It's been so long since we've visited the Toms River area, and since most of the hunters had never been to some of these places, we decided that tonight's hunt would be a tour of the old haunts for the Devil Hunters. So we all packed up and headed to the park in Toms River - the very same one where we had heard a strange screech back in October of 1999 (see Hunt #7 for the story).

I led Bel, Brian, Tony, and Kevin back through the woods in exactly the same places that we had been when we heard the noises. The woods in this area didn't seem to have changed too much over the years. There were still a large amount of strange prints, but unfortunately none of them were defined enough to identify. Adding to the difficulty of identification was the soft mushy ground left over from the terrential downpours of the day before. So they were more of dark indentations in the ground, and usually were the only places that were not covered in leaves or pine needles. We headed out in the same directions that I had been walking in 1999. This time, we discovered a rather large ditch that I don't remember from back then. The ground was so soft, we felt like we could sink straight into it. The ditch had several large burrows in it, probably home to some burrowing rodent. (It looked too big to be a snake.)

The sun was starting to set at this point, so we decided to go check out the area down by the river. This is an area that we had not visited too often in the past, so we wanted to get to know it. I'm glad we did.

If there is one good thing I can say about this particular park, it would be that it always delivers.

We followed a trail down towards the river bank. At first, it seemed fairly plain. The strange unidentifiable tracks were everywhere, but somewhat useless for our purposes. Tony and I were leading the way. As we turned around one of the corners in the path, we heard a strange high-pitched, somewhat cackling noise off in the distance towards the riverbank. It was probably either a bird or two animals fighting, we're not sure. We continued down the path and discovered a small clearing that allowed us to get right up next to the river. Tony and Kevin led the way in, I followed, and Brian held up the back. Bel was poised on the outside of this small entrance. While she was standing there, she heard a noise to the right, approximately 10 feet away from her location on the trail. We instantly got out of the clearing and headed towards the noise.

Now while we had been walking near the river for most of the trip, we noticed that the water had been surprisingly quiet for most of the night. It was moving quickly, however it was virtually silent. On the other side of the trail, we started to hear a large rustling in the trees. It was moving around sporadically in the distance, and seemed to stop as we tried to listen. Our flashlights were darting all throughout the woods, yet we couldn't really see any signs of movement. Meanwhile, suddenly the river behind us started to get louder. Bel and Brian were closest to the water at this point, and both of them heard what sounded like something splashing and wading through the water. The noises were almost alternating between the water and the brush, on opposite sides of the trail. Kevin and Tony were focusing on the noises in the brush. I was going back and forth between both locations, trying to listen.

The water continued to flow and we heard a constant noise, yet the splashing started to subside. The rustling noises would freeze every time we had the flashlights in that area, and then when we turned away for a few seconds we'd hear it again. It was almost pitch black at this point. Kevin and Tony tried to work their way in towards the noise, however it was impossible to move through the brush without being heard from a mile away, so we pulled back. Meanwhile, Bel noticed something small run past her flashlight view towards the water's edge - probably just a raccoon or other woodland creature. We started to move down the trail a little further.

The rustling in the brush started to get quieter and quieter, and we started thinking that whatever it was had made its way off in the distance. The next thing we knew, almost suddenly even, the water noise stopped entirely. The river returned to its normal, virtually silent mode. It was very odd.

At this point, we realized that we'd been out there for almost 3 hours in a park that closed at dusk, so we decided to make our way back to the cars to make sure that they hadn't been ticketed or towed. Luckily, they were still there. Not so luckily, as soon as we started to pack up our things, we were spotted by a park ranger. But again, luckily for us, the park ranger is someone we've ran into in the past, and we knew just what to say to get out of trouble. He was very nice and didn't throw us out immediately. He wished us a good evening, warned us to check for ticks, and then drove off.

We'll definitely be back to this place. I'm an idiot for not insisting we come back more often. It's full of strange activity. We'd even been told before (by the same park ranger from tonight) that people had reported seeing strange black things moving through the woods... So let's see what else we can find out about this park.

Well, that's our story for Hunt #22. Questions? Comments? E-mail us at [email protected]. Want to join us? Click here for the online application!