Will anyone else swallow their pride and admit it's a little scary walking to and from the blind when it's pitch black? We're on a new lease this year and it's a half a mile from our campsite to one of the blinds. And that's as a crow flies, so it's actually a little longer. I have to walk through a bunch of cedar brush and cross a creek. Gives me the willies, especially in the morning.

I always get a little nervous when I am leaving the stand walking back to camp more so than in the morning for some strange reason. If you have a headlight or a red headlight, then it' not bad at all in my opinion.

Yep, that is why I carry my 44mag "shoulder holster" with me to the blind and out again at night.

Have walked up on pigs in the dark more than once. There is nothing in the world scarier then a group of squealing running pigs when you can't see anything.

Hat light and 44 mag make it a much more enjoyable trip.

Yeah I'm not ashamed to admit my fastest walking is done from the 4 wheeler to the blind before daylight!

Our stands are too far to walk to in west TX, 4wheelers all the way, so I don't have any problems there. However, in east TX, I get the heeby-jeebys when the coyotes start sounding off at dusk(within a couple hundred yards!), right before I have to make the walk to the 4wheeler.

I get a lil anxious at times but not too bad, the worse was when i was bowhunting in a canyon between pandale and juno...saw a cat, cougar/mtn lion whatever you want to call it!! That was one hell of walk back with only a bow!

I hate pigs so I get a little nervous in the morning and at dark. When I bow hunt I try and get in about 1 hour before shooting time so the area can calm down because I tend to walk fast and shine my light about 1000 places on every noise I hear. Thats one reason I got my CHL so I could carry during bow season. I take my Rhino in most of the way then I do the Usan Bolt to my stand about 300 yards away. His world record stands no chance if I hear the teeth pop and grunts of a pig.

AS LONG AS I'M CARRIN A GUN THERE'S NOT MUCH THAT SCARES ME, I DO WORRY ABOUT RATTLE SNAKES THOUGH.

Every since I saw the sice of those prints that followed my footprints to the stand

I try not to think about it too much, when I do i get alittle bit freaked out. Once I get to the stand and make sure there isnt anything in there I am generaly pretty good.

Worse is when Im setting up my decoys when im duck hunting, and I start thinking about gators.

I do sometimes. More afraid of skunks than anything. Only evening I was walking back to the truck and heard commotion in the tree. I saw an animal with a long tail. Said that better not be a mtn lion. It was only a racoon luckily.

ever since having run in's with cat's have my walks been tense. twigs snapping,wind noise's,rocks rolling,etc. the worst one was right after a cat was caught in a trap and escaped and tore a cactus flat to shreds with the chain and spike. i was hunting with my mom, and right at dusk a bunch of coyote's came out about 300 yds. down a sendero,it was the damndest thing i ever saw. they sat in a circle with one in the middle and they were all howling. i didn't really know what to think and needles to say my mom was freaked out a little, and she had been hunting ever since she married my dad. we decide to get out and try to get closer and wait for my dad to come and pick us up. while waiting i hear a low growl behind a big brush pile and it start's getting louder and louder so i put my mom behind me and take aim to the direction of the brush pile. it was overcast and when everything seemed like we were about to get it on i see a commercial liner through a break in the clouds. my heart was in my throat.

I get scared off my arse. Dang, I always wondered if anyone else got scared. There was one time when I was walking to the blind and something felt wrong, so I turned around and pointed my flashlight in the direction that I had just walked and a bobcat was standing there. I know it was scared of me but it freaked me out. To this day, I will almost be in a sprint to the blind if it is dark.

Funny you said that. We were in Montana fishing and hiking. One hike, we followed bear tracks, on the way back, we found his tracks in ours, and a large pile of poo. Good thing we didn't meet on the trail. Hard to fend off a bear with a fishing rod.

Don't borrow trouble! You can scare "yourself" to death with a runaway imagination.

I get a little nervous but really haven't had anything to warrant that. Although when I was a little kid and would stay at my Grandpa's house he would always mess with me at night.

Walking in the dark woods is one of my favorite
parts of hunting. That said, yes I have been,
ah, well, a touch nervous you might say.

I'll say this, the worst was walking out of the
creek bottom when the sun was down & the movie
choice of the night before was The Blair Witch Project.
Say what you will about this low budget movie, parts of
it was pretty creepy.


I do still like the thrill of being in the dark woods.

PK

I am terrified of stepping on a rattlesnake. So consequently I tend to shine the light about 10 feet in front of me all the way to the blind, when it's dark. Other than that, there really isn't anything out there that causes me any great concern.

No wild things scare me much unless it is a rattler. However, I get a little nervous when hunting South Texas near the Rio Bravo. Don't like the idea of drug totin' illegals that might be armed.

I always get the heebie-geebies when walking to my stand alone until I get up to the seat. I keep thinking one of these days, there will be something in that seat ready to greet me once I get there. I did have one time walking back after dark from my stand that was out about a 1/2 mile that really comes to mind. I was walking up a draw on the two-track from a clearing and was about to walk the road up into the woods when something made me turn around and look over my shoulder. I'm sure it was my imagination getting the best of me as I was walking into the dark woods from a moon lit area. Nothing moved and I never missed a step, but when I turned around I walked straight into one of those giant spider webs that seem to pop up in an instant. Right in the middle of that sucker was a garden spider the size of my hand and that cold dude planted straight onto my forehead! Needless to say, I did the most awful dancin anyone had ever seen (you know the one! the can't git it off ya dance!) and then flat out sprinted until I couldn't breath any more. A really cold beer and a change of shorts got me calmed down back at camp, but it was an uncomfortable night to say the least!!

The best part is climbing the ladder expecting something to rip me off and eat me or a beast is hiding in my blind. Hasn't happened yet!

I've seen pics of mountain lions sitting in tree stands. Mine is covered with camo wrap, so you can't see anything until you're practically in it! Hate to have an uptight lion staring at me down the ladder!

The only time I get nervous is walking to one particular stand where I have to walk down a rocky hill. Last weekend we killed a 5 foot long rattler about 50 feet from where I park the Razr in the morning...

Them damn quail get me everytime!!! My wife insisted on me getting a RZR so we could race to the stand...

I don't walk. I park right beside the blind, get out of my pick-up, and climb the ladder.

Actually, I park a ways from my 4 blinds, but never more than 50 yds away. Just snuggle the truck behind a buckeye or yaupon thicket. That way, I don't spook any deer walking in to the stand--they've already cleared out from my driving up.