Portage Lakes Disc Golf Course - Akron, OH

Portage Lakes Disc Golf Course

Portage Lakes is situated in a State Park, south of Akron, set around a number of small lakes that offer fishing, boating, beaches and some pleasant residential real estate.

Just like most disc golf courses in state parks, you drive to the remotest corner of the park to begin your journey. Andy and I began our journey through the first leg of holes that work their way through a wooded ravine. Fairways are tight and a solid technical shot is needed to put you in position to par. Many of the holes on this course are well protected by the surroundings, I mean perilously well protected – the lakes in Portage Lakes will come into play.

One nice feature, Portage Lakes has the best signs I've ever scene. This one was called “The Big Dipper” - these seem to signify certain geographic features of the course.

It also included some rules of the game, Hole 3 had some harsh rules on moving or damaging items on the course between the lie and the hole. Only the Red tees had rules info, the Blue tees couldn't be bothered. Not all holes, most holes offered multiple tees. Basket location could vary. 

The next few holes had us throwing down hills, through more woods, a couple more open holes on holes 7 and 8 and then hole 9. Hole 9 was a mystery for me. It took us a while to find. Couldn't really see the tee, no clear fairway. This is a newer course (2014) and a bit unrefined.

Hyzer Bay

This takes us to hole 10. The signature hole of the course. A basket that sits at the bottom of a wooded hill, sitting 6 ft. off the ground and decorated as a fancy flag pole. The lake sits 15 ft. behind it. The hole begs you to go for it. It's an ace run. It's a good way to lose a disc.

Telling our story in pictures we have the protagonist, Andy - going for it. Gentleman, he nails his drive, it looks beautiful. I thought I was going to hear chains, instead I hear nothing, Andy misses by very little. He is down one star valkerie.

The next few holes play into and out of the woods near the lake. Here is where I apologize for not having better pictures. It is a mostly wooded course, only a couple open holes, and, well, the lighting just wasn't very good.

Hole 14 was a challenging left to right shot straight through several trees. You see the trees in the sign posting. You like how the demonstrated flight path listed on the sign has you hitting several trees. I did that. In reality, I hit one, and then it went sideways into where it says OB: Lake. That was my orange, Diagram z-glide. It had become my favorite disc. I won it on a CTP on a course outside Ann Harbor, narrowly missing my first ace, as it hit the pole and bounced out onto the ground just below the basket. I still had that z-glide to remember it by, until Portage Lakes.

Hole 16 was also a beauty. That basket on 16 sits on top of an earthen mound with the lake just on the other side. If you go too far, well, the pictures here do it justice. That is a picture of Andy saluting me as he readies his put for 16. His shot initially hit at the top of the mound. There were steps to get down there. Objects in picture may be closer than they appear.

Portage Lakes has the makings of an awesome course, It is still fairly new and could use some additional trimming to better define the fairways. The first few holes near the parking lot are littered with broken glass and beer cans. Some people aren't down with the park system's 'you take it in, you carry it out, no trash cans, philosophy. This luckily did not extend too far out into the rest of the course. The signage was excellent, although the navigation was a little mediocre. I do look forward to playing this course again. Andy won, by the way, but scores were nothing to brag about.

Disc Jag Flashback: 1997, Hamblin Hills, Galesburg, Illinois

Or possibly it was Williston Downs, the first of the two Knox College courses we played in Galesburg, Illinois, but my guess is Hamblin Hills. Both 18 hole courses were object courses, there being no baskets within 45 minutes of the Knox College campus at this point (now there is at least one pretty good 18-hole course in town).

In the first two images, we see Leonard demonstrating a good approach and then driving stroke. He is also demonstrating the kind of hair that he had then that got him invited to a Metallica concert when we was randomly wandering the streets of Chicago. I think you can see why. Mike Baran in the third image is the guy Leonard and I used to play with the most in college. I was digging back through a bunch of old photographs to find the appropriate one of me in the 90s to use as the "author" photo on the March Sadness blog, and I found these, perhaps the first instances of the pre-Jag jags. This was before Eric O and T-Town played disc golf: though they both lived not far from here, perhaps their sights were set on something other than disc golf then, heathens that they were. I have no memory of playing with them before, I think, Minneapolis, when Leonard moved there circa 1997-1998.

