I agree with those above on your children. A 7 year old might be ok for short durations, say on a piece of the AT or another well-hiked and maintained trail with plenty of secure rest stops, but in no way, shape or form would I ever condone taking a 2 year old on such a hike for an unlimited duration, much less trying to attempt a hike across country, with minimal provisions and supplies, and attempting to hide from people at large while doing so.
Those kids are far too young to be trying to learn SERE tactics and survive in the wilds in all sorts of weather and environmental conditions. Kids that young are prone to all sorts of illness and injury as well. If you are living like fugitives on the run, with obviously little in the way of monetary security, how will you deal with it if one gets burned in the campfire, cut with a knife, bitten by a possibly rabid animal, or develops some infection or illness that can't be readily treated in the field with bandaids and herbal teas? If you and your wife, as adults, want to attempt a flight into the wild with no security and not much in the way of supplies, that is your business. Taking kids that young out into situations where you have no backup, no endgame plan, and no safety net if things go horribly wrong is unconscionable. There must be relatives that you can leave them with until you can get settled somewhere, provided it isn't putting them in more danger to follow you into your new life.
Having lived in Michigan for a good portion of my life, I can tell you that as bad as it gets here, you haven't seen anything until you have pulled a few nights in winter in places like North Dakota, where you can get temps (without wind chill) down into the 60 below zero range, or Buffalo where you can get dumped on with lake effect snows and wake up buried under 5 FEET of fresh wet snowfall, where it is impossible to walk out to a road without snowshoes. Travelling overland in the plains states, you will find very little woodland areas suitable for hiding in and making camp without detection, or providing enough game or fish to keep you fed. Once you get into the western states, you will find that fresh clean water (even considering using a purifier) is almost impossible to find in many places. Where you do find it, you will find all sorts of civilization and the people you want to avoid. Anywhere that you would be looking to camp and hunt is likely either privately owned (and you risk getting yourself or your kids shot as trespassers) or government owned, where you will likely find rangers, game wardens and other LEOs.
If you were in the Marine Corps, you know what kind of fresh hell boot camp is for guys and women in their late teens/early twenties. Would you REALLY, as a loving father, want to put your TWO YEAR OLD through something just as tough as that, if not tougher, with NO way of getting help if he/she CAN'T make it? A recruit can always drop out or be recycled if they are unfit for the rigors of training. You aren't giving your kids that option. It is either do or die.
I don't know your situation, and I can't imagine why you think this is a good idea, but I am BEGGING you to reconsider taking your kids out on a dangerous and perhaps deadly exodus into the wild. Visiting and camping in the woods is great, but trying to hike cross country and avoid detection with two little kids is going to be nightmarish for you as parents, and tortuous to them. Their bodies aren't ready for unrelenting hiking in blistering heat, frigid cold, rain and snow, and all the other things you will experience out there. It will tax even you, with your physical conditioning and training, to be out there day after day like that. Think about what that will do to a little child! I don't know what training or experience your wife has, but unless she was in the Corps with you and had similar training, I guarantee she won't be thrilled about being out on the road exposed to the elements and living like Jeremiah Johnson for very long, especially if she is the one having to primarily care for the kids during this trek.
Also, and this is an unpleasant fact of being in the situation you are describing, what would happen to your wife and kids (or JUST your kids!) if something happened to you (or you and your wife!) out there? There are plenty of ways to die in the woods, or have an accident that leaves you crippled or trapped. What would they do if you got pinned by a falling tree, or mauled by a cougar, or cut an artery and bled out while cutting firewood? Do you really think your 7 and 2 year old would be ok if mommy and daddy got sick from bad food or bad water and DIED out there, in the middle of nowhere and with no one they know to call and get help?
Please reconsider. Whatever the reasons are that you have for wanting to make this journey with your young family, it can't possibly end well. Find another way, or for pity's sake, at least make arrangements for the kids to stay somewhere safe. As a responsible parent, sometimes you have to make the tough choices. Making your kids suffer for your mistakes isn't right, no matter what the reasons are that you might have for doing so.
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