DGings Most HORRIBLE Sight!

[tomjulio]

Decided to stay in Michigan an extra day due the great weather and play a round at a course I have never played. Looked up courses on here and decided to try Crystal Mountain Ski Resort...

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=691

.... since there no reviews or pics on the course. I know that area well and know it's gorgeous.

Called them at 8:30am and asked them if they were open still and the girl said "come on up and play!" Got in the car and drove 60 miles north through beautiful country, completely excited. Camera bag and disc golf bag in hand, I pull up and look for the parks stand to get directions for the course. The mountain looks sweet and I think I can make out some fairways. I go inside and ask where the disc golf course is. The girl recognizes my voice and says "OH NO! I was afraid you were coming! They decided to pull the baskets because they want to start making snow tonight after the weather turns."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, right after you called they changed their mind. Look over there."

sure enough..the ultimate heart breaking sight I have ever experienced in DGing....that of a front loader helping remove the last basket to what I can only assume was the last hole.

ugh

[timg]

Oof.. that sucks.

On the plus side, at least the ride was nice.

[magictenor1]

I would be irate. I hate having my time wasted.

[Greg Layton]

Wow, that's a kick to the johnson.

[tomjulio]

I was so heart broken I totally forgot to snap a shot of it.
...maybe it's better that way.

[Innovadude]

Basically, same thing happened to me at Mt. Hood in Washington, called and asked, they said come on up! They closed due to rain a minute or so before I got there, 45 miles up a mountain.

[discflinger]

Oh, that sucks, man. Guess you shoulda gone to Valpo.

[gcoghill]

Bummer man! Did they take the course out completely, or is just a seasonal thing?

[tomjulio]

Bummer man! Did they take the course out completely, or is just a seasonal thing?

I am assuming seasonal.
They seem to be pretty devoted to the summer course. It's only nine holes, but pretty hefty ones up and down the ski hill. They also carry discs in their sports shop. I will give em a try next year for sure.

[tomjulio]

Oh, that sucks, man. Guess you shoulda gone to Valpo.

I still have Valpo tuned in for tomorrow, but I hear the winds may be kicking up as the temps fall.

[discflinger]

Sweet. I look forward to seeing a review. Sounds like the only short coming is the tees.

[zud00]

I've been skiing at Crystal Mountain several times. I love it up there. I had no idea they had disc golf. Lately we've been going to Boyne Mountain to ski and went there this past summer for a short vacation and I got to play a round on the mountain (hill). It was pretty sweet. But man, that's really gotta suck to get there and them pulling the baskets. However, this is a pretty good thread to give anyone a heads up to maybe call before going if it is a seasonal course.

[tomjulio]

I've been skiing at Crystal Mountain several times. I love it up there. I had no idea they had disc golf. Lately we've been going to Boyne Mountain to ski and went there this past summer for a short vacation and I got to play a round on the mountain (hill). It was pretty sweet. But man, that's really gotta suck to get there and them pulling the baskets. However, this is a pretty good thread to give anyone a heads up to maybe call before going if it is a seasonal course.

I picked up snowboarding after I left Michigan and lived in upstate NY/Vt, so I never got a chance to board Crystal as a kid. Have to say I was totally blown away by the size. Boarded Boyne a few times and hear that DG course is sweet as well. Next year for sure for both.

BUT

By coincidence today I was heading back south/west towards Manistee and ran across a road sign for the closed down Udell Rollaway Campground. I remembered reading that they are about to start construction on a DG course there. So I two tracked it back into that area and it is absolutely stunning and PERFECT for an amazing disc golf course! I sure hope they go through with this. Found a few articles online for it as well as the scoping letter:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hmnf/pages/PlanningandProjects/cm.htm

[Geoffro]

This may be a bit off-topic (or off-thread), as I understand removing baskets from a disc golf course that doubles as a ski resort in the winter, but...

Other parks remove their baskets in the winter, when there seems to be no reason. Here in Wisconsin, many courses remove their baskets in the winter, and we have to wait for a full thaw in the spring for them to be put back in. Other courses leave the baskets in all winter. Does anyone know why baskets are brought in for the winter? I searched the Innova site for some recommendation regarding this, and I couldn't find anything.

Maybe this should have been a new thread, but it seemed like the discussion started here so...

[gcoghill]

Sweet. I look forward to seeing a review. Sounds like the only short coming is the tees.

And now, the lack of baskets ;)

[gcoghill]

Here in Wisconsin, many courses remove their baskets in the winter, and we have to wait for a full thaw in the spring for them to be put back in. Other courses leave the baskets in all winter.

That sucks man. Here in Ohio we get pretty nasty winters. The only course I played in the winter is my home course (Hudson Springs (http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=539)) but the baskets are permanent. I'll have to make some trips this winter and see what the deal is elsewhere in the area.

[Greg Layton]

This may be a bit off-topic (or off-thread), as I understand removing baskets from a disc golf course that doubles as a ski resort in the winter, but...

Other parks remove their baskets in the winter, when there seems to be no reason. Here in Wisconsin, many courses remove their baskets in the winter, and we have to wait for a full thaw in the spring for them to be put back in. Other courses leave the baskets in all winter. Does anyone know why baskets are brought in for the winter? I searched the Innova site for some recommendation regarding this, and I couldn't find anything.

Maybe this should have been a new thread, but it seemed like the discussion started here so...

I don't know much about it, but I'm guessing you wouldn't want to run into a basket when skiing or tubing down a mountain. I bet it would hurt.

