Disc Golf: January 2007 Archives

The group went down to Pease park today and there was a little bit of confusion at the start. 10 am was originally proposed. But we always seem to forget about the mini-tournament that starts about that time. So someone else proposed earlier. Unfortunately, no one responded. It seems that the email on the mailing list was congested.

I arrived early at 9:30. I thought that, in the worst case, I would just practice for half an hour. Jon also arrived at that time. When we looked around we saw everyone's cars but no everyone. So we figured that they started without us and we started playing. We finally connected up with the group at hole 4.

The recent rains were in evidence here. The normally dry creek bed now had water in it. Which John managed to find.

And, initially, I thought that that was the extent of it. But some of the tee boxes were mud pools. Not fun.

And one part of the climb up a hill was deeply muddy. As Adam found out when he almost lost his shoe to the grip of the mud.

Marty eventually caught up with us around hole 10 or so after working in the morning.

Afterwards, the group went to Changos for lunch. It was a dog friendly in that it had outdoor seating. And the food was quite good I thought. For the fast-food type of restaurant that it was.

Another round of disc golf at Old Settler's Park (Winter Course) for me. And at least I had two good first throws on holes 8 and 9.

They removed all of the cut down brush and made a mess of the grass. Tire tracks everywhere...

Wow, what a beautiful day compared to the cold and miserable ones we have been suffering though lately. Highs in the 60s, sunny and cloudless. Perfect for disc golf. We played the full winter course today. And John tried thumbing a throw on hole 3. Not only did it not go very far. But it embedded itself into the ground.

John and I braved the cold weather for some disc golf. It has been a while because of the rain. And it looks like they are going to install concrete tee pads for the winter course. The disc golf group has been talking about it here. We also had someone volunteer to join us for a round of golf. His name was Matthew. With John and myself, all we were missing was Luke.

The rains have not drained off yet. There were still puddles and mud around here.

Interesting, it seems that they have cut back all of the trees and brush that had grow up along the fence line. I wonder why?

And I don't seem to remember that river either. Maybe the landscaping has changed the drainage? At this point, John bailed out on us. He said his nose was too cold...

I finally picked up the first "official" description of the winter-course at Old Settlers Park. On Wednesday night at 8pm, I make my way out to the billboard at OSP. I was told by the person who runs the weekly disc golf group that he would leave a copy for me there. It was quite an adventure getting there. They have taken out one of the entrances to the park due to road construction. But I ignore the large construction sign and cross where the new road will be placed to make it to the park road. Only to find out 50 feet later that they blocked the other side of the road as well. So I make it back out onto the main road and drive out to the second entrance and then to the billboard.

I can figure out from the course description where most of the tee boxes are. But I have questions about a couple of them. And, after a email to the leader of the group, I was still unsure of a couple of holes. So today I went out in the gloomy weather to do some exploring. He said that he would mark the tee boxes off with spray paint. And he certainly did that. I was able to answer all of my questions.

Here is the view from hole 7. It is a short and straight throw. Two trees have been marked as "mandatory" (meaning that you must pass to one side of them. since there is one on the left and one on the right, this will form a gate to pass through).

Hole 8 was the biggest of the unknowns. And I have finally found it. It also forms a tunnel to where the basket lies. But it is more forgiving. If you can avoid the trees of course.

And here is where hole 10 is. I had suspected that previously. But a confirmation is nice.

Hrm... that's not a good sign. There is a pile of rocks out by the lake.

The group decided to play at the Lutheran Church. This is a very tiny course which has poison ivy in the brush. Fortunately, the poison ivy dies down in the winter. But the course is still tiny. John and I drove down early to practice. We played the nine holes before everyone else arrived. I was on fire and birdied 4 of the holes for a score of 24. John was still cold at 31.

Unfortunately, it started mist raining at 10. The juniper trees were full of pollen. Whenever someone hit a tree with a disc, you could see a puff of pollen blow out. I definitely did not help to retrieve those discs! Poor Curt was having an allergy attack as well. I know how he feels...

We normally play 27 holes (or three times around) at this course. But the cold and the rain got to us and we aborted early to find something to eat. We decided to have breakfast at the Village Inn which is a Denny's competitor. Service there was incredibly slow and I doubt any of us will go back there again.

Today was absolutely beautiful out. The sky was cloudless and the temperature was 80 degrees. It felt like it was the beginning of summer. Even though it was January. Adam, Rehana, and I played the winter course of Old Settlers. I need to get a more official layout of this course.

It looks like another tree was downed during the recent rain. It is such a shame. That tree will never be replaced. I know that one of our groups states goals is to "cut all the trees down one disc throw at a time", but still... Trees have character. Barren land, not so much...

Afterwards, I really regretted playing. My allergies kicked into full gear. You can't live here long before succumbing to allergies.

Our group started the new year out right by playing some disc golf. I had some pretty good timing. I arrived home around 1ish and started a load of laundry. When I was web-surfing, I noticed an email about disc golf at the Rivery at 2pm. It was 1:40 and the laundry was in the dryer, so I ran out to Georgetown.

The weather was nice out and it started to warm up a bit. It seems that we kept of the tradition of throwing discs in trees or water.

Hrm. It looks like someone used a vine to hold a tree back. It must of been in the way of the tee box. Or, it could be a trap waiting to spring on some unsuspecting disc golfer...