To me, living in the woods as a survivalist is a fate worse than prison, and when you are eventually caught you have to serve the entire prison sentence on top

To me, living in the woods as a survivalist is a fate worse than prison, and when you are eventually caught you have to serve the entire prison sentence on top of the time you spent eating squirrels and freezing in the woods. But there are definitely a few notable cases of wanted people who have lived in plain site for a long time before being captured. A convicted serial rapist named Gary Alan Irving was caught a couple months ago after 34 years on the run living near Portland, ME. He married and had children and grandchildren during this time. I think you could totally do it in many cases. But I'm not sure that you could do it in this case. Snowden's face has been plastered all over newspapers, TV, the Internet, etc. Video of him, including his voice, has been all over TV and the internet. He has some distinguishing features that would make it fairly easy to confirm his identity. Also, hawkish conservatives (of which there are many in rural areas) are going to view this man as a traitor and delight in turning him in. If he did stay here he probably would have many people willing to harbor him and give him food and shelter. But eventually they are going to slip up and he is going to be caught.