Christmas Is Almost Here!!!

Well since it's Christmas Break, everyone was busy so no one had a chance to get out and do some work on the trail. So no actually work has been done other than the hardening of the dirt that we need to move at the crossing! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!!

Saturday Work Days

Well this Saturday we went out and worked for 5 hours straight. We managed to clean a lot of the trail up and fix minor imperfections. My senior project is still on hold due to the dirt not being compact enough. I will go out next time and check to see when I believe we can resume working. Till then I will continue to volunteer.

Градот го уништи

For those of you can not read Macedonian, my title means "The City Ruined It!". I forgot my blog last week and a lot has happened since. The city provided us with the pipe we needed, but without telling my mentor or I dropped it into the middle of our crossing ruining all the work we have done so far. Now we have to wait for the dirt to get hard enough to bring the heavy machinery down there to fix the whole site. 

Since we can not work on my portion of the project right now, they began working on the actual trails. I have volunteered to help and I still go out Tuesdays and Fridays. I even picked up a sweet souvenir, a bad case of poison ivy!!

Rain rain go away.

The rain cancelled our tuesday work day, so this week I have yet to work. Tomorrow (friday) we are working again, sadly I don't have any helping hands because they are all busy playing football against the men on the school staff. We will be working on clearing out the area for the 6 foot wide by 10 feet long tube to guide water safely under the passing. Tomorrow should be a successful day, but only time will tell. Till then!

Machete, Chainsaw, and 4 boys. :)

Well since last friday, we've definitely made some progress. Here are pictures from last friday.

The walk down to the ravine.

The Ravine From both sides. 

Now you have seen what we will be crossing, there is also a creek in the middle of this whole mess. This Tuesday, with the help of Thomas Wildeman and Brad Thorne, my mentor and I made some progress in clearing some of the shrubbery away to see where the path will go. After our work shots.

These pictures are still fairly hard to see what exactly is happening, we have much more work to do! This Friday is our next work day, so we'll see what we can get done!

Change of plans.

Change of plans, no more bridge. Or at least for now.. Mr. Turner and I went out to the site for a view of the site. It is very over grown and the whole concept of a bridge got very complicated with the given circumstances. We examined every aspect of getting down the ravine, crossing the ravine and getting back up the other side. Water drainage was a big problem but we are avoiding those problems of having the trail washed away. We may build a bridge depending on how we can make this work best. My end goal is not changed, because I am still working to get across this ravine. The next work day is tuesday! I am excited and can't wait to get back out there.

It's over.

The most hectic and stressful week of school so far is over! I had to drop work (that means getting paid!!), extra curricular activities, and sleep all over a research paper. I did miss last weeks blog, we were not in school so I didn't think we would need to turn one in. Due to some phone complications this past month, I no longer have the phone number of my mentor either and since he is on the other side of town I have had no time to go and talk to him. I will be doing this saturday though to talk about some details so I can get started!! I will also calling Mr. Thorne afterwards to set up a meeting at Duncan Park, as he asked to see the site, to look at my plans with the site. I hope to be able to meet Mr. Thorne this weekend to see the site, or early next week. Then I plan to get back to Eric and finalize some things and hopefully start purchasing some wood within the next weeks. I am beginning to plan now, so I don't have problems of finding free time to do this, thanks to the suggestions that were comments on my previous blog.

Oh Senior Project, how much I love you.

Well I've had free time this week but it was quickly consumed by my research paper. I'm finally getting progress on it and I can see some of the paper coming together in my mind already. Mr. Thorne contacted me as well and has notes for me and would like to go out to the site with me soon and I plan to schedule that the next free time I have.

Frustrating..

Every week I come back to type something in here and realize that the week just flew by and little work has been done. This week I have been working on my research paper and I am getting work done on that. Otherwise I've been busy with the last week of soccer, shinsplints, playoff game, volleyball game support and this Friday State Championship! I am off to get some sleep now for the big day.

Back to Responsibilities

We had the senior retreat this weekend and I would call it nothing short of amazing. We all had a great time and I couldn't have asked to go with a better group. I learn a lot about myself and plan to apply that to my Senior Project and working with others. I have to get on the ball with my project and it's very stressful with soccer and all the other things going on. I plan to go to Duncan Park to take some picture this weeken, so I can have a proper sit down with Mr. Thorne and show him my design again and also pictures of the site! Wish me luck!

