+ This is a rugged 19-hole wilderness course that's extremely tactical. It's a hike in the woods, through boulder fields and dense stands of trees, punctuated with tees and baskets

+ The original homemade tire baskets have a lot of charm, and throwing from "tees" that are giant flat-topped boulders is fun

+ The new baskets are great, the signage at the tees is very good (illustrating alternate baskets), and many of the tees are new concrete - with more coming

+ Very nice staff at the camp office/general store, with loaner discs and a lost and found

- First of all: don't play this course if it's wet, icy or snowy. You're just asking for a turned ankle or worse as you climb over the rocks and boulders

- The main negative is that most of the holes lack clear throwing lines (the exceptions being the two holes by the pond). At best, you're playing "dink and dunk" through the course - but it's more likely you'll find yourself frustrated by the trees and lack of clear lines

- Although the length appears normal on uDisc, the holes are pretty long for Par 3's, given the trees and the elevation. We played the new baskets because we knew they'd catch consistently, but the tradeoff is that they generally add 50 or more feet to the holes. Adding more distance does not make these holes better, and given the trees, rollaways, etc., the length probably adds a stroke to each hole

- Maybe there's a throwing strategy designed into each hole, but we sure couldn't see them after the first few holes. Looking back on the experience, we wondered if the course is better played using the original basket locations

- Love it or hate it, the "gazebo hole" is gimmicky. The basket is placed inside a small gazebo, and anything landing on the floor of the gazebo is OB

- The basket-to-next-tee signage isn't very good when using the new Innova basket locations. We were told that almost all tees were visible from the tire basket, but we got confused and wandered around a half-dozen times

~ Bootlegger's Cave is a unique if not very satisfying disc golf experience. Another reviewer used the term "wilderness" and that's accurate. The setting is far more severe than a woods course - and it never really lets up

~ As I mentioned earlier, the camp office has loaner discs. I can't imagine a newbie having an enjoyable disc golf experience. Sure, you're outside throwing discs at baskets - but this is so different from any other course I've played that I can't imagine a newbie getting any sense of what disc golf is

~ Bootlegger's Cave has the opposite problem from really good courses where the baskets have gotten rusty and the signage has faded: there's still a good course underneath them. Inattention can't erase a great design, but really good amenities can't fix a poor design

~ This is a pretty negative review, but I don't want to end it without acknowledging all the effort the owners put into this course. The new baskets, the new tee signs, the tees (we saw a cement mixer out on the course, so more tees are coming). And with that in mind, I gave this course a 2.5 instead of a 2. But even with all these amenities, I'm afraid the overall experience won't improve - because the holes themselves don't allow for good play unless you really consider removing some of the trees and branches to establish throwing lines

Innova 28's (man they catch good!)
The occasional nice Vista
Tons of Shade
A unique approach to design aspects and folksy homemade baskets that give you a very different vibe from a traditional disc golf course.

Tee pads, tee pads, tee pads, tee pads. (they're pretty god awful)
Fatiguing layout (too much up the hill down the hill)
Fairways often play to a blind corner
Fairways too close together creating a safety hazard should a shot go long.
Somewhat tricky to navigate (especially if you're playing from the 28's)
.

So this course is not for me. Plain and simple, I'm a park golf guy but I don't mind venturing into the woods when the course is well done. This course is really only going to appeal to those people who live for that outdoorsmen deep woods style of disc golf. The whole "check in when you come to play" thing was nice to get the map but I don't see a point in giving them my information every time, but that is neither here nor there and I really hope I don't start getting email spam about this course.

I'll start with what I enjoyed: The course has a charm to it, like someone let you into their little private track, the homemade baskets are folksy and catch reasonably well considering what they are but the 28's definitely make the course more viable. If you play to the 28's the course is very challenging. There are some fantastically fun shots to be had out here which kept me going throughout the round. The holes that are done well are wonderful and incorporate some great elements and shot shaping in them, the Mando holes are an excellent example of how to use that course feature correctly. The course requires you to have every shot in the bag and your scrambling skills honed to a fine edge but for some reason it seems to favor dog leg right shots more than anything else. The brush was also surprisingly tame considering the forestation which was a nice surprise.

The problem with this course is in the layout. It is very, very rocky and where some courses on mountainsides opt for the horizontal progression winding down the slope this course literally just continues to have you drop off a cliff until you reach the bottom then you climb your way back up which is tiresome and when you are traversing tough terrain almost the entire time it really takes a toll on your body and is just bad design in my opinion. Yes, have some of those cool off a cliff shots but don't make me hike up and down the same hillside 3 times, that is just annoying. The other downside of this is that the fairways are way too close together, a bad shot long can turnover into another holes fairway/tee and easily hit someone. Then there is the tee pads... some of them are crushed gravel and for the most part are serviceable bearing one or two rocks in mind that really should have been pulled up by now but what irks me to no end are the "boulder" tee pads. They're extremely uneven (as a boulder would be...) and are a nightmare to throw from in the rain/elements not to mention outright dangerous in other cases, hole 10's narrowing pad made me almost contemplate throwing stand still because I was so nervous about my follow through throwing me off the rock and me rolling my ankle. It makes hitting your line that much harder (and don't get me started on the number of untrimmed branches/8 inch wide trees that litter the fairways).

I think it is great that this course has seen so many improvements but I just can't get behind the layout which makes it hard to say where to rate it. I think overall it just isn't that memorable especially amongst wooded courses in the area, I'm sure there will be people out there who will adore this course and it is unfortunate that I am not among them but with that said this course has my respect and will be one I will come back to on occasion.