>inb4 city slicker
Well that's not it. I've always lived in a remote town in Washington on the border of a national forest. I am not afraid of the woods per se, I am afraid of *my* woods. I'm afraid of the woods I've spent my whole life around, the woods I see when I look outside my house. If I drive even 20 minutes away from "these" woods, I am fine. I am fine in the open areas of eastern WA and OR too. Fine in Umpqua natl forest and the Redwoods of CA, too. Even backpacking through the woods at night is fine. Just my woods are the problem. It's not like I never went in them either. Grandad loved a good drive in the woods on old logging roads, we hunted together. Now I drive, stop at streams, etc., and I feel like I'm about to fall off a cliff or something. It can't be the fact I'm alone, I am alone plenty when I'm out hiking innawoods. Am I just too familiar with them? I used to live even closer and a family friend said she saw a cougar in our yard. Have I just heard one too many stories?