In the early 1970s, I used to do a lot of remote camping and hunting in Aroostook County in northern Maine. Often, I would 4 wheel in as far as possible on an old logging road and then backpack in for 2-3 days, returning on the same route at the end of the week. On other occasions I would get flown in to a remote lake, camping and hunting there for a week. On this occasion I had driven about 14 miles or so in on an old logging road, parked the Bronco and spent 2 1/2 days following an old logging trail turned game trail into the netherlands. In the middle of the first day I had found an old logging camp with 1880s dates carved into the logs in some of the still standing buildings. I had camped here and found several fairly pronounced paths radiating out from the camp. I had chosen one, which according to my topographical map, approached a body of water several miles to the west. The old logging trail turned game path took me in fairly far towards the pond, and I then followed a small stream to the pond. It was a beautiful area, with a small sandy beach and clear, cool water. At the far end a beaver lodge was in evidence. I chose to stay here. The first night was a normal camping experience, with the dark, starlight only skies one can find only in areas where no light from a nearby city is leaking electrically created light into the sky. This was the new moon phase, and there was no other source of light other than the stars in the sky. Ah bliss. Then in late afternoon on the second day in this bivouac, a fog moved in. It was a cold fog, dropping the temparature significantly enough that I actually donned a sweater. By nightfall it was very thick and quite cool, cool enough that dew was forming on foliage and the ground. I had also put on an additional outer jacket because of the low temperature. In spite of the fog, you could see the stars that night, yet at ground to tree top level there was this swirling, cloying, dense cold fog. Noises were amplified, as is usual in a fog. But later in the evening/night the noises became different, not those attributable to the beavers at work in their pond, nor to the usual odd meanderings and twitterings of the local nocturnal wildlife. The fog actually swirled in almost human and animal forms around trees, and there was a whispering wind that accompanied these swirling forms. Additionally, there was a backlight of non-discernable form, providing varying hues from green to light yellow, fluctuating from a source behind a particular form to a general hue behind several forms. The lights seemed to accompany the swirling forms. The entire fog and its illusions followed the stream back towards the camp. This procession and its odd sights and sounds lasted until about an hour before daybreak. I had of course read about the native Americans and their concepts of forest spirits. I left the area with a new insight regarding the concept of forest spirits, and to this day consider myself fortunate that nature provided me with such a thrilling show.
