spruce forest entities (1 of 4)
On a recent trip to the Oregon Coast, we consulted with the folks at the Cape Perpetua Visitor’s Center, seeking advice on a good nearby hike with nice old growth forest. They sent us on a loop trip which went out Cook’s Ridge Trail, and came back via Gwynne Creek Trail.</p> <p>At first, this hike seemed rather... inauspicious. The forest for the first half mile was anything but old. Tightly packed, spindly little telephone pole-sized trees were everywhere, fighting with each other for light. No sunlight reached the floor of this forest, so the ground was a lifeless jumble of downed braches.</p> <p>Quite suddenly, the cut-over forest gave way to authentic old growth. The scrawny, light-starved spruce trees were replaced with giants, spaced a healthy distance apart. The dappled sunlight on the forest floor supported a delightful and diverse flora, with ferns, salal, trilliums, violets, <i>ad infinitum</i>.</p> <p>A short distance into the old growth, we paused for a moment. “Quite a different vibe here, huh?”, I said. “This forest has fairies and sprites and gnomes and trolls and such.”</p> <p>Another half mile up the trail, we paused for a photo. The trail, atop a small ridge, was meandering prettily off into the distance and going between several large trees. Andi and her dog Mutley made nice scale referents in between the trees. It took a few frames to get a shot where Mutley was looking toward the camera. We continued our hike, delightedly strolling through the big trees for hours.</p> <p>Later, we looked at the photos from the day. The entire series I described earlier had orbs! Apparently, my remark about fairies and sprites was prescient. There they were, clearly showing on my digital images. They move around from frame to frame.</p> <p>What’s particularly odd about these orb pics is the circumstances in which they were shot. Nearly all of the orb photos I’ve seen are taken with a flash. Most of them are taken outdoors on misty or dusty nights. Skeptics are quick to hypothesize that the “orbs” are just the light of the flash bouncing off water droplets or dust particles near the lens. But this was a clear, dry day. No flash was necessary to illuminate these forest spirits.
