MESA Soccer Complex

1020 Anderson Ridge Road, Greer, SC
Road Race: Inspirational Speaker: Interactive Games

$10 Entry Fee includes Making a Choice T-Shirt, #19 Wristband

Calendar of Events

• 9:00: 1st Annual “Making a Choice” 5K Road Race (Registration available at setupevents.com)

• 10:30: Race Awards

• 11:00: Inspirational Speaker – Dr. Milt Lowder & Josh Bradley (Brookwood Church)

• 12:00 – 3:00: Interactive Games
  2 Age Groups (4th – 7th Grade and 8th – 12th Grade)
  Along with 8 Giant Inflatables, Rock Climbing Wall, Summer Camps & After School Activities Sign-ups & Information, Food & Fun for the Entire Family
• 6:30: “Evening with Vince Gill” – Bi-Lo Center (tickets available on TicketMaster.com)

The proceeds from this year’s event which includes The Mac 2009 Golf Tournament on Monday, April 20th at The Cliffs at Keowee Springs will benefit The Greenville Family Partnership, The Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Carolinas and the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Clubs.

Hosted by The Mac Foundation and CESA.  For more information visit themacfoundation.com

Sterling Community Center
June 19: 7 pm
June 20: 10 am – 6 pm

Time: 6:30-9       

Place: Gateway Park in Travelers Rest

Cost: $5 per child         

 Food is available for purchase

Please see the flyer for more information:

 Flashlight Egg Hunt 2010

The purpose of the plan is to “improve the quality of life in Greenville” as well as “stimulate economic growth through increases in tourism and real property value.” The proposed plan would also seek to “enhance, protect, and preserve the environmental quality of open space, waterways and wildlife habitats.”

The completed network would involve 128 total miles with three different kinds of trails. Greenway trails will be an 8 to 12 foot wide, paved trail with a rubberized surface in some sections. This would be useful for biking, running, or walking, with natural or “green” surroundings. Where off-road trails are impossible, street based trails will have a sidewalk or a bike lane. Finally, natural surface trails are ideal for environmentally sensitive areas, where a natural surface will be used such as dirt or mulch.

The plan outlines five major corridors, most of which link together near downtown where I-385 ends. The Reedy River corridor would include the Swamp Rabbit trail and stretch from Traveler’s Rest to Simpsonville and Fountain Inn. The Greenlink Corridor would pass south of the Downtown Airport through Verdae and the Clemson ICAR campus. The Gateway Corridor would run just north of I-385 towards Greer and Spartanburg. The Richland Creek Corridor would run north towards Paris Mountain, passing near the intersection of Rutherford and North Pleasantburg. Finally, the Brushy Creek trail would split to the South of the Swamp Rabbit trail near Falls Park, cross I-85 just west of Augusta Road, and rejoin the Swamp Rabbit Trail soon thereafter.

Of course, all of this will take time. The first of three phases is slated to be fulfilled by 2014. Presently, priority is on the Reedy River corridor, which is why so much progress has been made on the Swamp Rabbit trail in the last year. Of course, this exciting initiative has also spurred action from outside of the city, including extensive work by Furman University and Traveler’s Rest. The network could also eventually connect into wider trail networks such as the Palmetto trail. Great things are ahead. Get involved, and stay tuned!

Starting north of Travelers Rest, I’m passing residential homes and small businesses. Here I met a family of five from Travelers Rest, taking a short walk together. As the trail enters the city, the asphalt ribbon changes to plazas and sidewalks. I see benches, landscaped planters, and all the signs of effort to make the trail and the downtown of TR as nice as possible.

Now I’m leaving Travelers Rest and I’m surrounded by undeveloped land. The trail is mostly paved with fences and other developments. I pass a senior citizen out for an afternoon walk. A little further and I’m passing behind Furman University. If I choose, I can access their trails around the lake, use their restrooms, or enjoy the beautiful campus. But as I leave campus, I see parking on Duncan Chapel Road and bikers setting out for a ride on the trail. Another biker asks how far the trail extends and when it will be completed. The paved trail continues further south a little longer until I come to an area that is closed for the next few weeks. From being here in the past, I know that this is a beautiful area with thick forest, biological diversity, the quite peace that comes from being in nature, and where trail gets its name because of the small swampy area just down the trail and the undulating tracks caused the old trains to hop like a rabbit.

Where the trail passes through Sans Souci and crosses the Reedy river, I’ve been hearing great things about the neighborhood and the improvements that are coming. Further south, where the trail is open again, I’m coming into the City of Greenville. Here, the trail is fully paved and I find parking as well as a softball field. This section also has a rubberized section that makes running a lot easier. The trail carries me into downtown Greenville past the children’s garden and towards Reedy River Falls. I stop at one of the local art stores and duck into a restaurant for a drink. Passing by the falls I head towards Cleveland park with lots of other trails, playgrounds, a dog park, and the Greenville zoo. I pass a boy on a big wheel and his Mom pushing a stroller. Here, Caine Halter YMCA connects into the trail, as well as spur trails and bridges connecting the communities. I pass First Baptist Church and continue down Cleveland Street to where the trail stops—just short of Greenville Tech. Eventually, I will be able to continue under I-85 down to Lake Conestee Nature Park with it diversity of birds, overlooks and the 215 foot bridge arching high over the Reedy River.

