Q: I love hiking and want to do more backpacking but I feel like my fear of animals is preventing me from going out and doing it more often. I like sleeping outside in nature in the elements but every time I do it lately, I become so afraid of possible animal encounters that I feel I can't really enjoy the activity more. I really want to do a longer term hiking trip but I think my fear of being attacked or even encountering a larger animal will prevent me from doing this anytime soon. How can I convince myself that the danger isn't as great as I think it is and that my chances of being hurt/killed are pretty slim?
A: It's funny, I actually avoid backpacking as much as I'd like because I'm afraid of encounters with people, and what encounters I do have ruin my otherwise amazing hikes and backpacks. But, even for someone like me, who sometimes sleeps alone under a tarp, without any weapons other than a short knife and a flashlight, I still get a little nervous as I lay down to sleep, as it gets dark, and I start to hear strange noises in the dark. Besides the usual cure-all for phobias: experience - the more you're out there, and the more nothing happens, which, statistically, it won't, the more confident you will become, there's also tons of information you could read, study and memorize on how to deal with encounters with wild animals, such as this page on mountain lions: http://www.humboldtredwoods.org/livingwithcougars.htm and this page of statistics: http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks.html, which is my answer to your question. In addition there are tools one can use to protect oneself such as carrying all food in a bear proof canister, and carrying pepper spray, though I think the latter is overkill outside of grizzly territory.