I had a difficult time actually finding this course. My GPS led me to the other side of the park. There is a sign over there and a path leading into the woods. I wonder if that trail would ever lead to one of the courses? Using my highly developed disc golf course finding intellect, I finally drove around and found the actual course beginnings.

Both courses start near a large picnic shelter. There is a kiosk here as well as a big trapezoid shaped concrete tee pad. Unfortunately, other tee pads are dirt with just a front board. but nice wooden signs. The baskets are older, yellow Discatchers with the #'s on top. They show up well in the thickets here. A rung is painted black pointing you to the next tee.

As I happen to love these short, hilly courses, Black Bear featured a number of fun little throws. I really like # 3. It's an almost straight down, 177' touch shot. I think the only other courses I've played that features a hole this steep, straight down in one of the Rooster Rock courses in Oregon.

This course has three pads for each hole. The Reds are children's lengths, lots of sub-one hundred foot holes. The Whites probably average 200' and I believe there were longer Blues but they weren't exactly easy to locate.

After a long hot, walkout I came to # 12 and it's extremely comfy bench. I could have taken a nice long nap on it.

The course fell apart on the back nine. There were two or three extremely long and confusing walkouts followed by three short uphill holes in a row.

The back nine rates about a 1 in my opinion. The long walkouts and less than thrilling uphill holes. I was more than ready for my round to end after the first nine.

The teepads are not good and would be treacherous in wet conditions.

The overall lack of distance is a turn off for many players.

After nine, I was digging this course. Midway through the back nine, I was tuned out and ready to get off the mountain. The back nine is really a poor design. By the end of the course, I was tired, sweaty and ready to hit the road.

Do you like hiking? If so, this course is for you! No, really, apart from maybe Highland Hills in NC, this course and it's twin brother will require the most hiking you'll experience on a course.

There are multiple "tees" for each hole, in typical Mitch Hoeppner fashion, just in case you want to throw your putter from a little further back...

Holes 1-3 had me excited. Neatly manicured fairways and gaps to hit, nice pads and signs and hole 3 is a sweet shot straight down the hill. If you float a putter, you might lose it. I recommend flicking a firebird as hard as you can at it! (Read as sarcasm)

The scenery is really nice. As I previously stated, this is essentially a hike with a little disc golf sprinkled in. There is plenty of wildlife, trees, creeks and other natural beauty to behold, so soak that up.

I recall a few benches here or there that were definitely necessary along the way. BRING LIQUIDS. Especially in the summer, you'll need all you can carry. There is also a very nice gazebo area at the entrance to both courses which will give you a perfect picnic spot between the two or a break at the very least.

You know how when you hike you discover little things along the way? It's the same here as well, but what you discover are disc golf holes. I don't mean that in a good way, I'm alluding to the fact that there are significant navigation issues here. There are several spots where the walk between holes are FAR too long and spread out. It isn't intuitive in the least and you'll regret not having a map.

The holes here are really too short. Apart from the first few holes and maybe 1 or 2 in the woods, you'll be throwing mostly putters and mids.

The tee pads aren't pads at all once you get inside the woods. They're toe boards. Like I said, you won't really need much of a pad to stand-still bomb your aviar.

You know how the hiking was a pro above? Yea, well some could certainly view it as a con. My wife was ill-prepared for our round and I suspect others will be as well. This isn't a course to go casually play with your family unless they love that sort of thing...

You won't really test your entire game, at all...Tight wooded putter shots will be the name of the game here. If you need work with that sort of thing, this is a perfect place to start.

Plenty of ace runs to be had out here, all the while soaking up the natural beauty the blue ridge mountains have to offer. Don't expect to bomb out any drives, you'll be practicing your putt and approach. Bring hiking boots and plenty of liquids/food. You'll want to play Golden Bear too, it's the better of the two courses.

+Challenging
+Engraved signs at each tee pad
+Easy to drive to/free parking
+Bonus hole (#19) for tie-breakers

-Hard to navigate in spots
-Almost entirely wooded
-Some fairways feel almost non-existant
-Terrain can be very steep
-Occasionally the next tee pad is hundreds of feet from the current basket

The Black Bear course is fun overall but can be obnoxious with the amount of trees in the fairway and at times feels a little random. Certain holes, such as hole 14 are very steep and have virtually no fairway. Still worth playing but in my opinion it is not quite as good as the neighboring Golden Bear course.

- Nice small wooden signs
- Good course to practice mids
- Nice park
- Orange flags marking trail to next tee

- unlevel natural tees
- trails are muddy
- difficult to find blue tees
- red tees are silly short even for rec level (<100')
- a little repetitive wooded 200' holes

I had high hopes when I pulled into the parking lot and saw all the signs and pavillion. But unfortunately I was underwhelmed by the actual course. The flow is a little odd with long walks across the creek and back just for two holes. Most of the tees are so small or rough that all that's safe is "stand-still"; which is okay since none of the holes are long enough to require more than that. It's a good course to go practice your up-shots and you won't need more than mids and putters. Maybe they can find some places to add longer tees.