New phone = new opportunities to blog
No longer do I have to dig out the computer to blog, here I sit on hole 2 at whispering falls and with a wave of a finger itype hello.
An impressive 4 save after rolling halfway down that hill, now only if I could get that on video.
Here I am, December 8th, finally cooking up thanksgiving dinner. Cheeseburgers on actual thanksgiving with my dad were great, but the turkey that he brought has been sitting around for the last couple weeks. After “playing” this private course, I pulled into the camping area and got the turkey going with the final colors disappearing from the sunset and the near full moon coming up in the east. I say “playing” because this course is near impossible to play without a guide, I ended up wandering around until I found a teebox or basket and attempted to play the associated hole. In all, I played 12 or 14 holes, just not sure which holes I played in what order, but it was a fun time anyway. The camping area consists of a “bunk house” or shed, a fire pit and a nice pond, very beautiful area on a fairly busy highway.
New york has been an enjoyable experience, even though I haven’t seen a single other disc golfer in this state, come on folks, beautiful sunny day, granted a bit windy and you live in the city that hosted Am Worlds? Not a single person is going to stand up to the elements? Fine by me I suppose, I’ve had every course to myself. Buffalo boasted my favorite experience with Black Diamond and Chestnut Ridge, easily followed by Parma and Basil in Rochester. The remainder of the courses won’t leave me dreaming about NY DG. Como had some solid holes, some OK holes, and some that made me want to poke my eyes out. Same with Wilson Tuscarora and Shore Winds, the white course was overall enjoyable and the blue course there had great holes, some very scenic holes, and some very boring open holes that neutralized the overall experience.
In all, it was a worthwhile detour, with a handful of great courses, I’m bummed that I had to miss out on a few of the worlds courses since the baskets were pulled. Glad the weather held out and pumped for a trip into Pennsylvania that has been on my wishlist for quite some time now thanks to DGM.
(and a little Michigan) From Highbridge to Chicago took about 1 week of discing nearly all day every day on some of Wisconsin’s top rated disc golf courses. First off, very impressive Wisconsin. One of the most enjoyable states I have played. Having a great variety of very nice courses.
Highbridge itself is as impressive of a collection of courses as many large cities boast all in one location, throw in a hot tub, some airbeds and a card table, this one must be right up there with Heaven. And then a day within 100 miles of there leads through an a very nice collection of 27 technical holes that I’d call true par three lines through the woods that is Sandy Point. Followed by an enjoyable Brandy lake round and a quick stop in Michigan led me to the Tailings. After getting turned around after only 2 holes, I waited up for 2 of apparently only 4 locals that were happy to show me this very rugged, wooded course with some impressive elevation.
The Green Bay area left me braving a blizzard in Pulaski Park where I took one disc (a dx roc) into the 30 mph winds and heavy wet snow. The next day was cool and sunny as I met up with Paul from DGCR who was happy to show me Rolling Ridge, a very nice private (soon to be open to the public?), tight tecnical lines, big open lines, some elevation, 3 tees on every hole that greatly alter the challenge level, soon to be a high rated championship level course in the state. The rest of the Appleton courses we played were enjoyable, Frietag was a jungle, that I wouldn’t go out of my way to play again unless some serious work is done on the fairways. And Grignon was a nice park style course with several fun shots. On the way to the next course Paul lost me as I was trying to follow him.
Following the West shore of the lake Winter Park was yet another well rounded course with fun elevation and technical shots, another pure adventure hike while throwing discs – my favorite type of golf that Wisconsin continues to provide. The rest of the courses were on and off frustrating with no dog laws all the way down the shore, but Forest was happy to take a nap… or stare out the window and wonder what he did wrong whenever he could see me. Silver Creek and LTC were enjoyable though nothing special. I played the Quarry tournament, getting several rounds in there from each tee and grew to like it quite a bit, the long tees provided a nice challenge while leaving 3s attainable on most every hole if you can hit the line. Hit an ace during a warmup round from the long tee on hole 9 and followed that up with a shot during the tournament from the short tees that hit dead center chains and fell out the left side of the basket.
A handful of courses west of Milwaukee were very good though not much worth mentioning. And just before crossing into IL I hit grey fox (and red, with a nice forehand ace with a magic on hole 5), a fun technical jaunt through the woods.
