Research Progress Report - Cailen

                My contributions to the project are going splendidly in my opinion. I am tasked with the geographical layout of the trail and its construction methods. I have admittedly done little research on construction methods, and I have been focusing more on the trail layout.

                I began my research on trail layout by defining some important characteristics of a good trail. For this trail, I decided that the relatively difficulty of the trail should be low so that novice riders can use it and riders who rely on it for daily commuting are not tired out by it. This was my absolute primary goal in researching trail locations. Secondary considerations were also defined, but these became obsolete as the primary criterion was used to cancel all but one possible trail route. I took three different road routes from Clemson to Six Mile and paid close attention to the terrain as I followed along. In general, roads are graded to reduce hilly terrain, so I paid more attention to the hills and geographical features along the side of the road than I did to the road itself. The trail would likely have to follow near the road, although it is not necessarily coincident with it, so this research strategy was justified.  In travelling the three different routes, I immediately noticed that two of the potential routes were far too hilly to be considered as possible bike routes. As the routes neared Lake Hartwell, they became especially unfriendly to casual bikers. Even the road had long uphills in excess of a quarter mile. Exploring the routes between these main candidates proved that the terrain was equally hilly between. I eventually settled on the middle route, which parallels SC Highway 133, as its terrain was the simplest for casual riders. This is also likely why they built a main highway along this route; the terrain is gentle.

-Cailen