Walking the Greenville Hospital System Swamp Rabbit Trail is a great way to experience Greenville and meet new people. With a major link completed in a month, it’s only going to get better. Give it a try yourself, and see what you think!

· Join in the Rabbit Rally. Saturday get on the trail anywhere between Travelers Rest and Greenville from 9am – 2pm. Look for people with rabbit ears. Grab a raffle ticket from them and be at the Peace Center Amphitheater at 3pm for a celebration of the trail and raffle. Show your raffle ticket to the bus driver at Sulphur Springs Rd and you’ll get a free ride Saturday downtown. Buses cross the trail on the hour from 9am-6pm Saturday. Look for the Greenlink Bus Stop signs.

· Sign up for the Swamp Rabbit 5k and make it the largest 5k in the state! Register today at Patewood/Acceleration Sports Institute (Building C)175 Patewood Drive Greenville, SC 29615 or before the race tomorrow at Gateway Park in Travelers Rest. Race starts at 6:30pm

· In celebration of the Swamp Rabbit’s connection of Greenville & Travelers Rest, two TR businesses are offering 100% of their proceeds for Wednesday, May 12, to the Swamp Rabbit. “Call Brady, Computer Services,” and “Compu-Counting” tax service, are taking appointments now. Brady (www.callbrady.com, 335-8672) is available for in-home/in-office appointments in Greenville and Travelers Rest. He specializes in home/business computer repair, networking, and training. Diana Kilgore (Compu-Counting, 834-5622) will be taking appointments in her office at 212 North Poinsett Hwy in Travelers Rest. Learn more (and see what other businesses have signed on for the event) at www.CallBrady.com/rails

· While we are pouring asphalt as I type and have already gotten 2 miles of this new section paved remember we may not have the entire section paved by May 8th but it will be in a condition that is open to walkers and bikers. A 1/10th of a mile section will remained unpaved because this part of the trail also serves as a service road for a truck at the mill near Cedar lane. It will be covered in stone dust like the Virginia Creeper trail.

· Until cars get use to the trail crossing at West Blue Ridge Rd and Sulphur Springs Rd, use high caution when crossing these high traffic roads. We are exploring opportunities to either tunnel or bridge over these roads, until then BE SAFE

Lovin’ bicycling on the road for forty years,

but not without some tears.

Some flowed at a railroad track,

when I landed on my back.

When the railroad crosses a trail,

you better remember your tail.

If you should cross it wrong,

you’ll sing the sad song.

The angle you make,

is a piece of cake,

When you cross be particular,

that you make it perpendicular.

Because, if on a bike, you do not cross a railroad track perpendicular to it, your wheel will get caught in one of the deep grooves on each side of each rail, the bike will stop abruptly, and you will fall and hurt yourself. Please wear helmet and riding gloves and cross perpendicular to rails.

See ya out there.

Ed Sherman

Click Here to access detailed sectional maps of the GHS Swamp Rabbit.

Click Here to access an interactive Google map of the GHS Swamp Rabbit.

I will keep everyone posted on the status.

Sincerely,

Ty Houck

Director of Greenways, Natural and Historic Resources

Good morning.

If you don’t want these updates, please say. Sending them to ya because we’re friends.

Wondering when we’re going to have the Tour de Swamp!

Swamp Rabbit Trail news is not always good. At Bramlett Street about a mile west of  downtown Greenville, a railroad crosses the trail at an angle to the trail. That railroad is active. CSX is a national company which has been using that line for many years. CSX is a railroad which spots cars for pick-up by the main line railroad. The company is constantly pulling cars across the SRT at that junction and sometimes has to stop with a string of cars blocking the trail – but only for a few minutes. This is not done to aggravate trail users, rather is part of the business of running a railroad.

Our business of building and selling locomotives is right beside that CSX rail line and we lie between that line and the Reedy River. We can sit on our office porch and see every person who passes on the trail, as well as the trains crossing the SRT.

Last week, a CSX locomotive Engineer (the man who drives the train) told us of having to temporarily stop his train along the rail line which crosses the SRT, which blocks the trail. He said he had been pulling about ten cars and the locomotive was stopped a ways up the track with a string of cars behind, some of which lay across the SRT for a few minutes. The Engineer said as he was stopped and looking in his rear view mirror, a person appeared from between two of the stopped cars on the rail where the SRT crosses the tracks. Then he turned and pulled his bicycle through the space between the cars. This is what happens when a person has less patience than sense. There is absolutely nothing more dumb than to try and squeeze between (crawl under the couplers) of a stopped train. If the train moves, you’re dead! Steel wheels carrying seventy plus tons of car on steel tracks.

There is no lesson to be learned by riders who have not the patience to wait on the trail until the tracks are clear because they will not live to learn the lesson.  A bicycle is a terrible thing to waste.

Ed

Click Here to take a virtual tour of this new facility.