Cohuttas and a Backpack

Hi, everybody. Well, I'm one tired yellow dog, but I've got to tell y'all about our latest adventure while the Food Guy's taking a break from catching up on work and cleaning some gear. He's been tapping away at the keyboard since we got home this afternoon, but now that he's cleaning the stove and our water filter I'll fill you all in on our latest trip. We left Athens on Monday morning and rolled over to the ATL to pick up Lisa (aka the treat lady/the Food Guy's girlfriend) and then we cruised up 75 North to our favorite place: The Conasauga River Trail. We parked at Betty Gap and walked along the Conasauga River for a few hours before we stopped to make camp for the night.

We took a couple of breaks along the way to stop and enjoy the view. It was a great walk, and we crossed the river 50, yes 50!, times. It was so cool!

I was wearing my pack, so I didn't run around the trail very much. I was in working mode, you see. I had to conserve my energy. So, mostly I just walked along with the Food Guy and the Treat Lady. I stayed right with them all day long. Once we got to camp the first night, I ran around smelling things and checking the place out while the people collected firewood and put up our mobile, mobile dog/people house. Then, we ate a little dinner and went to bed. I was pretty worn out. But that was nothing compared to the second night. Ughh!

On Tuesday morning we got up, put our packs on and hiked for a few hours to the trailhead at Panther Creek. Once we got there, we stashed out packs and hiked up to Panther Creek Falls. This place was amazing! There were some people there who had a black lab, who wasn't so smart. He was nice enough, but when he saw me he started running and almost fell off the falls. It was very scary. That's why I always stay with my people. They know how to keep me out of trouble. Check out these views on the Panther Creek Trail.

We looked at the falls for a few minutes, then we hiked back to our packs and had some food. Then, we put our packs back on, and started hiking back up the trail to the really cool campsite that we'd found in the morning. It was so pretty. You could hear the creek all night, and there was lots of cool stuff there. I was SO TIRED though. Hiking with a pack is hard work, even for a dog who goes running every day. I passed out while the the people cooked some dinner and enjoyed the pretty campsite. We were all passed out at 8:30. Yup, that's right 8:30. It wasn't even really dark yet.

We saw so many cool things on our trip. Check out this Rhodie growing on a rock:

The Cohuttas are the coolest place. I'm glad there aren't too far from our house in Boone. I hope we come back here a lot! Well, I'm tired and my paws are worn out from all the adventuring the last 3 days. You can be sure we have lots of adventures coming up. Food Guy defends his dissertation on Tuesday, and then we'll have even more time to go out and see stuff. We are planning to go back to the Cohuttas a few more times before we move to Boone, so stay tuned for more tails (ha ha) from our trips.