Fear

            Survival is one goal that prevails in all mammals in this diverse world, and, subconsciously we as humans have the instinct to survive in any given situation. When I was in pre-training for Officer Candidate School in the Navy (Sea Cadets), I was taught skills in acclimating to a variety of environments, from the hottest areas of the Nevada desert to the frigid weather in Northern Alaska. The yearning to try the hands-on approach in survival after graduation was so intense, I spent the next two and half years seeking adventure in remote regions of the Northwestern Rockies. Many of my excursions were in the Bob Marshall Wilderness area of Western Montana, with a few jaunts through the lush mountains of British Columbia to the Yukon Flats in Alaska. .
             Not wanting to worry about a vehicle when I set off into the backwoods, I resorted to hitchhiking as my main source of transportation. Hitchhiking was a common occurrence in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, and I was part of that crowd (Right-on, dude). When I hiked to remote places that very few get a chance to see and spent anywhere from a couple of days to a month at a time, it was like being on vacation in some exotic mountain paradise. The intoxicating beauty of the secluded areas I found overcame any fear of loneliness that lingered in the shadows of my mind. .
             A true test of my ability to detach myself from a physical society came on a return trip from the Yukon Flats in Alaska. The intervals from town to town in the Northwest Mountains of British Columbia are extremely distant or, at least, they seemed so, when traveling by foot. I received a ride from a man who was going home for the weekend; we traveled the Cassiar Highway for over an hour when we came to his turn-off. From where he dropped me off, he still had another hour to go before he reached his destination. I had never given much thought to being alone in the backwoods or the distances I trekked, but on this lonely stretch of highway, I was isolated and dwarfed by the immensity of the mountains.