Calumet Lake DGC is a 27-hole gem located just off of US-41 on Michigan's scenic Keweenaw Peninsula. It's an easy 15-20 minute drive from the Houghton/Hancock area. A Disc Golf sign on the main road helps point the last 1/2 mile or so to the course.
The variety of holes on this course is quite good. The first few holes are fairly open and play near the lake. It would take an errant throw for the lake itself to come into play, but there are some nice views. Holes 3 and 4 play over a small creek that runs into the lake. After this the course moves into a mixed coniferous/deciduous forest. There are a great variety of left-turning, right-turning, and straight fairways cut through the trees. Several baskets are very close to tree trunks to create additional putting challenge. Near the end of the course, a few holes open into a meadow dotted with fruit trees. Apples were falling off of the trees when I played in mid-fall, which added to the aesthetic for me. Another creek runs through this area and is in play on a couple holes, though it was basically dried up when I played.
This course is overall more of a technical challenge than a long distance marathon, but there are several longer holes above 400'. Most of these longest holes are in the woods, making them tough par 4s. Better players will have plenty of birdie chances in the middle of the course, but it will take a well-shaped drive to reach the basket on any hole here. If and when you go off the fairway, the rough is thick enough to punish you, but thin on the ground so it is unlikely to claim your discs.
The baskets are Chainstars, all in good shape. A couple are elevated. One basket per hole, but they are moved periodically between two pin positions. The current pin position is clearly marked on the kiosk and first tee. It looked like the two pin positions are not meant to create short and long layouts, but rather provide two different challenges at similar difficulty levels for returning DG'ers.
The teepads are patio paver arrays, all flat and in good shape. New in 2022, all holes also have shorter kick plate tees. Also, holes 1 and 7 (I think) have two separate long tee locations and you are supposed to throw from one or the other depending on the current pin position. This is clearly indicated with some signage at the tees. All other holes have just the one long and one short teepad.
The tee signs are colorful and show all of the information - hole number, par, distance to each pin position, any OB or Mandos, etc. The same style signs are shown at the short tees with the distances from those. The tee sign posts also have bag hangers. Trash cans and benches are installed at regular intervals near the tees.
Navigational signage is also good. Each basket has one rung in the bottom taped to point towards the next tee, and there are Next Tee signs as well. In the couple of places where there is a moderately long walk between holes, these signs are nice enough to alert you of that.
Other than maybe a few non-DGers checking out the lake, you aren't likely to run into any safety concerns here. The course is very well maintained, including some flower gardens and other aesthetic touches. One extra that I really enjoyed was colorful painted arrow-shaped signs nailed to trees near tees on many of the wooded holes. These signs each have text on them that names another disc golf course that is either local (e.g. Michigan Tech DGC) or famous (e.g. Flip City, Maple Hill, and even Hillcrest) and gives the distance to the course in miles (Hillcrest's is in kilometers). This is a fun touch, but it also told me that the designers/locals here are paying attention to the larger DG community...or at least are also avid DGCR users.
The front of the course has a practice basket and a kiosk. The kiosk has a large course map. This course map was not correct when I played, see Cons. There is also a permanent vault toilet near the beginning of the course, and even a water bottle filler at the first tee.