Well the 2013 duck season has come to a close and for all intents and purposes, so has the 2013 disc golf season. I plan on trying to play more winter disc golf this year since we have Bialy Grove now (where I don't have to worry about losing discs in the snow because they'll be there in the spring), but now that there's snow on the ground the other courses are out of the question in my mind.
Starting with disc golf, it was a good year. Jason, the boys and I traveled all around Wisconsin visiting some disc golf courses we've never played before. We took a vacation day and went up to Mellen to play Highbridge and got utterly beat down. Up until that point we thought we were pretty darn good disc golfers, but the courses there whipped our butts. Most holes were tight and long, with some very unforgiving rough. We'll need to do some improving before we trek back up there again.
Marquette opened a new course this year and Jason and the boys came up to visit me and we had a fun time playing the red tees there. We also went over to Silver Creek and finished up the day at Al Quaal. I was suffering from a bad case of turf toe, but I hobbled along and did my best and still had a blast. I also got the opportunity to go play with Jason's daily disc golf partner Bob over in Woodruff. Brandy Lake is probably one of the nicest courses I've played, mostly speaking from a course maintenance standpoint. It's fun and is really accessible to beginners.
Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to play the Tailings in Iron River this year. I almost had Jason talked into it (arguing that we are way better players than we were when we first tackled that course) but the timing was never there. Duck season arrived and our gears shifted.
Most of the time, we played Bialy Grove. It's a challenging course and you could see all of our games improving from playing the tightly wooded course at camp. Now having a few months of playing it under my belt, I see a few other holes that could be created to expand the course and improve flow. Next summer I plan to host a Bialy Grove Tournament there. I think it will be a lot of fun. I wanted to do that this year, but the timing never worked out.
Moving to duck season. It was a memorable season. We never had a week where no ducks were around. We started off getting quite a few, then our shooting kinda slumped in the middle of season and picked up again toward the end. We picked up a new duck hunter--my good friend Beau. He came out for the first time ever and got lots of shooting (though he didn't get a duck) but he's hooked now. Tom Tipler and Ronnie also accompanied us on many hunts, as well as my brother-in-law Mike on opening day. Overall we shot 28 ducks as a group this year, the same number as last year. The last day we attempted to go out (Nov 16) the lake was froze except the middle. It was the worst closing day we ever had.
Jason and I made a big mistake by trying to drag our kayaks into a lake we saw on Google Earth. When all was said and done, we dragged the yaks 1.6 miles through swamp to a lake that had zero ducks. To top it off, it was the warmest day of the season (mid 70s) and we neglected to bring water with us. By the time we got back to the truck, we were parched to say the least and luckily had a few bottles of water there. It was a good lesson learned for the both of us.
2013 went by way too quickly. I can't believe it's nearly over. Here's to hoping that next year is just as good or better.
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