It would be foolish to not at least acknowledge that some things are unexplainable. As promised, here I will continue my recollection of strange and unusual occurrences I’ve experienced in the Guilford Woods.
My freshman year, close to finals in April, I’ll never forget witnessing a flock of Luna Moths come through the apartments, heading towards the woods at around 2AM. I had just finished a paper and it had been raining nearly all day. I came out to sit on our porch and was relieved to see the rain had stopped. As soon as I reclined into my chair, flits of green began circling the light posts. Thankful I wasn’t the only person awake at the time, two friends and I stood with jaws wide open. None of us had actually seen Luna Moths in person, and suddenly we were surrounded by dozens. Some drew closer to the porches but most crowded around lights, coming from a southward direction and heading northeast to the woods. In silence, we began to slowly follow their jagged direction into the dark woods but their group seemed to dissipate into the darkness. The three of us were at a loss for words and could only relate to each other about the experience because no one else believed us. Although one of us got a picture, it was lost, so I have added a photo from the internet as reference.
That same week, I remember a friend and I taking a nightly woods walk to enjoy the fresh spring air during finals. As we walked, the moon was bright enough for us to not need light, but my eyes were focused on the ground, at little glowing lights. I thought my eyes were playing tricks, but they weren’t. I shined a light and discovered a creature that resembled a crustacean or a roly poly, crawling slowly on the dirt, blinking a luminous bluish hue on one end of its body. Both my friend and I were puzzled and decided to bring it back with us to investigate. We ended up learning that it was firefly larvae, which was very strange considering they were larger than adult fireflies and because their heads glow instead of their butts (as adults). After asking biology professors, we still aren’t sure why this is the case. Once again, the original photo was lost, but here is a reference.
My concluding story begins with a group of friends and I walking towards the lake one afternoon from the campus side. As we crested the lake field, we could see the waxing gibbous moon rising from the far left side of the tree line. We paid it no mind as we approached our designated location: the slanted grassy green hill that runs from the golf field to the lake’s edge. We took our seats, got comfortable, and began listening to the frogs’ songs. Within minutes, a bright white shine caught our attention. It was moving slowly behind a row of trees to the far right of the lake and there was a moment when UFO was on everyone’s mind. The answer was even more baffling, it was the moon..the same waxing gibbous we had witnessed walking there, but coming from the completely opposite-impossible-direction. Everyone was stunned and couldn’t think of a reasonable explanation, so we agreed it was the woods’ doing and we shouldn’t question it. None of us enjoy talking about it and have never experienced anything else like it.
