Alternate Perceptions Magazine, October 2024
The Lights Upta Camp
by: Nomar Slevik
On October 11, 2006, a man arrived at his camp in Skowhegan, Maine in the early afternoon to finish up work on his property before closing it up for the season. The tasks would include several days of various repairs and brush trimming around the camp.
Darkness had arrived after his first day’s work as he relaxed inside. He took the first few sips of a drink when he noticed the headlights of a vehicle driving up the old county road that ran past the cabin. He stood and watched at the window, wondering if it were a couple he knew from the neighboring camp about a mile and a half up the road. As he watched, the headlights made an abrupt right turn which concerned him; there was no road in that direction. He stated, “...the lights shined in the direction of the woods for a very brief time, and then they went out. Then, in the same direction, a very bright area appeared approximately 100 feet from the main road. It was a huge glow which lit up the whole tree line, which was emanating from the ground upwards, just behind the big tall firs. It also lit up all the other surrounding woods.” At this point, he knew it wasn’t a vehicle but considered a helicopter though he didn’t hear any sound. He watched as the light suddenly began to move toward his camp. He crouched down, frightened, as he had no idea what the source of the light could be. He recalled, “First, it would be beside the camp at a distance of approximately 50 yards, then it would move around to the back, where it appeared to be a little closer. Then it would return to its original position at the distant end of the field, down into a small valley. … While it was moving, I could see beams of light shining from it onto the face of the trees and through my camp windows. As it moved closer to the camp, I became very frightened and wanted to leave, but it was dark, and I didn’t dare to go outside long enough to get into my Jeep. I then found a safe bunk bed where the lights were partially blocked by the inside structure of the camp. I curled up in my sleeping bag like a scared rabbit for quite a while until the lights made their way back down towards the end of the field, where they were the farthest from the camp.”
After the light had moved, he summoned the courage to rummage through the camp until he found a pair of binoculars. He thought if he could figure out what the light was attached to, maybe he could make some sort of sense of the situation. He cautiously approached a window and raised the binoculars, when he did this, the light seemed to obscure itself behind some trees. When he looked away, the light moved again and concealed itself once more by a small hill and some brush. It seemed to him that the light knew it was being watched.
After this, the light began to make its way back toward the camp. The man jumped into his sleeping bag, closed his eyes, and hoped it would go away. It didn’t. It continued a routine of going around the camp and back down to the end of the field until morning. The man barely slept, and once morning arrived, he was ready to leave, but as he started to pack up, he had second thoughts. He shared, “I wanted to leave camp that morning but didn’t because I thought it was all over, that it was a one-time thing, and it probably wouldn’t happen again. I had work to do around camp. Besides, we were due for some rainy/windy weather, and it surely wouldn’t happen under those conditions, so I decided to stay another night.” He didn’t know it then, but he would regret that decision.
He finished another day’s work, and as the sun began to set, he noticed the woods to the south of his camp began to light up. He recalled, “At this point, I felt a sense of panic and wanted to leave, but under the circumstances thought I’d be safer inside the camp. So once again, still too frightened to go outside and leave in my Jeep, I decided to sleep up in the attic of my camp, where there are only two small windows, one on each end. By this time, I had also concluded that if, whatever it was, had meant to harm me, they would have done it by now.” Bunkered into the attic, he laid down to try and get some sleep; soon after, a mysterious vibration caught his attention. It was subtle at first, but it became apparent when the entire camp started to vibrate. The light from outside began to glow through the small windows in the attic. His breathing became heavy, and he was terrified at what the light might be doing. Then he started to hear strange sounds. He explained, “I also heard a sound which I can’t describe (high-pitched, electrical?) and what sounded like a small muffled explosion, followed by the sound of churned-up gravel in the road that runs parallel to my camp. At this point, around 1:00am, I was so scared that I could barely move in my sleeping bag. [And I] didn’t dare to look out either window; I kept a loaded handgun and flashlight nearby, which I had gotten ready earlier, and prayed for daylight! The lights and occasional weird sounds continued until dawn finally broke. Then everything ceased; I was ok.”
The man wanted to go home but waited for his neighbors to return to their camp. He knew they usually showed up in the early afternoon on Fridays and thought they could provide insight into the light. He knew they had been in the area longer than him and hoped there was a rational explanation. He waited for some time, and as it got later, his concerns grew. He shared, “Well, I waited and waited, thinking that they were just running late, and it was getting closer and closer to sunset. Although I was starting to get a little panicky, I decided that if they came through when it was dark, I would signal them with my flashlight, and then they would be able to witness what I had been seeing. Well, they never showed up, and the glow behind the woods was starting up again, and I ended up spending another frightening night hunkered down in the attic of the camp.” The terrifying routine continued throughout the night and finally stopped once morning arrived. The man had enough by this point and just wanted answers. At first light, he got into his Jeep and drove up to his neighbor’s property and waited for them to arrive. Finally, around noon, they pulled into their driveway and were surprised to see the man standing there. As soon as they got out, he ran to them and explained what he’d gone through over the last few days. He stated, “I told them what had happened, and when they saw how scared I was, they offered to let me sleep in their camp on Saturday night, which I did.” The light did not show up at the neighbor’s property, and if it was active at his camp, it could not be seen from the neighbor’s cabin.
