Blue Ghosts and Christmas Lights

During the last weekend in April, our service unit held our annual encampment at Camp WaBak.  In case you’re not familiar with our troop, we’ve got two levels – Cadettes and Juniors.  Just the Juniors went for Encampment this year since the Cadettes were going backpacking a few weeks later.  We had beautiful spring weather for Encampment.  The Juniors’ behavior, not so beautiful.  We won’t discuss it.  Anyway, that Saturday night, I was in charge of the campfire program for the SU.  Afterward, our Junior co-leader took the girls back to the cabin to get ready for bed while I put the fire out, and then I’d head back on my own.

It was about 9:30pm, and I took the (established) shortcut through the woods to get to the cabin.  Right at the edge of the woods, a strange bug hovering in front of my eyes made me stop.  It sort of looked like a lightning bug.  Something told me to turn off my headlamp.  I couldn’t see the bug anymore, but as my eyes got accustomed to the dark, I turned and looked into the woods.

I saw fairies with blue lanterns.

Before you say I’ve finally lost it and delete the bookmark to this blog, just bear with me.  There were I would guess a hundred of these small blue-green luminescent lights slowly floating right above the ground.  I probably stood there for a minute or so in amazement.  I turned my headlamp on and made my way down to where they were.  I turned the light back off, and when I saw complete darkness again, the lights returned.  There were a few in the pathway, so I got down as close as I could and saw the same type bug I had encountered at the top of the hill.  My headlamp emits a faint green glow after it’s turned off, and I noticed some of the lights starting to make their way over to me as if I was the mothership.

This was one of the most amazing, and for lack of a better word, magical things I’ve ever seen.  Fairy-like was the first thing that popped in my head.  I stood there for a few more minutes in awe and then remembered I needed to get back.  Once I got to the point where there weren’t any more around me, I couldn’t help but look back for yet another minute.  I hoofed it back to the cabin with the intention of rounding up the girls to come see this sight.  However, by the time I got there, they were already in bed and calmed down.  We had really struggled with them all day, and the fact that they had finally settled down was almost as magical of a sight as the fireflies.  It’s a pretty good haul from the cabin to where I saw them, so I decided against taking the girls.  I still feel a little guilty about it though.  I tried taking a video and some pictures, but due to their low light, they didn’t show up.

After some research, it turns out these fireflies are a rare type known as Blue Ghosts (Phausis reticulate).  You can read more about them here.  They’re only found in a few places  in Western North Carolina, most notably in Dupont State Forest which holds watching events and limits the number of people that can attend.  They only come out between two to four weeks out of the year, so seeing them is obviously a special treat.  I feel lucky enough to have seen them and also that apparently Camp WaBak is home to them as well.  I let the council staff know and suggested some sort of future viewing event just for our Girl Scouts!  I do plan on bringing the Juniors back when we’re prepared for it.  If I don’t go insane from leading their meetings first.

A few weeks later, our Cadettes went on our backpacking trip that I mentioned earlier.  We traveled down to Congaree National Park near Columbia, SC to witness the synchronous fireflies that they’re famous for.  This year has seemed to shape up as The Year of the Firefly for me.

So why are they known as synchronous?  Because Photinus carolinu actually do blink in unison.  They’re also found in the Great Smoky Mountains, and like Dupont, the park holds viewing events.  It’s so popular that there’s a lottery in order to plan a visit.  When Cheryl (the other Cadette co-leader) first told me about them, I don’t know that I fully believed her.  Completely in unison?  I had to see it to believe it.  Unfortunately, Cheryl wasn’t able to make the trip, but the rest of us went anyway.  I still feel a little guilty about this too, and I promised I would make it up to her.  I really will, Cheryl!  Girl Scout’s honor!  Catherine, a Cadette parent of ours and a Brownie leader in another service unit, accompanied us on our trek.  Catherine takes a ton of pictures, so she should be our OFFICIAL troop photographer.  I don’t see that as a role in myGS (aka CEI) though.  Oh well.

Like the Blue Ghosts, the synchronous fireflies do their thing only for a few weeks out of the year.  We booked the campsite back in February and took a gamble on the date.  The park says they usually show up sometime between early May and early June, and they update their website with first appearances and information closer to show time.  We hit it just right on May 18-19.

I think we were slack this year about packing in general, because many of the girls’ pre-pack weight was at the max they could carry.  During our check in that morning, there was a lot of going through and pulling things that weren’t absolutely necessary before we could distribute the troop gear.  We also had to carry more water than last year because for one, it was going to be hot and humid with a high of 94, and two, there was no water source that was close by.  Two hours later, we arrived at Congaree.  Our campsite was a mile from the parking lot, and we loaded up our gear and hit the trail.  By the time we started, it was over 90º.

I’ll skip all of the setting up camp rigamarole and tell you what Congaree National Park is all about.  It’s not the “prettiest” park by a long shot because there’s a lot of swampland, but it is neat in its own way.  According to the website, it’s “the largest intact expanse of old growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the southeastern United States.”  This means there are lots of champion trees there.  What the heck is a champion tree, you ask?  Why, it’s “one that is judged to be the largest of its species according to a standard formula. The formula is a point system based on trunk circumference, height and crown spread.”  To be eligible, trees must be native or naturalized to the United States according to this brochure from Congaree.

