So, Godfrey is back out on the trail. We're at the Walden Creek Trail.
Last time we were here, it was in the middle of winter,
so this entire trail was covered with snow. And he is back. Godfrey is back.
At least for now. So, he's got this arthritic problem in his left front leg,
which causes him to limp sometimes. So, I'm going on this easy trail to see how he fares.
Um, because I don't want to tax him too much cuz I'm not sure how many of these he's got left. But
he's back, at least for now, and he's not limping too bad today. Some days are better than others.
So, we'll see how it goes. So, as luck would have it, the original trail we were going to
go on today is a e is an easier trail than this one. This one's pretty easy,
but um I got about I don't know mile or two from the trail head and was turned away by a
wildfire crew. So, that one was canceled. And that one was it's a good easy hike for him.
Um because it also has some water crossings that are kind of fun. This
one's a little bit more boring. It's sort of like a forest service road
until you get up. God for this way. This fool's taking the wrong trail.
I don't know if you can notice the limp. It's very slight cuz he's so hyped up. But yeah,
the other one, Godfree, don't eat things. I It's either arthritis or eating stupid things.
So, the other one I think is a shorter, easier, but probably more entertaining uh for Godfrey.
So, when I was turned around by the crew, I started doing a search for other trails,
and it's hard to find anything. and we're in the North Georgia mountains and it's kind
of hard to find something on the spur of the moment that my dog would be able to hike. So,
this one we've been on before and I think it's far enough away from the wildfires that we don't have
to worry about it. Took almost about a half an hour to get from the first trail to this trail. So
today's just really all about experimenting to see how well Godfrey will do on these easier trails
with this brand new limp. So like I said, this is a pretty easy trail. And as we pulled in today,
right behind me, there was a car that was coming. And I'm just right now spying the other hikers to
see if they have a dog. As long as they don't have a dog, I'm in good good shape. Yeah, they don't.
And they look like they're going in the other direction, which is also good.
Or maybe they're coming in this direction. Maybe
we already walked all the way around. But anyway, um
just wanted to make sure they didn't have another dog cuz Godfrey hates dogs.
Just make it a more peaceful hike.
This is not a heavily trafficked trail because I think it's there's not much to
see other than a waterfall at the end. And even the waterfall is kind of, you know, just average.
But I've saved this one as one of Godfreyy's favorites cuz it's a easy trail, but it's a
little steep. Well, it's just there's just this incline till you get to the falls. It's
not a bad incline. It's just the other trail really didn't have much of an incline at all.
And that's was the one I was looking to try to get him back out on the trail to see how how well he
does. And this would have been probably the one that I did second if the first one went well.
We'll see. Hopefully he does a good job
and doesn't get more injured and I'm not actually doing him a disservice.
But we did go to the vet. He he did have a vet visit and that's what the
vet told me that it was arthritis in his shoulder. So osteoarthritis in his hips,
arthritis in his left shoulder, me and my geriatric dog.
So, we are in the first few days of spring and it's been kind of a little bit of a weather roller
coaster in North Georgia. We've gone from highs in the 80s to highs in the lower 50s,
upper 40s. Today's one of the cooler days. It's probably about upper 50s,
maybe 58, 59 degrees, close to 60. Skye's overcast, so no not much sun
today. It's just kind of gray. Leaves are just starting to bud on the trees.
And I think tomorrow it's supposed to hit 80 again.
Kind of a crazy roller coaster weather ride.
But it's a nice day for a hike, especially with it being overcast and no leaves on
the trees yet. So, you're not having the sun beat down on you
and it's relatively cool.
You know, I keep talking about Godfree's limp, but it's, you know,
constantly on my mind as he gets older. Oh, here we go. Mud. Never met mud. He didn't like
um Godfrey. This way. Come on. Get out of there. You in the mud. Come on.
is that uh thing about his limp is that when he's sedentary, you know, he's laying down for several
hours, he gets up and the limp is a little pronounced and then as he's walking around
in the yard, it kind of goes away a little. like right now if you're looking at them on the video
which should be on the website or there'll be a YouTube link on the on the podcast post. But he
doesn't look too bad. I mean, he's not really I can I can notice a little bit of a limp,
but it's not too pronounced right now. But of course, he's kind of hyped up to be out hiking
again. It's been months only because we had the holidays. Um, and then, uh, a few weeks ago he
started developing that limp. So, I was trying to write it out to see how well he would do.
