I’m back in the saddle now. I had guests for the past week and lost access to my workout area. I resumed today with the third day of the 8th week of Tai Cheng. I am happy to report that the whole thing went very well. I haven’t lost any of my gains from the Tai Cheng program. I even performed the sequence correctly each time.
The day before the relatives arrived, I did a great 10 mile hike to a lesser known area around Blood Mountain called Blood Mountain Cove. The trail leads to two nice waterfalls. Since it was our first time hiking there, we veered off course a couple of times, adding to the adventure.
During one of our wayward traipses, I missed stepping on the head of a timber rattlesnake. I got about fifty-feet out in the field and suddenly, the great beast appeared before me. I tell ya he was ten stories high if he was a foot. Instinctively–plyometrically–I leapt aside. My mouth filled with the bitter taste from adrenaline. The snake, uninterested, did not move. I was grateful for it’s lack of interest. The bite of a timber rattlesnake is nothing to be trifled with. After I composed myself, I took its picture and continued back to the correct route.
The remainder of the hike was beautiful and non-life threatening. The falls at the end of the cove are worth the trip. This was the second snake spirit that visited me this year. An omen?