The following is not politically correct.
Before I get to the point of this post, I would like to preface it by saying on the Scale of Manliness, my self-assessment tells me I'm nowhere near the bottom. I'm good with tools, and I have a lot of them, and have crafted much of the furniture in our home. I like good bourbon. I go fishing as often I can (which is never often enough). I own, among other arms, an assault rifle I purchased with full intent to use to protect my family and my stuff it if the S. ever hits the F. I'm no hero, but I think life's experiences have made me courageous. I'm an avid motorcyclist with a big 'ol V-twin cruiser. I can walk around downtown Houston at night and feel cautious, but not fearful. I work for an oilfield & industrial rigging supplier. I love my yellow lab like a child. Going shopping to me means wandering around Academy for an hour, then going to Gander Mountain and doing the same. I drive a beat up old GMC pickup truck, which I will drive until the wheels fall off. I'd eat a two by four if it's dry rubbed and slow smoked in my big Oklahoma Joe's barbecue pit, but I prefer a thick bison ribeye grilled medium rare and covered in garlic butter, salt and pepper. I’m a big fan of Clint Eastwood and Jack Nicholson, and I hate chick flicks. I don't drink Chardonnay.
In other words, I think I'm a regular guy.
I've gone deer hunting in Sam Houston WMA a couple of times this year. Up to this point, I've been going alone. It's my first year of deer hunting although I am a grown man of 46 years. I tend to reinvent myself from time to time, and this year I have discovered I enjoy hunting. I never realized what appeared to be a simple sporting activity is, in reality a complex, engaging, and challenging endeavor that can quickly develop into a passion (albeit an expensive one). The intricacy of patterning, scouting, location, habitation, scent control, clothing, choice of stands, tools like binoculars, knives, and GPS devices, timing of the rut, hunting methods, choice of ammunition, field dressing, butchering, and countless other things have consumed a great deal of my time in research and conversation. Not to mention my funds.
I never thought I would find myself staring at satellite images of trees on Google Earth for hours at a time.
Sitting twenty feet above the ground against the trunk of a Texas Loblolly pine tree, nestled in the plush comfort of my climbing stand in a remote area of the national forest, listening to the acorns fall and the occasional soft rustle of the forest creatures is a peaceful and awesome experience. Yesterday, I spent nearly 10 hours on stand and barely noticed the passing of time.
Incidentally, my experience thus far with hunting in the national forest has proven to be difficult. I have seen one young doe, and was in no position to harvest the animal if I had chosen to (I did receive an antlerless permit for SHNF) since it was in a creek bed on the other side of the tree, behind me, only about 40 yards from where I was positioned, so getting up and turning around would have busted me for sure, it was behind a small copse of trees when I was able to turn my head enough to see it, and it never stopped moving. I am guessing that national forests are so pressured, there are not large numbers of deer living in them, and the ones that do are shy and tend to not survive to live many years.
Before I lapse into digression, I will get to the point I have been waltzing around.
Although I'm generally not afraid of being alone or even being in the dark, I'm deathly, mortally terrified of the forest at night, and I'm not even sure why. Deathly. Mortally. Terrified.
Early in the morning before daybreak, when I turn off the main road onto the service road and drive a mile or so into the forest, then park my truck, the inky blackness of the forest along with the strange sounds of the night starts eating into the part of my brain that informs me there's something fundamentally wrong about this, and to get out while I'm still alive. Just standing outside my truck alone gives me the creeps that's one step away from being paralyzing.
So what I do is hemhaw around, sometimes making a decision to drive around to other locations, "just to check 'em out" until I see a bit of morning glow become noticeable in the sky.
At that point, the fear melts away, and it's a frantic race to get dressed in my hunting gear and get packed up to hike on in.
The evening is the same. I stay on stand as long as I can, but when sunset starts approaching, I feel panic creeping in as I climb out of the tree and get my stuff together to march back out, which I do as fast as my feet can carry me.
I think if there was someone else along with me, I don't think I would be so cowardly about being in the forest at night, but being alone out there is so unnerving, I can't get past it enough to march out into the wilderness alone in the dark.
So... what can I do about this before my Man Card gets revoked?

are you carrying a side arm/knife that you can quickly access? My brother and I got spooked recently with some bobcat activity, but I found carrying my pistol with one in the chamber made my walk to/from the blind a bit more comforting.

Man card is long gone bud.. But, in effort to try and get it back you can just put it in your head that when it is your time to go it is your time to go. Do you sleep with the light on? Not trying to be mean but you have to just man up and tell yourself that 99% of what is out in the middle of the woods wants to get as far away from you as quick as possible. Good luck with this and hope it helps.

Nope. Your just a nancy boy

I think there are more people that have had similar experiences to you than will ever admit it. Many of us have grown up doing it, so it is just another morning or evening, but I can see how the "new" experience can be unnerving. The dark woods can make you feel small, like you are nothing and not only are you nothing, you are out of your element and walking into something else's element.

I know guys that would never admit to being afraid of the woods after dark, but when they walk through the woods, they have so many lights on it looks like the LA freeway during rush hour and they have a light pointed in every direction.

