I really enjoyed playing Lumberjack Meadows. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the tees, the pins, and the holes in general. This is a rural course with a about a 3:1 ratio of open fairways/meadow-typed holes to trickier, more wooded technical holes. I went with a few beginner players and I thought this was an excellent course to practice distance and technique. We rarely lost our disc which is a huge plus. We went during a weekday and we only saw one other group playing the course during our 3 hour outing.

Most if not all holes have alternate A or B pins to throw at; however, the current pin is not selected nor are they consistently in the "A" slot or the "B" slot. This made it difficult to know where you should throw when the pin is not in a line of sight.
There are several aspects of this course that could be improved--but realistically this course is fine the way it is. If you are a seasoned disc golfer, it might be a tad on the easier side.

I would definitely return to this course given the opportunity. As an out-of-towner spending some vacation time in Alpena, this course was an awesome time and I am glad I got the chance to play it.

Aesthetic-- plays through woody scrub and rolling meadows and around a swamp. area appears to be disc golf exclusive. I don't see any other reason someone would be out there.

Teepads-- ok, there's some positive and some negative here. the concrete teepads are great. Nice, level and in great repair. I wondering WTF the red bricks that were thrown all over the place were and now I know. But seriously, they're thrown everywhere.

Routing and navigation-- pretty easy, the map is helpful and the next tee signs are necessary in some places. at least they're present!

Baskets-- in great shape, brighter orange on the pole would make them more visible. they are damn near invisible on some holes.

Uniqueness-- the stone fences that help define the course layout are a really awesome touch.

Technicalities-- I really liked the shorter holes here. the technical aspects of my game were tested way better than on the longer, more straight holes.

Signage-- the signage has taken a BEATING through the winter. most are BLANK with no map or hole sponsor. This isn't majorly bad, but it would be nice to have distances at the very least

Challenge/variety-- unfortunately, the VAST majority of holes are straight forward. there are a few that have right and left fades but the vast vast majority are straight ahead

Risk v Reward-- other than the swamp, there really isn't much risk v reward.

Uncontrollables-- bugs, wind in the field and water water everywhere... I'm sure there are good days and bad days.

I think the land is used very well, what little elevation and natural features there are are used well, I'm just not overly stoked about this course. I liked it but I'm not driving 4hrs back to it

Big Sign easily visible from road, right next to entrance to course.

Hole and directional signage is in and the course is mowed with wide fairways making for easy navigation.

Big Concrete Pads (Pro Tees) and Red colored bricks marking Natural Pads (Short Tees)

It delivers a variety of shots and slight elevation changes.

Plenty of trash cans.

You may be the only person out there!

This is my home course and if you would like a guide, just ask me!

Spring thaw or heavy rains can make holes 2 thru 4 soggy. A swamp is in play on holes 6 and 7.

The wind can be nasty on the open field holes.

The local club has really pulled this course together within the last few months after acquiring the necessary funds to finish the course! (Namely the purchase of a riding lawn mower!)

The course still needs some landscaping finished in order to reach its full potential.

Pit toilets would be nice to have on site ... I'll start working on that thought !

If you play this course, please send me a message with anything you think could improve this course. Thanks!

Future plans include a driving range near basket 18/parking area.

-Huge property. You feel like you're in the middle of a vast space.
-Nice tees, smooth flat concrete.
-Benches and other seating at a number of holes.
-Some trashcans available.
-Quality baskets with hole numbers labelled (thank goodness!)
-Interesting ground cover, including lots of creeping juniper. A different character than a lot of Michigan courses.
-Rockpiles! Not as ornate as flip, but a pleasant accent to the course.
-Well defined fairways. Always lines without trees.

-Bad signage. Maybe some sharpie was written on some of them giving directions once, but its completely faded now. On a few occasions I threw to the wrong basket, only realizing when I could read the number on the basket, since there are none at the tees. The poles are there, it's almost got good signage, but its not quite finished.
-Rather flat.
-Long distances from the basket to the next tee, quite often, and its not always clear where to go.
-Some sections of rough can absolutely swallow your discs. I spent a good half hour looking for a disc that got taken by the wind off into some tall grass.
-Wind. The area is flat and the trees are juvenile, and sparse on the west end of the course, so there is little to impede a windy day messing up your game.
-Holes may be too open, overall, yet still lacking enough clear fairway. That is, there's little to run your disc into, but if you land it even slightly off the narrow mowed areas, you've got a search on your hands. The treed roughs are even worse, as the off-fairway trees here are thickly intertwined evergreens. Hard to travel through, hard to see through. The only blessing is they're hard for discs to travel through as well.
-A lot of the field holes feel the same, and the more wooded holes don't step up the personality quite enough.

This course appears to be a work in progress. It's got a good amount of potential, especially with the huge amount of space there. It seems like the people organizing this course are on the right track, and this course could become a source of pride for the whole area. But right now, it's not quite there yet. Moving a few larger trees into the field holes might help. Signage definitely would. Some short tees would be nice, and most places it would be easy to fit gold tees for the ridiculous arms. All these things would be good, but since it's got Alpena Community College money behind it, I'm not holding my breath.

Still it's a good property, decent holes, and not bad in the amenity department. And there really aren't many more options in this part of Michigan.

Beautiful new wide cement tees.

Relatively bug free. For a swampy area, there were blessedly few mosquitoes. Horseflies were abundant, but largely left us alone.

While a very flat course, wise choices have utilized small elevation changes well, like allowing natural growth to obscure basket views.

Zero non-DG traffic.

Nasty swamp around holes 5-7, and not much drier on the rest of the front 9.

A large amount of juniper and related dense growth makes the rough very unfriendly. On some holes the *only* option from the rough is a short shot back to the fairway.

Some of the pin positions are underwhelming, and fail to add to the hole difficulty.

Field shots are extremely flat and the only challenge is taming the wind.

No sign visible on the road.

The course name is apt as you are either hacking through dense forested areas or wide open meadows. I enjoyed my round, and most of my complaints already have solutions in the works.

This course is still a work in progress. Permanent signage is still being constructed, and alternate basket positions are planned to increase the difficulty of some less challenging holes.

Alpena is a very economically depressed area. The original designers have left, and the course has been taken up by new blood. Progress on the course is slow, but it will get another star from me when the following planned upgrades are completed.

1. Addition of raised dirt to meet the top of the tees, many of which were not sunk due to the shale layer.
2. Permanent signage, including significantly improved "next tee" identification.
3. Select basket repositioning.
4. Regularly scheduled mowing.
5. Readily available course map. (Had we not had a local guide, we would have been very lost.)

The fairways were untended, resulting in tall weedy growth, which wasn't so thick to make disc retrieval a chore, but it definitely killed low drives. However, I do not recommended that you throw any clear champion plastic or yellowish-green discs.

The 9 holes at Eagle Country are a wonderful complement to this course, and are a mere mile or two away.