A week or a month?..

I've been having an awful time with many things and I have had trouble doing my work and focusing. This week has felt like a month, so this week I haven't done much at all. I have revised my proposal and honestly that is all. I struggled to get the proposal done so, this is not easy for me at all right now.

Proposal Done

I have finished my proposal and it went significantly well. I have my project approved and very good suggestions for what I need to do next. I have gotten in contact with Mr. Thorne and he has been reviewing my bridge design and I plan to meet with him soon. I will also contact Erica Turner to find out about Parks and Recreations involvement with this project and if it will be a problem if I build this bridge. I am excited to get working on this soon and am happy for all my fellow seniors who got their projects approved. Let's keep up the good work!

Gearing Up for the Proposal

Lately I have been trying to perfect small details to further prove to the board I can handle and accomplish this task. I have done a rough estimate for the cost of the entire project and I believe it is just about right. However I did not stop there. I drew up a sketch of what I believe the bridge will look like, including the supports and plan to call Mr. Throne and ask to meet him to discuss my design and idea. He is a structural engineer and will provide great help and advice to perfect my design.

1 Mile In and Still Pedaling

Well, things have been busy lately with school, soccer and of course senior project, but I have gotten some work done. I recently picked up my mentor form from Mr. Turner and figured out my research paper. The research paper topic is about bike paths on public roads in South Carolina, as a means of transportation which I am really excited to get to know more about. Biking on roads is a great way to stay in shape and still work around those busy schedules.

My proposal was worked out as well and I feel confident in my ability to speak in front of the board members and tell them what I want to do. The project so far has been good so far, however I'm still at the beginning of this project, and I look forward to future progress.

The Summit Has Been Reached

After some struggling with getting in contact and seeing eye-to-eye with the Camp Croft officials, I went to my fall back plan and went to Bikeworx to talk to Mr. Eric Turner. He told me the opportunity was still open to help and I asked him what he needs help with. He told me a good project would be to make a bridge to cross a ravine at the beginning of the Duncan Park project. This will be a twenty foot long bridge and about eight feet wide. Yes, it's rather large, but will only be three or four feet off the ground.

My immediate reaction was funding, but Eric told me they have money set aside so all the money is there. This was a great relief to me. The bridge will be a challenge because it is off the ground and rather large, but if it is completed it will be the key factor of people getting into the park which will be a great success to me. I am trying to get some wood together, with the help of Mr. Foy to try and save some money so they can use it on other things that will need work and money. The project is not a one man job, and I will need some help occasionally and Mr. Turner has offered to lend a hand, as he is anxious to start the project, and some fellows students have offered (though their commitment will be questionable).

Thankfully, my struggle of not getting answers and unsure about my project has come to an end and I have my project set. It will take a lot of effort and time, but it should be fun to do as well. The design process should begin fairely soon and construction should start around early novemeber.

The Journey Begins

First and foremost I want to welcome you to my blog about my Senior Project. I hope you can provide me with great feedback and help me realize things I hadn't thought of yet, making my Senior Project throughly planned out.

I have had my idea since the last half of my junior year and towards the end of summer I began a making some phone calls. My original plan was to build ladder bridges or burn walls at Camp Croft Bike Park in Spartanburg, SC. I have attached some pictures to clarify and show everyone what exactly I'd like to do. The first four pictures are ladder bridges and the fifth is a burn wall.



(If you would like the higher resolution pictures to see better please let me know)


After a visit to a local bike shop, Bikeworx, I talked to the owner Eric and he seemed enthusiastic about my idea and gave me the number of a Croft State Park official, Mr. John Moon, to talk to. He also mentioned a different project, which was to help with a new bike park they are trying to create in Duncan Park sometime around January-February. I thought this through and then called Mr. Moon, who at first was very receptive of my idea, and was told they would call me back with a project idea.

A week went by and I received a call from Mr. Moon describing a project he had in mind for me. He asked me to rebuild two bridges on a hiking trail. This wasn't what I had intended on doing and talked more with him and then realized we weren't on the same page. I sent him some pictures, the same as above, to visual show what I meant by ladder bridges (not actual bridges for crossing gaps). I am now waiting on a reply from Mr. Moon which I expect early this week. I will call back Tuesday if I have no received a response and if that doesn't work I will begin talking to Eric about the Duncan Park project.

Danny