At some point we did have to move one of our holes after we broke a window on the administration building on a stray approach shot. I want to say it was someone else's miss, but I think it probably was me.

November Aceage & Tiger Recursion

So I chained out from another basket this week, yesterday, really, playing a quick round with Athena, and it reminded me to blog last week's ace, since really an ace ought to be blogged, as Sean points out. I mean, you can Sharpie it on your disc, and you should, and you really ought not to retire the disc as some people do. Why would you retire an ace disc just because you aced? That you aced with it makes a strong argument that you should continue throwing it. Oh, sure, I'd think twice about throwing it over water, or if you're playing some swamp-ass disc-eating course. And if you want to retire a disc, retire a disc, ace disc or not. But you should definitely blog it.

Well, I wouldn't blog the time that Leonard and I played this crappy course in Minneapolis (I forget the name, but there was a note in the PDGA directory (remember that? who still uses it?) stating "get a 3 on 4, get a high 5," thus implying that hole 4 was somehow hard to get a 3 on. Well, we had never played it before. It was a real easy course, kind of back and forth in a field, almost all the holes being like 150' or something. We both had drop-in 3s on hole 4. I do not remember if we gave each other a high five. I believe we did. We didn't play the course again, however. We didn't blog it (never mind that this blog did not exist then), though I suppose I'm blogging it now. But one should blog an ace. Beau, you should totally have blogged that ace from a year or two ago. All I have is your sly email about it somewhere in my machine's memory.

Anyhow, so I had a nice little ace a week ago. I figured out that I can play 18 holes on the course close to my house (Groves) with Athena in the running stroller without fuss. I have to play the short tees, though, since the long tees are a bit of an offroad haul. Actually I will probably try them next week to see if she'll squawk about it or not. She likes it quite a bit (it's basically a literal walk in the park for her) as long as there's not a lot of waiting around. So I've been playing a few times a week. The short tees aren't particularly hard, but there are some interesting holes with trees and lots of OB. Most of them are midrange shots of various sorts. I just throw four discs in the stroller (ESP Buzz, that new OS Buzz that I think I got from Mark or Rob, my Challenger, and a star Destroyer for forehands and hammers) and can get a round in. Usually I can shoot maybe -5 or -6 without too much trouble. A better round, like yesterday, I shot -11. My record is -15. Though of course you should be able to deuce all of them, in actuality it's pretty hard to do (a few are difficult deuces). This particular round was unimpressive. Kind of playing like a dick actually, an inconsistent dick.

But the ace redeems it, of course. Hole 14, about 250', OB on the right and past the basket. Not a super difficult hole, but a healthy headwind: threw the ESP Buzz with a good bit of snap and hyzer and it elevates and floats right into the basket: boooooom. Sweet. In front of two groups, too, so plenty o witnesses, not that an ace needs one, but it doesn't hurt to have a little gallery happening.

That buzz is a good disc. It's one from a twin cities winter tourney some years back. I've been throwing it for a while. Getting a little beat up so it's been awesome having that Buzz OS too, which is really freaking overstable. Anyhow, Athena was not impressed, though she was excited by some dogs in a yard. She will learn the power of an ace eventually I guess.

Weirdly, I hit the basket again yesterday, playing again, this time with the Buzz OS on a forehand (trying to work on my forehand a bit since it's not super challenging playing this course backhand), but it chained out. It's been good to get out more, since the weather here is great. I'll be playing a couple rounds a week this winter it looks like, so if you want to come down and get your game on, lemme know.

