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.
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