Fireflies at Elkmont - Day 3 (Little River – Rough Creek – Sugarland Mtn – HuskyGap – Little River)

Date: 6/7/15
Distance: 16.4 miles

Day 3 started with an oatmeal breakfast before tearing down camp.  After loading up the car, I walked over to the GSHAG breakfast that JD and friends had prepared, so I had a 2nd breakfast of eggs and sausage and bacon.  After two nights of little sleep, I was moving slow and getting a headache, so I decided to hit the trail and see if I could hike it out of me.  I started up the Little River Trail with the goal of marking off the Rough Creek Trail.  Little River is a gravel road for most of the hike to Rough Creek (about 4.6 miles) with very little elevation gain.  Rough Creek starts the big climb up the mountain to the Sugarland Mtn trail.  My GPS didn't lock until I reached Sugarland, but it was 4500' and the Little River Trail starts at less than 2500.

Rough Creek follows a creek most of the way up the mountain with a few small creek crossings on this day, but water levels were very low in the park.  I think the 1st crossing could be more difficult if water is high.

 About 2/3rds of the way up, there was a major blowdown that I had to crawl through.  There were several spots along the trail that the vegetation along the side was encroaching on the trail making it hard to see where you were putting your feet.

After lots of sweating on this hot day, I finally reach the Sugarland Mtn trail and got a good view of the Chimney tops in the distance.

 Instead of backtracking, I turned left on Sugarland Mountain and started my hike back towards Elkmont.  Sugarland Mountain was a nice trail with several nice views.

 After 4.1 miles on Sugarland Mountain, I turned left on Husky gap.  I had recalled that Husky Gap was straight down to Little River, but it actually had a few small climbs as it made its way down.  One especially beautiful spot was on Husky Gap.  The forest floor was just covered with ferns.

 The 2.1 miles on Husky Gap seemed longer than 2.1 as I was starting to get tired, but eventually I got back to Little River and turned right toward the car.  The final 2.8 miles on Little River seemed long as well.  I find that very flat trails aren't to my liking.  I'd rather have some ups and downs.  The Little River Trail is very flat in this section.

I did see a few nice flowers on the way back.

 These are a few shots of where we stood to watch the fireflies the 1st night.  Because it was so dark, we had no idea what was in the area.

Pretty tough hike after 2 nights of poor sleep.  I was so tired on the drive home that I broke my > 1 year of abstinence and stopped for a Mountain Dew on the way home.  Fortunately I managed to stay awake for the ride home.

Fireflies at Elkmont - Day 2 (Metcalf Bottoms – Little Brier Gap – Little Greenbrier – Roundtop)

Date: 6/6/15
Distance: 11.6

Day 2 started with "odds and ends" breakfast out of my trail food box.  I packed up Stephanie and sent her on her way towards Pigeon Forge, and I met up with the Meetup group for a hike.

We started by driving to the Wye and leaving a few cars before shuttling back to Metcalf bottoms.  The hike started on the Metcalf Bottoms trail which covers 0.7 miles before terminating at the old school house and cemetery.

 We continued the hike on the Little Brier Gap trail which is just a gravel road.  About 1 mile down this trail is the side trail to the Walker Sisters Cabin.  The story of the Walker Sisters is well described on Wikipedia.  The basic idea is that 5 spinster sisters lived off the land well after the park was formed.  The last sister died in the 60's and she was still living off the land at the cabin.

 After backtracking the 0.1 miles to the trail, we continued up the mountain on Little Brier Gap.  There were some rare wildflowers along the way.

Little Brier Gap terminates at Little Greenbrier after covering 1.5 miles.  We took a left on Little Greenbrier and followed it for 1.9 miles until it reached the road that connects Wears Valley to Metcalf Bottoms.  At the road, we turned left and walked 100 yards down the road to the Roundtop Trailhead.  Roundtop is a neat trail as it spends lots of time up on the ridge, so there are some nice views of the valley below.

 I believe this wildflower is pipsissewa.

 This one is spreading pagonia.

 I believe this one is Dolls Eyes.

At the end of the hike, we waded the river at the Wye to get back to the cars for the ride home.  It felt like we climbed more than we actually did.

For dinner, I attended the GSHAG potluck.  There was some really good cowboy stew and grilled corn that made dinner great after a long day on the trail.

For the 2nd night of fireflies, I wandered up to the cemetary up above the K loop of the campground.  The bugs once again did a great job.

Once again I slept sparingly.