War zone

    Since even before it was a national park, the rangers at Congaree National Park (though they may have been monumenters when it was Congaree Swamp National Monument) have maintained a Mosquito Meter near the office/ visitors' center. It goes up to 6, or War Zone. Today it was there, for the first time ever in my memory. I think the rangers must think the visitors are really hyper-sensitive; all summer the meter readings have been much higher than they used to be, while I haven't noticed that the mosquitoes were particularly bad at all.
    Still and all, I didn't make a very long visit. Congaree NP features an elevated boardwalk, a low boardwalk, and miles of trails. In general, if the bugs are bad, you keep to the elevated boardwalk. They're worse on the low boardwalk and intolerable on the trails. It's probably just me, but I never have any problem with mosquitoes, because I keep moving. It's buzzing and bombarding flies that make me crazy. I'm not a big fan of them going down the back of my shirt, either. But today there was almost none of that. I made the entire boardwalk loop, including both elevated and low, and had very few flying insect problems. I also went about ten feet on a trail, but the buzzing of flies was so loud that I decided that trail season was probably over once and for all (I know I've said this already) at Congaree NP.
    I dunno; I found it a lovely morning. Maybe the rangers just got tired of visitors. Or maybe they're selling "I survived the War Zone!" t-shirts-- I know I would!