitchener, London, Waterloo, Windsor and Sarnia regions. In my mind, all of these citizens would be moving my way in the event of a capital "M" - Major disaster that would leave everyone scared and without services. There's a whole host of events one could imagine.

Hamilton's geography and location within the Golden Horseshoe presents both opportunities and obstacles to negotiate when leaving the city. In terms of meeting spots, the routes through Waterdown and Flamborough are likely one's best options. I have several routes marked out - on foot, by bike/motorcycle, and in a vehicle. Dundurn Castle and Christ The King Cathedral nearby are both great spots to group together.

What are your thoughts Hamilton?

Allegro

Greetings fellow Hamiltonians.

I think a lot of where you meet depends on why you are meeting.

Is the idea to bug out together, or just to establish lines of communication and offer mutual support to friends in your network?Also, a lot would depend largely on what catastrophe has necessitated the need to leave.

I have been giving a lot of thought recently to the best areas to occupy and protect. There are so many challenges there, the main issue, to me anyway, is that if you are holed up anywhere other than your home, or a pre-prepared meet up point, you're forced to move your survival gear and supplies to a new location when horrible things are happening all around you.

With that said, there are no end of schools you could turn into rally points, finding a small school that a fellow Prepper lives near could be the answer. Dundurn Castle is good, but not particularly central to Hamilton, most people would have to cross through the city to get there.

There's a lot of aspects to consider here, the biggest issue is whether you want to avoid the authorities or not. If Dundurn Castle, large Malls, Schools etc. make sense to us, they are probably already incorporated into emergency plans formulated by the local government.

Greetings fellow Hamiltonians.

I think a lot of where you meet depends on why you are meeting.

Is the idea to bug out together, or just to establish lines of communication and offer mutual support to friends in your network?Also, a lot would depend largely on what catastrophe has necessitated the need to leave.

I have been giving a lot of thought recently to the best areas to occupy and protect. There are so many challenges there, the main issue, to me anyway, is that if you are holed up anywhere other than your home, or a pre-prepared meet up point, you're forced to move your survival gear and supplies to a new location when horrible things are happening all around you.

With that said, there are no end of schools you could turn into rally points, finding a small school that a fellow Prepper lives near could be the answer. Dundurn Castle is good, but not particularly central to Hamilton, most people would have to cross through the city to get there.

There's a lot of aspects to consider here, the biggest issue is whether you want to avoid the authorities or not. If Dundurn Castle, large Malls, Schools etc. make sense to us, they are probably already incorporated into emergency plans formulated by the local government.

I think you offer a really logical approach and your forethought seems sound to me. My point of view has always been (and remains) to plan for the worse and hope for and live for the best. Planning for every eventuality is impossible but to have a rough direction to travel if need-be. With that being said, a local network has been in the works for a while now and more new faces are coming together in the spirit of sharing ideas.

I think you offer a really logical approach and your forethought seems sound to me. My point of view has always been (and remains) to plan for the worse and hope for and live for the best. Planning for every eventuality is impossible but to have a rough direction to travel if need-be. With that being said, a local network has been in the works for a while now and more new faces are coming together in the spirit of sharing ideas.

I like what you said about planing for the worst and hoping for the best, took the words right out of my mouth. I would be very interested in anything happening locally here in Hamilton, getting to know some local people with the same mindset would be amazing. I think mutual support is probably the most important aspect of prepping, a firmly established network could make the difference between life and death if it really does start falling apart around our ears.