Many are drawn to the Pine Barrens by its colorful folklore, by places with odd names such as Ong's Hat and Mount Misery, by ghost towns like Martha and Colliers.

They study ecosystems, geology, birds, and rare flora across 1.1 million acres of South Jersey forests cut by meandering white-sand trails and tea-colored rivers.

G. Russell Juelg and more than 20 followers didn't come last week for science.

They came to dark Wharton State Forest for the Jersey Devil, a fearsome beast whose legend dates back more than two centuries.

In the light of a roaring campfire, they listened to tales of the Devil - of scary encounters, blood-curdling shrieks, ferocious howls, and greenish-yellow eyes that glow in the inky night.

Then they gathered their courage and set off to hunt the monster, usually described as having wings and a horse face, though the chances of seeing it were highly unlikely.

"A lot of sightings can be explained as some kind of encounter with one of the natural creatures," said Juelg, director of outreach for the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, an environmental watchdog group. "When somebody hears something, they're probably hearing the wild animals of the area.

"But some of the sightings aren't so easy to explain. No one explanation can account for the whole phenomenon."

Juelg's hunt Thursday night - with five adults and 20 students from Harrington Middle School in Mount Laurel - was one of at least three he will conduct this fall. Those set for Nov. 13 and Dec. 4 are booked.

Standing in a moonlit Batona campsite, with the fire crackling and a banjo playing, Bobby Sunderland of Mount Laurel wasn't sure what to expect.

"I like a little mystery," said Sunderland, 41, a Coast Guard chief warrant officer, whose son was attending. "I like to say, 'Yeah, there's a possibility' " of something being out there.

His 14-year-old, Burke, was skeptical. He wanted more than stories; he wanted proof. "I think there is a chance there's an animal and that people are just exaggerating," he said.

'We need mystery'

John Dighton is a skeptic, too. The Rutgers University biology professor and director of the Pinelands Field Research Station doesn't believe there's anything to the myth.

"People have stories, and they pass them around over campfires and beer," he said. "What the truth is, nobody knows, and that's part of the appeal. It's the appeal of folklore in general."

Visitors get frightened and "see things they didn't really see," Dighton said.

"I don't know what it is out there, and I don't want to know," he said. "That spoils the whole idea of it."

The Jersey Devil is much like the Loch Ness Monster, added the English native.

"It may be there, it may not be," he said. "We need mystery in life. . . . But I think it's people's imagination running away with them."

Tell that to those who say they have seen the Jersey Devil.