[discflinger]

Yeah, skiing is not the safest of sports. Back when I lived in Telluride I saw a guy smack a tree right in front of me and when I checked on him, he was dead. No ****, suffered a massive head injury, but there wasn't even that much blood. Pretty scary, kept me off the mountain for about a week, but how can you stay away with a free ski pass from work. I don't remember the guy's name, some tourist who bit off more than he could chew. Ride safe.

[Geoffro]

I don't know much about it, but I'm guessing you wouldn't want to run into a basket when skiing or tubing down a mountain. I bet it would hurt.

Greg- Don't know if you've ever been to Wisconsin, but I wasn't talking about courses at ski resorts. We don't have many of those here, given that there are no mountains. In Wisconsin.

[magictenor1]

I have never heard of taking the baskets out in winter but then again I live in the south. There is not a lot of real winter weather here anyway.

[DeafDiscGolfer]

Maybe its for security reasons. Baskets can get stolen during the winter and no one knows about it until spring where more people were around to notice it.

If the baskets were on local park properties, then its possible that they don't want to bother to check on all baskets during winter seasons.

On the other hand, you could ask your local course or park to find out why they do it.

[JesusShoes]

Oof.. that sucks.

On the plus side, at least the ride was nice.

:D......

[Starwraith169]

You best just get used to it. It happens every year up here at Tamarack, because they put in cross country ski trails throughout the DGC. At least they dont completely pull the whole thing out of the ground. Was the front loader taking out the base also, because that seems a little extreme, plus a waste of money? Also, that would seem like it would take longer to reinstall the course in the spring because the ground is so wet.

[Brokensaint]

Here in Saint louis, we do get some kind of winter, but all of the courses stay intact year round. We do love our masochism.

[ScottJB]

Alas! Taking down baskets in the winter? That's blasphemy! As much as my hands don't agree, I love me some winter disc golf. Indeed all eight of the good courses around STL stay intact and well played in the wintertime...Its an entirely diferent approach game with frozen or icy ground, and with snow there are created the interesting little "mini fairways" in the snow where players have worn through a track walking the hole, with whimsical little tendrils lashing out, the trackmarks of errant rollers through the snow, looping pieces of evidence where others went wrong, warnings, if not harbingers.

[swarren1977]

You can always migrate south for the winter. My experience with NC is that they leave the baskets in the ground year round. Then again we don’t really have winters like they do up north.

[dobbins66]

Some courses remove baskets for a time during the winter to give the course a chance to recover and grass a chance to get a start growing. No foot traffic creating muddy messes around the tee and pin locations. I believe Idlewild in Cincy does this for a brief time each winter - It's a beautiful course and they want it to stay that way. We have discussed it at one of our courses but since there are only two 18 hole courses in Lexington it isn't as easy. We have a few holes that have developed erosion issues and are looking at a modified layout for the winter that doesn't use them (and lets new growth develop) as opposed to the drastic alternative of shutting down the course.

[landon77]

That is a heartbreaking anger making story. I heard crystal mountain is a nice golf course.

[JR Stengele]

Crystal Mountain is a lot of fun but you must call ahead of time. Usually up in June through september. Well worth the trip, and I believe once every four years they put the course up towards the summit and just play down. I played the course this past september towards the base and it was glorious. HUGE downhill bombs.

[jdquinonez]

yah i pretty much the same thing happen to me to. we wanted to try the kirkwood ski resort course in northern california because its supposed to be a very good course and even though it was october we were sure it would still be open because the weather was good and there was no snow at all yet and we drive about 30 miles and get there and we go up the front office because we couldn't find the baskets and they tell us they had just finished taking them out the night before. it was a huge disappointment but we decided to make the best of it and we hiked up the mountain for a while and decided to throw down and i ended up finding a practically brand new star destroyer with no name on it so it that kind of made up for it

[discflinger]

Some courses remove baskets for a time during the winter to give the course a chance to recover and grass a chance to get a start growing. No foot traffic creating muddy messes around the tee and pin locations. I believe Idlewild in Cincy does this for a brief time each winter - It's a beautiful course and they want it to stay that way. We have discussed it at one of our courses but since there are only two 18 hole courses in Lexington it isn't as easy. We have a few holes that have developed erosion issues and are looking at a modified layout for the winter that doesn't use them (and lets new growth develop) as opposed to the drastic alternative of shutting down the course.

Veteran's?

[Woodpecker]

I went to Houston a couple of months ago for business. I had a little time one afternoon so I thought I'd sneak in a round.

Not knowing where the courses were, I jumped on the internet and found a private course about 10 miles from where I was staying.

I finally found it. It was a combination ball golf and disc golf course with a nice club house. The house pro doesn't charge a fee to play because I bought a few discs. He points me down this hill toward the first tee.

What I didn't realize was that Hurricane Rita had gone thru the Houston area a couple of months before. They had cleaned up the ball golf course but, oh man, they hadn't touched the disc course.

There were huge pine trees laying across the fairways and piles of brush and dead trees 20 to 30' high on every hole.

After being almost carried off by the biggest mosquitos on earth, climbing over a few trees and losing two discs in piles of debris, I gave up after seven holes.

It was miserable to say the least.

Woodpecker

[ERicJ]

Sounds like Spring Valley DGC (http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/../course.php?id=1858). It's been cleaned up since then. Sorry you had a bad experience there. Generally that's one of Houston's nicer courses when it hasn't been trashed by a Hurricane.

[arrdee33]

Reminds of a man named Griswold and a family vacation to Wally World.
at least you didn't go out and get a bb gun and hold the lady up to play a round.:D

[solomon.trenton]

that must absolutely suck. did you at least play the holes and throw to where the baskets looked like they might have been?