The following morning, he returned to his camp and attempted to finish his work. He figured he’d work the day, close up camp, and leave before sunset. It did not go as planned. He recalled, “…around 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon, I began to hear the low-pitched rhythmic humming sound coming from the woods that I had been hearing every day since all this began. So, feeling a little panicky knowing that whatever it was, was still there, I realized what would be happening in a few more hours, and I wanted to get out of there ASAP! So, I packed up my Jeep, closed up the camp, and left in a hurry, around 4:00pm.”
While his encounters ended there, he did provide additional information about the sounds he heard while on the property. He wrote, “There are many more details which I have omitted because I feel this email is too long, but I will expound a little more on the daily humming. While working outside my camp, every once in a while, I’d hear a low-rhythmic humming sound coming from the woods, down beyond the tree line, in the direction of the glow. I heard this sound every day. Initially, I could hear it from my camp porch, but as I trimmed the brush/fields back closer to the tree line, the sound also moved further back. So, I now have to walk halfway down the field to hear it. I feel that if I were brave enough to walk down into the woods alone and follow the sound to its source, I’d probably find whatever it is. But, having been so frightened, I just couldn’t do it.” Perhaps he would have found the source of the hum if he ventured further into the woods, but it might have avoided him, as well. He then described disturbances he heard on the road in front of the cabin. He wrote, “I’ve also heard what sounds like a vehicle coming from a long distance, a rumble-like sound, either to the left or right of me, out near the road. I looked up, expecting someone to go by, but no one [did]. On several occasions when this happens, I’ve gone out into the road and looked in both directions, and there’s no sign of anything or anybody. This sound also accompanied the lights I initially saw on the first night. I think it may have accompanied all the commotion with the lights and sounds around camp during the terrifying nights too, but I can’t remember with any certainty, perhaps because I was so frightened. I want to say it did, but I’m not sure.”
His email closed on a somber note as he shared that he wouldn’t spend any more nights at the cabin. He wrote, “I’m really going to miss staying overnight in my little camp, but I’m certainly not going to miss all the lights and panic that I felt. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.” Despite this, work still needed to be done at the camp, and he was determined to be the one to finish it. He shared, “Work around the camp is still not done, so I’m going up to camp this morning (October 17, 2006). If the low humming sound is still there, I won’t panic because it’s daytime. But whether I hear the hum or not, I’m going to make damn sure that I’m out of there well before dark!”
He concluded his email with a hypothesis about the light; he speculated, “I don’t know what this thing was, but I strongly suspect that it might be extraterrestrial in origin.”
I checked the NUFORC database to see if there were any other reports from his area, but all I could find was a report from southern Maine that occurred the same night in the town of York. Quoted in part, “I could see that it was a flying object moving at an even but rapid rate of speed. In profile, it appeared disc-shaped, with three large pulsing lights, which changed from white to red during the time it was in my field of vision. … The craft, I would approximate to be twice the length of a commercial passenger jet and appeared illuminated from within. My impression was the smoothness of the path, not as if propelled by itself but rather as if being pulled by some force across the sky. The effect was somewhat hypnotic.” While certainly an interesting sighting, it differs vastly from the encounter at the cabin. Other October events reported to NUFORC occurred on the 8th, 13th, 14th, and 27th. All were reported from either southern or central Maine. The closest report to Skowhegan appeared to be an encounter 25 miles away in Pittsfield on the 27th of October. I think this report shares a similarity with the light at the cabin.
It read, “I was walking the dog with my fiancée, and an airliner was passing overhead. … We noticed, however, an ever-brightening star behind the plane. It was getting so bright it drew our attention to it. It grew in brightness to the point a halo formed around it. It was, at its brightest, about half the size of the full moon. It suddenly dimmed to a glowing red ball of light that slowly started to move away and then seemed to accelerate up and away very quickly to the northeast.” The glow that the witness described sounds similar to the behavior of the light from the cabin. Could it have been the same thing? It’s impossible to know. I hope the man was eventually able to enjoy his cabin again.
Editors Note: This article is from UFOs Over Maine: 10th Anniversary edition (2024) with the author’s permission.