Also, mostly unrelated, for the runners among us, I attach a photo from the turkey trot 5k that I ran on Thanksgiving, also with Athena. I run it every year in my tiger suit (on account of why not: well, Sean would have something to say about the unseriousness of running it in a suit of any sort, since that takes away from the respect one should pay to the run etc., but you know: 5k turkey trot...), but this year I wanted to push her (also in a tiger suit), clutching a stuffed tiger. There was a small plastic tiger toy I attached to the stuffed tiger, you know, for recursive amusement, but it fell out somewhere along the line. Anyhow, it's a "european-style" 5k, so it's cross-country, and features two water pits and some hay bales you're supposed to jump. So I figured I'd just push her in the running stroller. Last year they had an area you could bail out to if you didn't want to jump em. Turns out this year they did not. No one else was pushing a stroller for this run, and that is (one of the reasons) why. It's a loop course you double up on, and so the first time we hit the mud pits it turns out there's no way around them. So we go through them and over the hay bales. We lose a wheel in the second mud pit and there's a huge OOOOOOOOOOOOO from the crowd (upside of running in the tiger suit is that everyone is cheering for you). Megan is watching this occur and is not pleased. Athena's having an awesome time, of course. I just slap the wheel back on and keep going.

I pass a whole bunch of people on the second loop (I started at the very back because it's kind of a dick move running with the stroller: don't want to clip people etc.), and the second time around we don't lose the wheel. We're flying past the chumps. (Well, as fast as you can fly in a tiger suit pushing a stroller.) But people are freaking out, chanting TIGER, TIGER, TIGER as we close in on the finish. I've been beating this twelve year old kid for the last half mile, but he finally pulls away at the end and I don't chase him down since you know, twelve year old kid: don't want to get beat by the tigers. Anyhow, awesome run. Pretty hot in the suit. It was 75 by the time we were done, and 75 is hot in a tiger suit I will tell you. Daughter loved it. Ran it in 26 minutes. Not too bad. Eventually I'll actually get serious about trying to run this FAST. Maybe next year. Maybe not... In the meantime, we be discing... and I will hope to see y'all soon on the course.

1 basket, 100 tees

Blogging here my friend Josh's disc golf course he's installing...slowly...on his family's land in Idaho. Word is the course is called Antelope. So far it's only one basket, but with 100 different tees, as he explains. This is view to the pin from tee 1:

& from tee 2:

& I'm not sure what this is from, but you can see the basket with the flag:

. All of this, I find actually inspirational. The plan is to get two more baskets and make a pretty solid 3x3 nine-hole course. Also: freaking lovely land up there. Elevation, water, trees. I'd play the shit out of this. Also I have to assume it's not 108 out with an asshole full of sun which it is here at present.

June Ace!!!!!!!!!

Bueller...Bueller...Bueller.................

(Ben Stein has a very flat voice)

Anyone home? This blog is dead as disco. But we try.

I miss you Jags. Hope someone might be up for Ohio or Peru, maybe an early trip? Cleveland crew? We'll talk. 

June second. Was drinking and eBaying. That's dangerous. I once bought a pillow doing that. It arrived in a box the size of a deck of cards. Huh? It was a doll's pillow...

Don't drink and eBay. 

Bought a new disc off the InterWeb.



This one:

168 Champion Beast.

June 15, day was somewhat after-storm, clouds like little boats, blustery. Wet grass. My toes felt soggy. Mark and I getting into rounds at Yorktown, as is our way.

We came off hole 4 and passed this dude with no shirt bent over his disc bag lighting a cig or a blunt (didn't look closely). He said, "Dudes, go ahead" and waved us to tee 5.

Hole 5 was in long position, 280.

You have to throw it under or through a wall of trees, over a valley, and hole is on hillside past valley. It's a pretty good heave.



Wall of trees:

View from hole, back to tee pad:

Yep, those are sweet Spider Baskets (actually called Arachnids, even more badass). The spider is widely regarded as the best catching disc golf basket ever created, manufactured by Allen Pier in Peru, IN.

We actually had a DB steal one off our course recently. People. Freaking people.

Thank gods for this basket, because I selected my new Beast and threw a screamer hyzer under that wall of trees and it fought the headwind (as a new disc should) and then lost its energy, paused, fell hard into the chains.

ACEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Shirtless dude ran over and gave me a high five. Mark and I did the ace dance. 

Boom!

There it is.

Peoria Jags 2013

Strange trip indeed. Did we play disc golf, or did disc golf play us? These were walloping winds (+25 MPH for much of Saturday), a lot of Jag rust, a variety of new holes for many of us, but the real stars of the weekend were the courses. I had forgotten the quality and the tenacity. These courses are significantly more difficult than Madison, which is good or bad, I suppose. But their sheer acuity of design and stark beauty are undeniable. 

Example, Hole 5, Northwood.

Or the always epic hole 18

Or Lake Eureka, hole 4. Interestingly, we had a wild Jag moment here. I had just established a relatively strong CTP candidate. Matt and I, with backs turned to the tee pad, were discussing how to mark such disc...WHAM! Leonard drove and hit Matt in the ass. Possibly the first Jag-on-Jag violence of the tournament's history?

McNaughton was fairway tunnels, intense penalties for straying from these tunnels, very high scores. Hole 18, Matt made like a 100+ bomb.
Northwood was woods, wind, woods, WIND. Hole 18 I think I saw several uses of an abacus.
Lake Eureka was woods. Woods. Woods. WIND. Woods. Tree-thumps throughout the forest on this day.

Interestingly, all three courses sort of lure you in, then attack you, then, 16-18, lead you to your fucking doom. As I was commenting to the suddenly MANY Jag runners, these courses are not so unlike the experience of a marathon. You run along, and, oh, this is pretty good, nice crowd, etc...then you hit the stretch where all the sudden, you know what, your legs and lungs just noticed they are running a long way, then you cross mile 20 and, well, hello, goodbye, welcome to absolute hell.

The Sunday course didn't let us down. VERY technical. It didn't have the teeth of the others, but that was OK. At this point, we were sort of frayed.

Some holes were shadow-lit cathedrals of pine.

Can you find Eric?

 But no matter the sweetness of the D golf venues, we bitterly missed those Jags who could not attend. We played in your honors, kind folks. For example, for Rob, I threw a titanic hammer shot directly into a creek:

 

  

 Mark often putted like Ander:



Matt and T-Town reflected on Andy and tossed BOTH their drives down a massive ravine:

For Aaron, We frightened away two deer

and Matt decided to throw left-handed



and Eric ordered a Shepherd's Pie with mashed potatoes and gravy as whipped cream and icing topping:

Other details included Matt sleeping atop 14 blankets on the floor. Eric Impaling a disc on thorns high up in a tree, Leonard climbing said tree, blood.

and Mark pulled one of these

I pulled several of these

T-Town seemed much improved (check the sweet follow through)

 

 

 

 

 

as did Eric's drive...

and Matt pulled one of these (I'm sure his screenwriting classes will enjoy the Jennifer Lopex oeuvre)

 

 

 

while Matt v Eric, Leonard v Mark engaged in an epic final round battle

On and on...5's, 6's, 7's, other such skyward scoring. Eric will send the "hard data" out soon, as is his way. Enjoyed it all, Jags, both those present and present in spirit. I hope everyone felt the same. I think we all need to focus next time around, and try to get the ranks up to the glory of former years. Life happens, like a disc in the wind, ups and down, lefts and rights, but we don't want to set a precedent here--we want 2013 to be an outlier: "Remember the year..." We want 2014 to be back to normal. Every D golfer, clanking shrubbery and trees and baskets, jagging it up, as one.

Arizona style

I arose early this morning to get in a round or two of disc to prepare for JagFest Peoria this weekend. Early means around 5:45, since the weather in Tucson has taken a turn toward the hot, and if you want to play, you'd best avoid the times from 10am to 6pm, because it's just scorching (though not too bad today, actually). Plus the heat begets crazy winds which are not amenable to disc. The other problem is, of course, the people. The course I play most often (Groves) gets mobbed with league play on Saturdays and Sundays, and with gangs of amateurs who play in groups of 9 or something, which as we all know is known to fill one with rage.