The synchronous fireflies are Congaree’s most famous bug, but there’s one that’s more plentiful and even has its own meter, and that is the mosquito.  Behold the Famous Mosquito Meter.  We were at DEFCON RUTHLESS.

After we set up camp, we stopped by the Visitors Center and then went hiking on the boardwalks and trails.  We circled around and caught the highlights of the park.  I wasn’t expecting much, but the park surprised me because the diversity is amazing.  Here are a few pictures from our hike:

We hiked about four miles and made our way back to camp for rest and dinner.  We were STARVING!  If you’re wondering, we cooked two bags of chicken flavored rice with veggies combined with packets of chicken plus a chunk of Velveeta cheese.  We ate two batches worth, and while we waited for darkness to fall, we cleaned up and put the “bear” bag up in the tree even though there are no bears in this area.  Just trash pandas.

Day turned to evening, and we made our way on the trail to the Visitors Center.  The park holds a Firefly Festival each weekend of firefly season, and it’s packed.  They close off the trails except for one pathway that circles through one of the firefly hotspots.  Since we were headed from the primitive campsites, we came in via a back trail which worked to our advantage.  Our campsite was right on the edge of a prescribed burn, but once we started entering the thick woods, I noticed a firefly that was going to town with its blinking and pointed it out to everybody.  I said it looked like it was at a rave and proceeded to beatbox a dance beat that matched up with the firefly’s flashes.  The girls groaned, but Catherine thought it was funny.  Thank you Catherine.

We were about a half mile from the Visitor Center at that point, and there were very few people on this particular trail since it was cordoned off from the general public.  The woods became thicker and it got DARK.  You’re not supposed to use flashlights during firefly season unless they have a red filter on them, and ours didn’t.  We could still make out the trail though.  Kinda.  I thought back to one of my very first blog posts about a dad and his kids who veered off the trail in Congaree and became lost.  I was afraid I’d eat my words, so I pulled out my flashlight and covered it up with my shirt so that there was just enough light to see what was in front of me.  The raver fireflies started to become more plentiful, and I wondered when we would actually see them sync up.  But I knew though there’d be no way these fireflies would outdo the Blue Ghost ones I saw at WaBak.  Nah, no way.  We continued down the dark, dark trail toward the Visitor Center, and all of a sudden, we were surrounded by white Christmas lights.

Yes, Christmas lights.  The blinking kind.  All in sync.

Like the Blue Ghost fireflies, I can’t begin to describe how amazing this was.  The fireflies actually blink on and off at the same time.  I stood there in awe just like I did at WaBak.  The girls asked if we were close to the Visitor Center, and I said I thought so.  Soon we came up on the rope that blocked off our trail.  The park volunteers let us through and the place was packed.  We grabbed red cellophane and stuck it over our flashlights, refilled our water bottles, and stopped by the restrooms to save us a trip to a tree during the night.

We made our way back through the crowd, and the volunteer in charge let us slip through the roped off area so that we could head back to camp.  Soon we were back in the middle of Christmas season again.  I kept making us stop over and over again so that I could stare at this wonder of nature.  At one point, I got so excited I just couldn’t help it:

Me:  OMG!  LOOK AT THIS!!  THIS IS AMAZING!!!  OMG!!!
Girls:  Mrs. Amy, you’re embarrassing us.
Me:  I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS.  WOW!  LOOK AT THEM!!  THEY’RE BLINKING!  IN UNISON!!!
Girls:  Are we going back to camp soon?
Me:  I COULD STAY HERE FOREVER AND WATCH THIS!!!  THIS IS CRAZY!!
Girls:  Mrs. Amy, we really want to head back.

Reluctantly, I kept walking.  We soon left the magical light show, and the fireflies started to decrease in number and became ravers again flashing to their own beat.  Catherine said these must be the Backstreet Boys fireflies.  “What?” I asked.  She said, “Yeah, because they’re not *NSYNC.  Get it?”  Ba-dump ching.  The girls asked who the Backstreet Boys were.

We got back to camp and even thought it was muggy and still hot, we made the obligatory campfire.  The Jiffy Pop we brought with us didn’t pop so well, but we had packed freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches as a treat.  We headed to bed, and I slept on top of my sleeping bag in shorts and a t-shirt.  At some point during the night, it got cool enough to make me slip inside my sleeping bag.

Catherine and I woke up to what I call The Morning Chorus, which is when all of the birds start the day off by collectively singing.  Normally the girls would be the ones to cook breakfast like they did for dinner, but we needed to be on the road by 10am due to things like award ceremonies and youth meetings that afternoon.  So Catherine and I let the girls sleep in, and we cooked the (pre-cooked) bacon and pancakes and then roused them out of the tents for breakfast.  We ate, cleaned, packed up, and made the mile trek back to the minivan.  It felt wonderful that morning, but by the time we left, it was starting to get HOT again.  We stopped at the entrance for one last picture:

This was definitely an amazing trip, and if you can make it to either the Smokies or Congaree to see the ‘N Sync fireflies, it’s worth the hassle to see the spectacle.  Same with the Blue Ghosts.   Isn’t nature cool?