The Roots Grow Deep in Northern Washington

This past Memorial Day weekend, I was able to take a road trip with a few friends northbound to Bellingham (the last major town before you reach the Canadian border here in Washington), and had the pleasure of getting to see the early stages of disc golf courses being built. Having done quite a few work parties on my home course, I know how much work it takes to simply maintain a disc golf course, but to completely build one from scratch…well, let’s just say I have nothing but respect for those that are willing to take on a project of such magnitude.

The first course we stopped at was the Northern State Recreation Area in Sedro-Woolley, WA. The site is in a 756 acre space that was once a dairy farm associated with the Northern State Hospital, a bygone mental institution. Basically, it is a lot of land that has not been used for much else besides walking trails, old farm buildings can be seen throughout the course, slowly giving way to nature.

Quientin Sutter, the brain and motivation behind the course, took it upon himself to utilize the area for the purpose of disc golf, and he is off to a fantastic start. With 756 acres to work with, this area just oozes potential (a typical disc golf hole uses about 1 acre, depending on the elevation change and vegetation.) With that kind of acreage available, a full disc golf course complex could be built, with plenty of room to spare. Even though the course is largely open, there are enough trees and hills to keep the holes interesting. Sutter apparently comes from a different discing background than I, for he refers to the game as “frolf” and has included six “art targets” at the course. I was skeptical of the idea, worried that the course would have something of a miniature golf flavor. I was pleasantly surprised by them though, unconventional though they were, the hole designs were difficult enough to dispel any doubts I had as to the sincerity of the course, and I’ll admit it, I had fun putting on them. I don’t know if I would include them on my own course, or incorporate them into a serious tournament, but I won’t complain about them.

The one thing I would complain about though, was that the course was so overgrown, in our group of four, we had to go out and spot in teams of two on most of the holes. Grass was literally waist high on most of the fairways. Granted, right now is the season when plants grow uncontrollably here in Washington (we just had a work party at our own course to halt rampant growth on one of our fairways) and looking at the pictures on dgcoursereview.com,
it seems apparent that the course is much more playable in other times of the year. And the people who have worked thus far are to be commended, there are huge swaths of blackberries that have been cleared out, enough even to create makeshift bridges and obstacles from the dead material, as can be seen in this picture. Still though, at least having a mowed path for fairways through the grass would greatly improve the present conditions. Fortunately, we had great weather and good spirits, otherwise, it might have played out to be an extremely frustrating round.

Though the Sedro-Woolley course offers up great potential in terms of sheer number of holes, it’s hard to picture a much more idyllic setting endemic to the Northwest than Mossy Roc just outside of Bellingham. Set on an old abandoned camp ground, the course plays through beautiful greenery you just don’t see in other parts of the world. It seems every fairway has at least one uncannily gnarled Seuss-like tree growing in it, with moss so thick that it has moss growing off of it. Pat “Sully” Sullivan and Mike “Big Mike” Leslie have been the driving forces behind the installation and improvement of the course. They, along with the Whatcom Disc Golf Club, have been doing a great job of maintaining and upgrading the course.

They’ve still got their work cut out for them though, being a grass roots course, they have to supply all the materials and labor themselves. Though many of the baskets are normal size and stature, they also have some homemade and some really old school looking lightweight baskets in use (see above). For the time being, they serve their purpose, but for a real permanent course, they’ll need all modern baskets that have some fortitude. Also, they need to have some cement tee pads. We played the course on a sunny day, and the dirt pads worked fine in those conditions, but in the rainy weather that’s typical of the region, the pads can become a boggy mess. The guys are on top of it though. Sully has been running a raffle at many events as a fundraiser for baskets. They close the course exclusively for casual fundraising tournaments, giving a little bit of incentive to those who make the trip to come out and support the cause.

Yes, both NSRA and Mossy Roc have their work cut out for them before the courses can be truly “established”, but the efforts put forth thus far are more than impressive. These guys are not doing it for money or because it’s their job, they’re doing it for love of the game and to make the game better in their area. Its that kind of attitude that has helped disc golf survive to this point, and I hope that we continue to see more of it. As AADG grows, we hope to to do what we can to help others build and enhance their own courses. The grassroots movement is strong in northern Washington, let’s do what we can to spread them further!

For more information on Mossy Roc, visit the WDGC website. To see what these courses look like in action, take a look at a couple videos I found on youtube. The players are obviously casual players just out having a good time, but it can still give you a taste of the work that has gone into the courses so far: NSRA and Mossy Roc.