I figure that if I'm out there by 7am (9am time in Peoria, still after our likely start time there) I can play pleasantly. So I go out. There's only one other car in the lot. Turns out to be the car of this dude Corey, whose name I always forget, but who always remembers my name. Because apparently I can't be bothered, or maybe because I'm just not good at names/faces, I'm always impressed with those who are. This is the one nonnegotiable skill of a successful politician, which I am also not. Anyhow, he's a very pleasant guy, and a good player to boot, so I'm happy to play along with him. Weirdly, he drives righty but putts and approaches lefty. We're chatting. He's excited because a new course just got the green light to go in at a local ball golf course. It won't play alongside the ball golfers, thankfully, because those courses always suck, but will play on another part of the grounds. There will also be a bar (!), small greens fees, and a pro shop. And it's on the east side, which is good, because I am on the east side. My favorite course, Marana, is an hour drive. Groves isn't my favorite course: in fact it only has nine baskets, which you play to two ways, back and forth, so it's 18 holes, but it is challenging, and fairly interesting. They have three different tees for every hole. The A tees are short and generally easy and boring, very much inside the groomed park. I shot personal bests of -13 and -14 on them a month or so ago. The B tees are far harder, much longer, and difficult. Many shoot from outside the park—up on a ridge or out in the cacti—and so are substantially more interesting. My best on those is -5. The C tees I don't often play. They're different, some harder, some easier than the Bs.

Groves is also 10 minutes from my house. So I always have to choose to trade off good disc golf for convenient disc golf, which I don't like to do, but which I almost always do. This is why I'm excited about another course going in.

Corey says something about how he just won a homemade basket in New Mexico and how he's going to install it out in the desert. He asks if I've played the homemade ones out there? No, though I've played a tournament that had several baskets out in the desert, so I've probably played a couple of the holes. He says there are four or five holes now with baskets in the desert, so we try those out.

They're excellent little holes, with some different looks (a short forehand shot to a covered basket, a 315' hole down and across an arroyo and up to the other side, another 230' hole back across a wash, and so on). They add some elevation change and a substantial amount of scenic pop to this course. And at least as of now, they're all crazy little homemade baskets. I include photos below because each is ingenious.

One of the benefits of the homemade is that they're less likely to be vandalized (they don't seem new, so they aren't as obviously fuck-with-able), and they're easier to patch together if they are. Vandalism is a problem in this course, unfortunately. It abuts an elementary school that's closing in a month, and that surely won't help.

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Needless to say not all of these are regulation, but there's a kind of genius in it. I missed a photo of one of them, which was even skinnier than this. Makes for tough putting. But the DIY nature of these is super cool and somehow very Tucson.

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The shot below is my favorite of the new holes, the 320' out and across an arroyo and up to a slightly elevated basket. Corey throws a nice flat stable shot under an overhang which carries to about 40' away. I'm debating that shot, but it seems a little tight for me, so I throw a beat-up Katana up and left with a little turnover on it. First time driving here, and, hey, that looks pretty good, and then: ching. Right in, dead center, but spits out. High fives, even though it didn't stick. There's a reason for that, this being a homemade basket, and one that's pretty wonky. As you can see below, Corey's trying to fix it after I chained out. I can't really tell what the rubber basket part is, but it was at about a 45 degree angle, not conducive to holding a disc. Anyhow, I'm happy, even if it's not my first ace in a year. There's always this weekend...

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Next hole's another fav, just a roc/buzz/glide shot away, down and up from the wash. And check out this crazy-ass basket:

 

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or maybe check out the close-up: that's wood, homes! Like a dreamcatcher or something. Gotta admire this bit of ingenuity, even if it will tinkle pleasantly in the evening wind. My putt clunks out. Corey's doesn't. The wood's actually not bad.

 

A lovely surprise of a morning: you go out just wanting to disc a bit, find someone you like to play with, play pretty well, and discover five new holes with weirdo handmade baskets. All of a sudden the world is filled with possibility...