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Minneapolis/St Paul Mid August Road Trip
- Thread starter #19325
- Start date
smarkquart
* Ace Member *
Play Hidden Lake first. It will be one of the toughest courses you will ever play, mainly because of the hazards combined with distance and tight fairways. Then hit up Riverside. It is very wide open and relaxing. There are a ton of mature trees, this will create your obstacles. Less than 10 minutes away is Cavalry. Smaller, not as nice of a course, but still worth playing. Finish up in Millstream. It is a little rougher but after hole 6 it weaves perfectly around and through the stream. The benefit of Millstream is the free onsite camping. Great way for finishing the day.
I would say go this route if you finish one day in Elm Creek because EC is the closest to Saint Cloud. I lived in Saint Cloud for eight years and I definitely miss Riverside and Millstream, but by the standards down here you would not be missing much if you stayed in the Twin Cities. However, it would still be an enjoyable day. If you take Highway 10 towards Saint Cloud you could also hit Becker and Clearwater. Becker is a nice in the middle of nowhere 18 hole course that combines tight wooded holes with wide open prairie shots. Clearwater is unfortunately an unfriendly mixture of Kaposia and Acorn, taking their worst holes and combining them into one course. It has really tight wooded fairways that often create unfriendly kicks. This course however is a good stop between jumping from Highway 10 over to the road leading across Interstate 94 which leads to Hidden Lake.
Becker, Clearwater, and Hidden Lake should be quiet. Traffic at Cavalry may have you sitting around tee boxes for a while but at least they will be all disc golfers. Those from the Saint Cloud club hang out here the most. Riverside could be very busy too, but it is a multi-purpose park so you will have to watch for the many park goers who have no idea what a fairway is. It should be packed with players too, but I rarely ever encountered a bottleneck once you got moving. Millstream is really hit and miss. The first five holes are rather bland as they play next to a soccer field, but after you hang a hyzer over a pond on Hole 6, all bets are off if people need to go swimming for their discs.
JoshEpoo
* Ace Member *
I'll note that Acorn and Oakwood can get disgustingly busy during peak hours. Plan to play those during the morning or early afternoon if possible. Lakewood can be bad too.
smarkquart had good suggestions for lumping the courses together into day trips. Obviously there are a lot of different ways you could work it, but you've got an awesome list of courses to play. Sounds fun.
smarkquart had good suggestions for lumping the courses together into day trips. Obviously there are a lot of different ways you could work it, but you've got an awesome list of courses to play. Sounds fun.
JoshEpoo
* Ace Member *
No...it's already going to be nearly impossible to hit all the quality courses in the metro area in 3 days without making some weird jumps that require a lot of driving.
You might have to play them in a weird way like:
1) Crown/Lions Park/Bryant/Hyland/Elm Creek
2) Ham Lake/BRP/Acorn/Lakewood
3) Kaposia/Valley/Oakwood/CP Adams
I'll note that the first group is absolutely soul crushingly brutal, but it's basically the only way you're going to hit all the courses you want. Those are long, wide open bomber courses with basically no relief form the sun and lots of hills.
The 2nd group is a cake walk in comparison and would be a good middle day because you get a nice break on the drive from BRP to Acorn.
The 3rd group offers the highest quality golf and the biggest mix of challenges and technical demands. It's still a really long, difficult day of disc, but it's manageable and the most satisfying and compact layout of all the groups.
MNcyclone
Double Eagle Member
I would personally skip Crown and Lions for a trip to St. Cloud. Neither of those courses really do it for me, and you will end up with a lot of driving either way.
JoshEpoo
* Ace Member *
I would too but I don't think that will free up enough time to hit St. Cloud if you still want to hit the Three Rivers parks, BRP, and KP/Valley.
cefrolfer
Birdie Member
Agreed.
MNcyclone
Double Eagle Member
The drive time for crown - lions - hyland - bryant - elm is about 1 hour 45 min. The drive time for millstream - cavalry - riverside - elm - bryant - hyland is just over 2 hours. For 20 minutes of extra drive time you get an extra course. Sounds like a winner to me :thmbup: (assuming you can fit 6 courses and 2 hours of drive time into daylight)
deadbody
Eagle Member
I'd do this.
Lions is forgettable at best. Crown has 9 good holes and then 9 that are nothing special, and needed a mow super bad 2 weeks ago. THey are frustrating. Riverside is more for than either, and an Elm creek to St. Cloud day is a good call.