Wisconsin, very nice, throw in a few other courses that I’ve played – Mont du Lac, Axldog Acres, Justin Trails. A Wisconsin disc golfer is a happy disc golfer, especially if he’s happy to brave the winters (though many courses get pulled in the snow), or maybe find a way to winter in North Carolina.
So, here I am cruising across northern Indiana looking for a place to camp. These backroads continue to lead nowhere, or maybe more correctly somewhere, when where I want to be is nowhere. First off, there’s no gravel roads anywhere, gravel roads are most often the easiest place to find a guerrilla camp site, one tarred back road leads to another, to a main highway, to another tar back road, to….. road closed. Appears to be some bridge work being done, just to the right is an empty parking lot that seems to be fenced off from the surrounding farm fields…?
Seems like it could be a fine place to park for the night. And as I pull into the parking lot I notice, what I have to automatically assume is a teepad in the corner:
Heck yeah, I stumbled upon an unlisted course in some random place they call Kouts, IN. Before I grab my discs I have to scout out hole 1… Of course there’s nothing, no fairway (only a road down to the boat launch at the river) no basket, no sign of any other tee pads, just this random concrete rectangle in a random parking lot.
Of course, the tee sign – a solid 6″x6″ post in the ground that is half rotted and shows no hole information, only a small aluminum canister. I pull the canister from the rotted hole in the post, someone’s secret stash…
Yeah, I knew what it was, I’ve been geocaching before, dumb techie sport if you ask me, but I get it. Hide random game piece in the tee sign for hole 1. Or… random wooden post next to random concrete rectangle. Which of course begs the question, if it’s not a teepad, what is it?
Four days on the road now, four full days of discing. Starting in Iowa with my dad we played our way through Waterloo, meeting up with gdubya from DGCR for a round at deerwood, dinner at Applebees and spent the night at Wildcat bluff. Then it was a morning of chopping lumber at this very difficult technical course followed by a much more forgiving round in Center Point. Then it was goodbye to Dad, 3 more courses in Cedar Rapids, including meeting a dude Cody for a round at Shaver and Medicinal Funk from DGCR for a round at Legion, and a quick round at Jones as the sun was setting. I spent a night spent stuck in the mud in a random field. Luckily the ground froze overnight and I was able to drive out in the morning for a round at Muscatine and three courses in the quad cities, of which West Lake kicked my butt, I was so damn tired as I dragged myself through Central eventually catching up to Treemd from DGCR. Then a round at Devil’s Glen left me dragging so I headed South for a night at Wal-Mart outside of Springfield. Woke up this morning for a quick round at UIS, a couple quick 9 holers outside of St. Louis, a round at Rockspring and one more round at Sioux Passage before crashing the night at K-mart.
For those of you that have been interested in seeing Forest perform, these days he’s usually willing to do some basic tricks and may do a vault or two, but he’s never too excited to do any big tricks, nor do I want to push him very hard as his joints and bones are more fragile. But I did pull up some old videos from years ago, do you recognize us? Here we are, with a few of Forest’s tricks:
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” - Lao Tzu
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Forest Rappelling at the head of Yankee doodle canyon in the beginning of December.
A quick update and links to photos from the past 10 days or so. (I know, I know, I haven’t been updating nearly often enough). So, this post will cover the time from Chicago, across Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. It will be rather brief with the photos as a main focus.
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Hello – I know you’ve been waiting for an update, and for me to be back on the road. Today I said goodbye to Minnesota and hit the road into Wisconsin. After several months of living in the same area, playing the same disc golf courses, and working every day, it’s back to a life of complete freedom and traveling to wherever the open road takes me. So, here we go. View full article »
Writing anything at all becomes difficult after a long day of work, or a long day of traveling. I do very much enjoy writing and I’m glad to hear some feedback that people enjoy reading what I write, I just wish I could get around to it more often… by the time the evening comes around all I want to do is collapse on the couch and not worry about it. But here it is, what did the rest of my road trip look like, after I won the Grand Valley open intermediate division?
Well, I bet you could have guessed, it was a ton of driving along with a ton of disc golf on some of Colorado’s top rated courses, avoiding the resort courses as they all cost about $20 to play. So I found myself mostly along the I-70 corridor driving down the sketchiest back roads that my car could handle, playing whatever courses perked my interest.
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