This hunt was a night hunt, with the best crew turnout yet! We had 6 people, and decided to cover some ground out in Bamber Lake, a well known hotspot for Jersey Devil activity. What did we find? Well, a lot of cars, garbage, and dirt. Occasionally we detected signs of movement throughout the area, and found an unusual amount of canine footprints, but other than that, nothing special.

Shawn decided that it was time for him to depart, and at that point we regrouped with the 5 remaining hunters: me (Leut), Mike, Jim, Dave, and Jeff. The 5 of us headed down south, to visit our favorite haunt, Leeds Point. And that's when we hit discovery time.

We have been out to Leeds Point frequently to visit the house foundation, and check on how things are out there. This time, we found some remarkable differences. First and foremost were the surrounding trees. It seemed as though the trees had been knocked down into formations that "naturally" blocked the area surrounding the house foundation. We found that to be odd, because during our last trips out there all of those trees had been standing. What could have caused so many trees to fall?

Another strange thing to happen was that we temporarily lost our sense of direction. Mike, Jim, and I have been to the house foundation so many times that we could practically get there with our eyes closed. But for some strange reason, we ended up going in a complete circle! Unusual for us... Then the noises started. From up above us, we started hearing a strange cry - similar to the noises used in the NJN video "Mother Leeds' Thirteenth Child" for Jersey Devil simulation, yet somewhat different from the cry we had heard back in October out at Riverwood. We tried to explain the noises as possibly nothing more than creaks of wood from the trees swaying, but we noticed that there was no wind. Night vision goggles produced no results - whatever had caused the noises had left before we had the chance to view it. Interestingly enough, all of the noises came from directly above us in the treetops. The noises seemed to follow us as we made our way through the woods, coming from above us each time. Eventually, there was rustling in the trees, and during the entire trip all the bugs had been silent.

We packed up our equipment and headed back to Jim's truck at around 1am. Mike and I stayed in the truck while Jim, Dave, and Jeff went back into the woods in an attempt to record some of the noises we had been hearing. They discovered some rocks with strange calcium deposits, and an abnormal amount of seashells, but nothing too extraordinary or conclusive.

Now, what happened the next morning is quite remarkable, and almost unbelievable... but I swear to you once again that this is true to my knowledge. We have no definitive answer as to what happened...

We had taken two rocks from the area - the two that had abnormal calcium deposits on them. These rocks were left in Jim's truck overnight after the hunt. During the night, Jim went out to get something from his truck, and discovered that the two rocks were missing! The truck had remained locked the entire time, and several members of the group confirm that the rocks were most definitely placed in the car. No one is sure where they went... Now, for the record, I don't believe that the Jersey Devil came down and supernaturally removed the rocks. Could this be a case of sabotage by an outsider, or worse yet, sabotage from inside the team? Who knows for sure. We have never gotten any conclusive answers regarding this scenario.

Well, that's our story for Hunt #8. Questions? Comments? E-mail us at [email protected]. Want to join us? Click here for the online application!