Day 9, July 12-Waverly, TN to Mousetail Landing State Park (Linden, TN)

53.26 miles

N35.40 X W88.00.

Finally, my first café latte of the trip. We biked back to downtown Waverly, and visited the Waverly Café. The menu included espresso coffee, so I enjoyed my first café latte in a week. Not as good as Courthouse Coffee, but good! At the Waverly Café, we met Sue and Charlie. They were biking the Underground Railroad northbound. These are experienced bikers having done the transcontinental Northern Tier, SouthernTier, and the original transcontinental route, plus the Great Rivers route. We enjoyed swapping stories with them. Today’s bike was a little calmer. The hills were there with several challenging ones, but we also had some places where the grades were not so steep and long allowing rest between the challenges. It was a much more pleasant ride today. We did come upon a snake today. Of course, I (Clarkwheel) can’t pass up a snake. It was about a 2 footer, very dark with even darker spots. I stopped and went back for a better look. I’m not about to pick up a snake that I can’t identify, but I can’t help but study it a bit. I touched it with a stick and it immediately flattened its head and formed a hood like a cobra. It also hissed loudly. So I’m stumped. The worst hill of the day was inside the Mousetail Landing State Park. The road to the campground was the steepest I have ever encountered. I couldn’t stay in the saddle and pedal because my front wheel would lift off the pavement and I don’t have the stamina to stand and pedal over a long distance…so, yes, I walked or rather pushed with all my strength. Of course, Spokewrench refused to walk and, after several stops and starts, managed to pedal up that monster. Upon reaching the top of the hill, he found his pulse to be 184.

Today’s question: Based on the description above, what kind of snake did we find today?