As many times as I have been in the woods, there are only a few that I let my imagination get the best of me. It isn't rational and it isn't real, but damn it feels real and I have to calm myself back down. I don't usually carry a light and if I do, it will cover a about 5' and is green, so everything blends. Doesn't help you imagination.

I knew somebody who went to a hypnotist and supposedly it worked.
He even started taking his kids camping.

I've adopted the attitude of F**k IT if something is going to get me it's going to get. That's not to say I don't get spooked here and there by a noise in the darkness. But I'm sure that way way way more hunters are hurt or killed in the woods by some thing they did ( no safety harness, accidentally shooting themselves or another hunter) then by some type of animal attack on the way to and from the stand.

French maybe?

Yes, I do carry a sidearm loaded with some of Hornady's finest ammunition. But I'm not really afraid of being able to defend myself, and I'm not worried about any real threats. I'm not even afraid of snakes or spiders. It's hard to put into words, but it's more fear of the unknown than anything else. I don't think it's so much a fear of dying, but just a general creepiness brought on by the heebie jeebies. A faceless fear.
I am desperately hoping to overcome it (read: man up) and reclaim my card, but this fear of being in the forest is not only frustrating, it's debilitating and keeping me from enjoying the full experience and reward of hunting.
And one of the worst parts is talking about it with my wife, who thinks I'm not afraid of anything.

Also, I should point out, I'm not afraid to be out in the woods if there's even one other person with me. I have gone camping many times, and that doesn't bother me. It's only in the woods, and only when I'm by myself that I feel like that. Maybe I do need a hypnotist, or I need to train myself to be out there by going for short trips in and out until I overcome it. I'm definitely not a chicken s**t. I've been riding a bike around in Houston traffic since 1993, and that in itself is almost a death wish. It's a phobia, and I need to figure out how to get around it. I wish I had my Dad's nerve. There was a man who was afraid of nothing I ever knew of. And he did a lot of stuff in his life.

I usually figure since the rifle I am carrying should be capable of killing anything I encounter I dont get to bothered. But my barber told me he was making an afternoon hunt a few weeks ago when two bobcats started fighting near his stand. He told me the sounds they made really scarred the crap out of him. He told me if he hadn't seen them eventually to know what was making that noise he might have never hunted in that area again.I guess my point is under the correct circumstances (hearing something really unexplaineable or scary) I might get freaked out. Atleast your man enough to admit something bothered you.

Just keep repeating to yourself...

Yea though I walk though the valley of death, I fear no evil.
For I have a 44 magnum (once) the most powerful hand gun in the world, at my side.

Man up you kitty!

My biggest fear of being in a "forest" in the dark is I would probably get lost for a while.

There's a fine line between brave and dumb...

Ok sorry new guy just bustin your chops a little.

I don't disagree with you.

1. Quit watching zombie and vampire shows, they're stupid anyway. And yes that includes Walkng Dead.

2. WTH would harm you in Texas? We don't have bears, wolves, black panthers, Sasquatch (although some would argue), etc. Coyotes and Bobcats weigh 30 lbs and how many documented cases have you ever heard of an attack.

3. Put a brick in your purse and you can swing it. Never runs out of ammo.

4. Don't call them "assault rifles" unless you're a liberal.

5. This isn't the place to come for help with such matters as being scared of the dark unless you want everyone to make fun of you.

But in all seriousness just man up and start walking and logically ask yourself WTH could really harm me? I can admit I was scared at one time too, but then I turned 10.

Yeah I'd have to say maybe too many scary movies, which put crazy ideas into your head. Now if we lived in wolf, grizzly bear or true mountain lion (where theres a bunch of them) then I could see one being terrified. But to be honest just the fact you bought an AR in case the "s**t hits the fan" tells me you are scared of crazy people.

Seriouse? Scared of bobcat activity?? Your card may be gone as well.

HAHA! I knew Redchevy would show up on this one.

On one of the places we hunted the landowner would keep the radio turned on all the time. He had it on his porch. When I would hunt the stand about 200 yards north of him I could hear the music. One day I asked him if I could turn it down and he told me "Hell no, its the only way I enjoy sitting in the backyard at night since I'm out here all alone 99% of the time." The deer didn't mind it at all. They walked out of the woods and looked right down the tree line towards the house and start feeding back towards my stand. They were as skittish as he was when it wasn't on.

Enroll in NINJA SCHOOL TODAY!!!

OMG, I laughed my ARSE off reading that well written documentary of you. Thanks for the laugh.

Learn how to spell, [censored].

Boogie man is real and will get you.

Everything in the woods during the day is there at night. The only difference is they are more active at night and you can't see as far. I did walk into a herd of pigs one early morning headed to stand with bow. That will increase the heart rate for sure. Oh and it is harder to see snakes which are active in early season.....I am not helping am I?

Nyctohylophobia...I did not realize there was a name for being scared of the forest at dark. But I'm glad there is. Somehow makes me feel less wimpy knowing other dudes have the same thing.

Well done, well written. Good luck.

Keep in mind that this is Texas, not California. Predators have plenty to eat and I guarantee that man is not on that list. Almost every animal will be more afraid of you than you are of it. If you hear something close, it's probably trying to get away from you as fast as possible.