[at-l] Hiking solo

[Phil.Heffington@oc.edu (Phil Heffington)]

Farina, do not attempt to overcome your fear.  The attempt will make it
self defeating.  Simply lay in your tent and purposefully stay awake and
listen for the sounds in the woods.  Be hyper alert.  Do not make any
attempts to go to sleep. Give yourself full permission to stay awake as
long as possible. 

It will be impossible to do this for long, but you can actually enjoy it
while it lasts.  If a critter kills you in the process, then you will at
least have been fully aware of the last moments of your life.  OK, so
that last sentence was a joke, but the rest is a fully operational
philosophy which has worked for me many times.