Overcoming fear of the dark: A hunter’s guide to pre-dawn confidence

When I was a young boy, my daily chore was hauling the food compost from our house to the back field. I hated it. Like most kids, I didn’t enjoy doing anything my parents told me to. But this task was made worse because I had to walk through our large orchard—in the inky blackness of night. I don’t know if it was because I had an overactive imagination or I was too young to know better, but I was ridiculously afraid of the dark. As soon as I dropped that compost in the field, I turned and sprinted back to the house as fast as I could, closing and locking the door behind me as if my life depended on it.

Fast-forward 25 years, and I found myself parked in my truck on the side of a gravel road in Alberta’s backcountry, feeling like that same scared little boy. Just 15 minutes earlier, I’d pulled up, shut off my truck and thrown on my pack to head out on my first solo hunt. With snow underfoot and the tall silhouettes of pine trees towering above me, I started walking to my hunting spot. After 20 metres, however, I felt that familiar tingle crawl up my spine, and a few quick steps later I was back in my truck with the engine running and headlights on. Relief. Convincing myself I’d be less likely to bump into a deer—or worse, a bear—on my way in, I waited until first light. But the truth is, I was just too scared to be in the dark on my own.

When I started to plan my first big-game hunting season, I read and watched all that I could to help me prepare: where to find game, how to spot and stalk, what gear to bring, and so on. Nowhere, however, did I come across anything to prepare me for just how absolute the darkness would be when I was alone. I came home from that hunt demoralized and embarrassed. How could I call myself a hunter when I couldn’t even stomach a short walk in the dark?

Between walking in and setting up or packing home at day’s end, hunters spend almost as much time in the blackness as we do in the light

Not long after, I got my answer when I came across an online post from another hunter on an outdoors forum asking a similar question. For the first time since that hunt, his question—and the dozens of replies he received—made me feel less alone. As it turned out, being uncomfortable in the dark is one of the best-kept secrets among hunters, which explains why there were so few tips and tricks out there on dealing with it. Over the next few months and dozens of hunts, I slowly overcame my fear through exposure, and trial and error.

As hunters, we have to spend almost as much time in the blackness as we do in the light, whether it’s walking in and setting up before legal light or packing up and heading home at day’s end. After all, many of the species we hunt are naturally active at dawn and dusk, so we need to be in place and ready to take advantage. Darkness is something that can, and should, be used to our advantage, but if it makes you uncomfortable, the following tips can help light the way to a successful hunt.