Jbowdown
Birdie Member
Now that I've moved to Jordan, this is my home course. *SIGH*
JoshEpoo
* Ace Member *
That's a better line up of courses (it's also a **** load of disc golf) but the drive time will be substantially more than that when you consider you also have an hour+ long ride back from St. Cloud after you finish up there.
smarkquart
* Ace Member *
Getting up through the Fish Lake split up to Monticello on I94 midday is brutal with average speeds never getting more than 30mph. Highway 10 is a little better once you clear Elk River, but getting through Champlin and Anoka is killer.
MNcyclone
Double Eagle Member
The drive is a little under an hour from cloud to elm creek, go down 169 to bryant, play hyland, stay in Minneapolis for the night. I'm assuming that they start their day from a hotel in Cloud. I'm thinking 6 rounds with 3 people would be a little much for one day though, especially with hyland being in the mix. Hey OP, how long does a regular round take you and your buds?
JoshEpoo
* Ace Member *
Well, [I assume] he's coming from Illinois, which makes driving to St. Cloud (really St. Jospeh, which is farther away than St. Cloud) as your starting point kind of weird. I'd imagine you come in from 94, hit CP first and play CP/Oakwood/Valley/KP. Stay in Minneapolis, then start day 2 at Hyland and work W/NW from there, choosing some combination of Bryant, Elm Creek, Crown, Lions, Basset, Plymouth Creek, or St. Cloud courses. That way you can play BRP/Ham Lake/Acorn/Lakewood on day 3 and be right next to 94 so you can dip back to IL.
You could work the other way and play the loop in reverse, at which point you could drive from BRP to St cloud on night one, and start day 2 in St. cloud. That might not be a bad way to do it.
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MNcyclone
Double Eagle Member
I guess I'm not getting the whole trip conceptually. OP, will you be playing the day you drive in to town, and does that count as a full day out of the three you are staying? I assumed the OP would drive in, hunker in a hotel, and start day 1 of the 3 the next morning.
Lakewood is getting major improvements even as I type this. I would remove Hidden Lake as even a possibility on the list. Narrow fairways, tons of poison ivy and nettles can make for a very long and brutal round. I would even consider removing Elm creek because it is just a boring long course. I would pretty much do what Smartquart said except I would do Acorn-Lakewood Hills-The Valley and Kaposia. The Valley gets much busier late in the day than Kaposia does. Then maybe do Bryant -Hyland and then Oakwood and Fort Snelling. Both of those days sound very fun to me.
There I go muddying the water!
There I go muddying the water!
Proposed Schedule
I'm also going the trip with 19325. Here is a proposed schedule. Let us know if this seems unrealistic or if there is any reason we should avoid any of these courses on specific days. Also, how are the mosquitos up there this summer?
Thursday
C.P. Adams
Oakwood
The Valley
Kaposia
Friday
Hyland Ski Area
Bryant Lake
Crown College
Elm Creek
Saturday
Blue Ribbon
Ham Lake
Acorn Park
Lakewood Hills
I'm also going the trip with 19325. Here is a proposed schedule. Let us know if this seems unrealistic or if there is any reason we should avoid any of these courses on specific days. Also, how are the mosquitos up there this summer?
Thursday
C.P. Adams
Oakwood
The Valley
Kaposia
Friday
Hyland Ski Area
Bryant Lake
Crown College
Elm Creek
Saturday
Blue Ribbon
Ham Lake
Acorn Park
Lakewood Hills
JoshEpoo
* Ace Member *
That's very doable. It's a lot of disc golf, but if you guys are ready for 72+ holes a day then you're good to go. Saturday's courses are the easiest of the lot. Probably a good way to finish. The crowds at Acorn can be a nightmare but you'll have to see what it's like when you get there.
Navigating CP, Kaposia, The Valley, and Lakewood can be tricky. Maps aren't a bad idea. You'll need to be well supplied, especially on Friday.
Navigating CP, Kaposia, The Valley, and Lakewood can be tricky. Maps aren't a bad idea. You'll need to be well supplied, especially on Friday.
smarkquart
* Ace Member *
Looks like a pretty solid schedule. This should make it easy to hit both GGGT Friday going from Bryant to Crown (we close at 5 on Friday) and then Fairway Flyerz on Saturday before your round at Acorn (I believe they close at 4pm on Saturday). Make sure you hit BRP bright in early or you will find that it will be 2 or 3pm before you even leave for Ham Lake.
As for mosquitos I have seen worse years, but we have had some substantial rains recently meaning the next wave of mosquitos will be hatching soon. Military grade spray may be required.
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