We just barely arrived in time to get settled and attend the ranger presentation at 8:00. We’ve enjoyed those whenever possible, and it was interesting to contrast this one with the others we’ve seen. The presentations we saw in Yosemite and Devils Tower were about the history of the parks, which largely centered on the native Indian beliefs about the area and the founding of the respective parks, and about the wildlife in the region. The presentation at Cumberland was notably different in that it focused on the history of the “white man” in the area, from the original exploration and surveys of the area, to the pioneers who settled in the area, to the impact of the Union and Confederate armies as they sought to use the Gap as a military installation. This is not a criticism of the presentation; I think it’s merely a reflection of this part of the country; settled for longer and used for a variety of purposes before becoming a park.
The campground itself was… not one we will rush to repeat. The individual campsites were thickly overgrown with trees and underbrush, so much so that it seemed darker much earlier than we were used to. The bugs were thick, particularly and especially in the rudimentary camp shower. Compared to the luxurious showers of the previous campground, these were an experience to be tolerated and rushed through as quickly as possible. The upside was that it was a fairly cool evening, so much so that I actually zipped up some of the screens in the upper bunk, just to warm things up a smidge.
Is there a rhyme or reason to the duration and interval of the blinking of fire flies? At a campground some nights ago, I watched across a field and it seemed like the blinks were very brief in duration and a fairly steady seven seconds apart. On this evening however, I couldn’t find a rhyme nor reason. Some illuminations were the expected brief flash, some lasted several seconds. Some creatures waited in excess of 15 seconds between blinks, while others pulsed three or four seconds apart. Very strange.