Preperation

A while before Manson and his "family" had commited to actually exectuing the murders, they began to prepare for Helter Skelter.  They did this by marking out their escape route to make sure they got from Los Angeles to Death Valley safely along with preparing vehicles.  Manson believed that the song Helter Skelter had an unseen coded message that told them what route to take to get to Death Valley.  Manson had planned to start apocolyptic war in the summer of 1969.