RIP White 171 Boss

At first I thought you too much disc,
Though eventually you called,
Your flashing speed beat all the rest,
But alas, you were a restless thing,

So I threw the first one off a cliff,
A White 171 Innova brand Boss,
Off the cliff and into poison oak,
So long disc one,

I got back to town and before I was home,
I drove to the store and bought another,
171 Innova Boss Color: White
The same but better?

At first, not better.
Worse, and difficult.
Then after some weeks the disc began to give,
Flight and distance all just like before,

And that same day it skipped off a rock,
And FLEW up in the air,
70 feet,
Into the blackberries,

With no luck at first I came back with gloves,
And a shovel , and carharts and ripped up the bushes,
Thrashing and gashing and searching and finding,
Nothing.
Nothing but this…

So back to the store,
This time I learned,
172 White Boss’s aren’t right for me,
And I walked away with my 174 Blue Boss

Song Sparrow at Tom Pearce Park

Listin for these livley little guy's on hole's 3,4,5,17 and 18 (essentially near the river and forest).

Tom Pearce Disc Golf Course: A Profile

Tom Pearce is a great resource for the naturalist or disc golfer. The Josephine County Park is splayed out over hundreds of acres of lush riverfront land just a few miles from the city of Grants pass and I-5.

The park costs 2$ per day use or 25$ for a yearly pass which expires with the New Year.

To get to the park take I-5 exit 55. At the first light take a left (if you are coming North on 199 turn right at the light just before I-5), turning South on NE Agness Avenue. Drive 1/4 of a mile and then turn left (East) onto Foothill Blvd at the 4 way stop sign. Drive for another 1/2 mile until you see the Brown Sign for Tom Pearce Park where the road forks. Fork to the right and follow this road for a mile until the road ends and you are in the park. Most folks drive around the field and park on the other side near the bathrooms.

If you are absolutely broke you can park outside the gate and avoid paying but please don’t. It reflects poorly on Disc Golfers in general but more importantly it looks bad to the Josephine County Parks and Rec. Department. Parking outside the gate in essence works against new courses and course improvements in Josephine County. It is easily worth the 25$ a year or 2$ for a single visit.

The course is strait forward, visually nice, and a hearty challenge. With an average hole length of 320 FT It is likely not the hardest course for seasoned pros but for just about anyone else it is plenty to deal with! The front 9 wrap around through shady riparian forrest to the east and then come back along the river. At hole 7 we again see open field after crossing the parking area toward the western half of the park where the remaining holes are.

Get your kicks in on the front 9 where the holes average 287 FT because on the Back 9 the holes stretch out and get bit wilder. Holes # 13 and # 16 are both tough pars and Hole # 17 clocks in at 481 feet. The average hole length for the Back 9 is 353 FT. Enjoy the birds, check out the river and be sure and come to the park early if the weather is good so that you can enjoy a serene experience. An ideal time to aim for is 10:00 AM because the dew should almost be dry but the course will still be quiet.

Hole #1

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This shot would be 195 feet strait to the basket if it weren’t for the two poor little maple trees directly in the way about a third of the way to the basket. A lazy hyzer or big anhyzer will do the trick but if you are determined to be a smat ass you can go for the tunnel shot under the tree branches.

A typical looking Birdie Put on Hole 1.

Hole #2

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After the first hole, Hole # 2 is quick step up in difficulty and requires a straight shot with little fade. Or, alternately, one can put up a lazy, weak sauce shot, which is destined to go in the road, EXCEPT, for the nice row of trees which will catch you most of the time giving you a good look at an easy par. This may sound like a dumb strategy but it is a lot better than ending up in the looming Sequoia trees butting out into the fairway. In all seriousness I like to throw a disc which will turn over hard up the middle usually turning it over into the dirt safely and ending up…

...to here, for a second shot with an easy look at par.

Hole #3

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Hole 3 is much more forgiving than Hole 2. A nice line drive here can offer a birdie and even most bad drives have a look at par.

This is from a typical short drive up the middle. The twin trees near the basket don’t offer much of a prblem from this side. In fact if you are trying to play it safe the base of both trees are crooked and offer a nice target to slide a putter into preventing potential problems.

Hole#4

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Hole 4 has its pitfalls. Amongst which, the road, the pines on the left, and the thick forest to the right, consistently add up to give this hole some sort of thrill. The shot used for hole 2 is ideal for here as well if you are a backhand thrower, a hard turning over line drive, while flickers should have a better time of simply hyzering it in.

Here is a perfectly reasonable, but short, place to be after your first shot. The basket is mid photo, just to the right of the pine lit up in the background.

A look at the putting "green." The basket is mid frame, just to the left of a tree.

