Can't wait to read your description of the Black Falls course you're playing as i type this.
I liked it. It was definitely one of those courses (similar to Sugaree in NC) where you look at your GPS every few seconds to make sure that, yes, the course is out in the middle of nowhere. I enjoyed the front nine more than the back nine; seemed like a lot more work went into the wooded holes, with all the logs used as walking paths and such. The last few holes were a bit on the repetitive side, especially having two similar holes (11 and 14 maybe?) right next to the rock wall. Maybe I'm just biased toward wooded holes, though, as that's what we have the most of here in Michigan.
The two pads/two baskets thing really helps with the repetitivity (is that a word?) though, as the course has the possibility of never playing the same way twice. As for me, I played a mix and match of long tee/short basket and short tee/long basket.
Johnny was top notch, met me at the course, and pointed me towards the first hole after mentioning for the third time how I should be playing Cherry Hill instead. Ah well, maybe next time.
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Speaking of courses that remind me of Michigan, Troll Valley in Maine is an amazing course if you consider it just had its grand opening a couple of weeks ago. The owner and his wife (didn't think to get his name, but I bet it's jmsayward) were very friendly. I walked past the pro shop on the way to the sixth tee, and JM said "that was just the warm up, this is where the course really gets down to the nitty-gritty." And boy was he right. Hole 6 is the only par 5 on the course, a 505 foot affair that most big arms should be able to get in 4, but man, a wooded hole with some difficulty was a welcome site after the monotonously open blahs of the first five holes. The rest of the course was top notch wooded disc golf. Fairways were quite open, and it seemed like there were more downhill shots than uphill, which is always a nice bonus. Hole 11 is probably my favorite, not only do you have to find a line through the trees, but you also have to get your throw up as to not hit the wall of rocks (troll teeth?) sticking up out of the ground.
If the owner can find a way to eliminate a few of the first five holes by finding more room in the forest to play with, and maybe add another set of tee pads to increase the challenge for longer arms, he'll have a destination course in the heart of the Maine wilderness.
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Sadly enough, it started raining on me on the back nine of Troll Valley. The rain and fog proceeded to follow me all the way down to where I sit now, a hotel in Massachusetts. It appears it'll rain throughout the day tomorrow, too, which means the disc golf part of my roadtrip is effectively over. I think I might salvage tomorrow, though, by checking out the Basketball Hall of Fame on the way back to Pennsylvania.
And that's enough blabbing from me.