We'll see how he is uh, after I get him back home. and what he's like tomorrow morning to
see whether or not I take him out hiking again on these types of trails, even these easy ones.
So, just like that, we are almost to the falls. This is such a short trail. That's why it almost
doesn't make it worth it because it's really just all for service road until you get to the falls.
And there is some nice neat little falls. I mean, you'll see it in a minute or if you go back some
episodes on the podcast or on the blog. And I'm not sure if I YouTubed this one yet, but it will
be this time. You can see the falls. We're just right around the corner now. So, here we are.
This is the approach to the falls. You're right next to the stream. You see the falls off in the
distance. Maybe coming up to it soon. So, it looks like a little bit of storm damage. Some fresh cut
trees across this part of the trail. A bunch of trees fell down since the last time we were here.
So, there are two sets of falls. This time, I won't even try the upper ones. These lower falls,
there's some upper falls. I won't even go down. Godfrey, no. No, no, no, no. Don't go down there.
You can't get back up. Maybe we'll go the other way. The other side. We'll try to go down where
it's flat and then cross. How about that? Come on. This way. We'll go down to the bottom, cross over,
and go take a look. Hopefully, we can get our views in before the other hikers get here.
So, we're sort of trying to bushwack it through the wet side. See if I can get over there because
I think it's the only way he can really be at that area of the water. We'll see. Getting
a little bit closer. So, because of his gimpy leg, I know it's insensitive to call him gimpy,
but that's that's how we roll. Um, actually coming across on this side. It's kind of neat
because we get a different view of the creek and the falls. See if I can get over there without
uh falling in the drink. Come on, Godfrey. Why are you taking the the absolute worst way?
You got to go around the other way.
Sometimes I swear he speaks English. Come on this way.
Well, we are close to the front. I don't know if he can make it here. So,
we did it. He found his way up. I didn't think he could do it. He did it.
So, he's not too feeble to bark at the water in the falls.
Trying to find a way to get to me, but here we are right up against them. And he made
it pretty much all the way. So, he's not too worn out to grab giant sticks.
At least he's got that going for him.
So, he did more than I thought he'd be able to do. I mean,
we took the shallow route route route, but he made it. It's an accomplishment.
Good times had by all. And just like that, after only a measly 45 minutes,
we're done with the highlight of the whole trail. I suppose be worth it if uh Godfrey comes out with
uh flying colors when it comes to his arthritic legs and hips.
Off we go. Let's go. Now I just got to keep watch for the other hikers and get Godfrey
back on leash if we spot them. Wonder if they went off on a different trail.
Here we go. Back to the Jeep. So, unless the hikers that were behind us take a lot of breaks,
they must have gone in on a different trail. I'm always so concerned about
that because I really like being alone or alone with this big galute.
alone where I record things and then post them to YouTube.
There's got to be uh some kind of diagnosis for that kind of behavior. It's like the guys who used
to be on talk radio who they don't say a word when they're not on the air. when that when they're on
the air, they just talk up a storm. And I'm not saying I'm that chatty, but I think you get the
picture, but I think we should have run into them by now if they were coming up behind us.
I think I would recommend this trail especially for families,
maybe with kids, if kids who maybe don't like to hike. It's not that
long of a hike to the falls and then you've got the falls at the end.
So, that makes it kind of nice. And it's not it's definitely not a hard trail. There's no
climbing involved. It's just walking up this uh wide forest road, forest service road,
you know, or maybe people who can't do the hard trails, um but still want to go hiking.
This this won't be perfect. I mean, you get at least a little reward at the end.
And it's enough of a workout. You know, if you go slow, then it's fine. But,
you know, if you if you That's not from Godfrey. If you go at a steady pace,
um, you can actually work up a sweat. I had to take off my long sleeve shirt because
um walking up the you know the in the constant incline um still work up a sweat.
So Godfrey just had a water break and you can see he's a little more wobbly than he was at the
beginning. You know, it's the difference between being hyped to being back up for being back out
on the trail and now he's tired for walking a few miles. But I think overall he looks no worse for
wear. We're just a few probably five minutes away from the Jeep and then we head back home.
Just like that, we're back at the Jeep. Going to hit the road and head home.