Lake Mendocino North Course starts right across the street from the parking with # 1 and the course finishes here as well. This is a wooded technical course with some severe elevation changes which are brought into play as much as possible. The twisted, gnarly, bent over trees provide you with a labyrinthian challenge of reaching the baskets. And this steep terrain is prime territory for rollaway putts and approaches.

The signs are the simple little plastic state park signs like you see in campgrounds to mark campsites numbers. Although they only give you the most basic of information, hole # and distance from the two tees, they are virtually indestructible, except for the two on the south course which were broke off.

The pads are rubber mats. There has been a boatload of engineering and hard work put into the building of this course over the years on steps, benches and tee pads.

The course keeps climbing upwards through the first 12 holes before starting a steep descent. I feel the course designer was right to keep these steep uphill holes on the very short side, many are only 150' or so but a couple came with huge risks of rollaways down deep ravines.

# 13 was a steep downhill with the basket sitting on what is almost a path. The terrain is so steep and rugged here that retrieving an errant throw almost amounts to rock climbing techniques, hanging on to branches. It's very treacherous indeed.

# 14 is an easier hole as the basket is set in kind of a natural trap and the terrain is a little more forgiving.

There's no place to throw any distance shots of any kind.

The rugged terrain might be a little too much for older players. Don't think about bringing a stroller or dragging your three year old along with you.

I guess I'm not very allergic to poison oak because I didn't notice it. Maybe August is a good time to play through it.

Personally, I liked the technical rugged feel of the holes here better than the south course. It appears that most players like the south course better as it is more of well rounded disc golf course. I just think the severe elevation encountered on this Lake Mendocino North makes for a very unique disc golf experience. You can't match this ultra-rugged terrain and very few courses have these types of extreme ups and down and risk/reward holes.

I do know one thing. This course wore me out!