It is to bad the OP had this type of experience at Highbridge. Our group consisted of 9 people and we went the last week of July in 2011. We stayed at the Honka for 4 nights and played 4 full days of golf. Honka was a minimalist experience but it was worth it IMO because of its convenience. Wake up, eat breakfast, play a round, come back eat lunch, play 2 more rounds, finish the evening with a bbq on the deck overlooking the beautiful mountains and sunset.
As far as course conditions, we purposely plan our annual trips the last week of July (wherever we go) so that we will be out of the rainy season and all the conditions that come with spring thaws and rains. We only experienced one wet area on our trip to Highbridge (gold course I believe) and I have a feeling it remains wet year around in this spot because it is in a very low area and seems like it is always shaded, so it probably has little chance to dry out.
John was INCREDIBLY hospitable with our crew and came by a few times each day to make sure everything was ok. In fact, the first evening we were there we realized the bbq grill was not working. John hopped in his truck and before you knew it he was back with a brand new bbq grill and we were able to cook out each evening. He also cleaned up the hot tub so we could enjoy that. He stocked cold gatorade every day, met us at the disc shack when we needed to replace a disc, and made the entire trip pleasant.
The courses were in excellent shape, some freshly mowed, others very recently mowed. We never experienced shaggy grass on any of the courses. Granite was my personal favorite, it felt like a truly rugged mountain disc golf experience (with a golf cart of course
) and I have no hesitation giving it a 5 disc rating. Blueberry would be my second favorite. The best way to explain it (for me) is beautiful, peaceful, and pleasant. I would give it a 4.75+ disc rating. Gold, well, it was very fun in some parts (long, beautiful), but it was too "ball golfy" for me. I would give it a personal rating of 4.5 discs, I got tired of just chucking the disc on some of the holes. The rest of the courses were in great shape and totally fun, and I would have no hesitation to play those again even though they were not as epic as granite.
I believe our group of guys will be traveling up there in the near future to take in another great experience at Highbridge, especially since the Bear course has been completed!
I just can't say enough about the complex and the experience we had:thmbup: