Day Thirteen

Today is my last day on Senior Project. I spent the morning writing my self evaluation which took me longer than I thought. I spent about 5 hours writing it because I wanted it to reflect what I had done. I felt that I worked hard on all the other parts and if my essay was not good, it would pull the grade down for the rest of the project.

I also photoshopped a picture adding lines that represent trails. I took this picture from the top of the Backwater ski hill last night. From this perspective the the Bulkhead and Balanced Rock are visible. The trails up to each are in blue and the trail I made is in yellow. I think this will give students a better understanding of where the trail is as most of them have not hiked in this area. I have only talked to about three people that have actually bushwhacked through before I completed the project. I was surprised to see the distance between the two features. Looking at Ragged Mountain from the top of Blackwater, the distance seemed even greater than when I was working the trail. I am glad I waited to look at it after the trail was completed as it may have made the project more daunting.

I chose to write this blog today, on Wednesday, as I am now done with the project. Mountain Classroom came back this morning and Ben was surprised I finished the trail. I think some of them may hike the trail this afternoon and camp out up top. It is amazing to me how much all of the Mountain students change. I think it would be great if they actually camped up there tonight. I will probably end up joining them if they do.

Overall I really ended up enjoying the project. It was a lot of labor intensive work but it was fun as I knew I was doing all of it for a good cause. This sort of drove me to make the trail better and better. I wanted to try to make something that would last. I think this will and I have already got emails from people who have hiked the trail. All of them have shared positive thoughts on the new trail which is rewarding feedback for me to hear. Please pass along any feedback that you might have if you hike the trail as I am willing to make changes even after the project is completed (within reason). Enjoy the new link between the Bulkhead and Balanced Rock!