Backyard Birding Beneath the Bosom of Interstate 5 - Feb 5, 2009

About a week ago Cecilia and I moved into a new apartment. It is a much nicer place than the one we had been living in so naturally we were pleased. What I had not expected in the course of moving across town was the big increase in bird activity. Just moving from the bottom of a little valley about 2 miles away to the base of a ridge and about 500 feet higher, there is an amazing difference. These first few days living here I feel like I have never in my life seen anything like this sort of bird activity. It is literally staggering. As I sit and type this I can see movement in a 60 foot tall oak tree just up slope of the driveway. I can hardly stand to sit here and type this afraid I am missing something. The difference could be many things but is likely that we are now placed at the edge of two habitats; a ridge of steep dry oak savanna behind and above, and the noisy sprawl of an urban forrest below.

The first thing you notice would notice on a day like this day as you drive up the steep driveway and get out of your car is the robins.





Clamoring and perched all throughout the skeletal oaks they seem completely at home. With equal variance some fly and follow each other from tree to tree while other’s perch and preen themselves with what looks like total indifference towards those busy scurrying throughout the trees.

If you ever grow too accustomed to the appearance of a Robin find one with his (or her) chest puffed out. Some individuals will sit like this and they seem stronger and more confident, even less skittish when perched like this compared with the sleeker more nervous look of a bird standing up and leaning forward. Normally they perch somewhere in between but the point is even amongst the most common birds there is a whole world of individuals, a world which we have barley glance.

The fun hardly stop’s with the robin’s. When examining the flock which spreads out over every tree in sight I began to occasionally find bird’s of other species. First it was a Cedar Waxwing. A pleasant surprise and baffling to me because he just hung out with the Robins as if he belonged there. European Starling’s have been popping up like this also. And both the Waxwing’s and Starling’s have been appearing in flock’s of their own species, by the 10 or 20, and again almost integrated and completely unthreatened by the Robbins.

At the feeder first I had a Scrub Jay. Surprisingly though the jay’s have not been hitting the feeder too hard, seemingly preoccupied with something else amongst all of the fluttering chaos. The first song birds at the feeder were a couple of House Finch.

The Oregon Junco’s as a pack have stuck to the ground and nearby bushes but a few individuals have found the feeder. Likewise with a few Chickadees who nervously take a seed and fly! A single Oak Titmouse has shown up acting confident and taking seed from the feeder repeatedly.

I can’t help but wonder if the flocks are normally here now or if they are early, already migrating because of the unusually dry and mild winter. And if the flocks are moving through, just 80 yards from the flash of I-5, then they too must be travelers on a much older highway coming through this same valley. The robins have been along the Rouge River, just a mile from our apartment, all winter long in various spots for many miles up and down the river. Are these birds from our own mountains taking shelter down at our river or flocks gathered from distant locales? What a mysterious life these soaring creatures live!

A Beginner’s Tale: My first few months of Disc Golf

Mid September I moved to Grants Pass, Oregon and at that same time began playing Disc Golf regularly. Prior to then I had played the game 5-10 times. Grants Pass has 2 courses and more courses lay in seemingly each direction. I like being outside, so it just seemed natural to begin playing more. Before I knew it I was running off to the course each free day I had.

I found myself playing alone quite often, and like all beginners’ sometimes ran up ridiculously high scores. Rather than keep track in my head, “+13…..+17…..+19….” facing my crooked numbers constantly I got in the habit of just writing down my score on the back of a business card. That way I could measure my success, but also help keep from dwelling on my score and getting distracted by internal dialogue.

So by Mid November I began documenting all of my scores. This of course meant I had to play by the rules if the scores were to mean anything. And from my own urges and watching others I know this is easier said than done. The urge to take a mulligan after shanking one when playing by oneself can be withering. When that urge is too strong or if I just feel like messing around, I will throw a second disc but am always always sure to play from the first disc to keep an honest score.

The other really common way I see people skim scores is by “forgetting” about strokes on 5’s or 6’s. It may be honest, and probably is usually, but it is human nature to always “forget” a bit more in the way which favors us. We have to keep an eye on ourselves, it turns out.

So..(AHEM)...I certify all 5’s and 6’s are logged as performed, there were no mulligan’s, and I always play shots in the rough as if it were a tournament. What is the point of keeping score if it’s not the real score? Someone could stay home and play video games if they want a fantasy world. I enjoy the real world…even if it does hurt sometimes =). And regardless, I believe taking every stroke serious, and recording it has helped me to furhter enjoy playing disc golf.

These numbers span 6 different courses. I will break them down by course soon

Here is the scatter plot. Any bad day I have playing Disc and I just come home and look at this...

Here are the raw numbers.
I can't get the resolution big enough yet but you can get the gist from the colors...

Dark Green = 2
Green = 3
Yellow = 4
Orange = 5
Red = 6

The second from left column is the location. Pink = Tom Peacre, Yellow = Bear Creek, Blue = Lake Selmac, Brown = Forrest Creek, Green = Frog Creek , Orange = Indian Mary

As you can see there is a decent amount of data. I will be breaking it down further and of course adding to it!