The Geology of Disc Golf

[Steve Cavender-Wood]

Hi All
I have started a new blog. My idea is to describe the geologic history and features of disc golf courses, trying to make it accessible to the non geologist, kind of like the roadside geology books. My first course guinea pig for this is Devens and I have my entry for it up on the blog at the link below
http://geodiscgolf.blogspot.com/p/deven ... y-why.html

I have started my next entry (Coggshall) and have taken pictures for several other courses. if you have any suggestions or ideas on ways I can improve the blog I would love to hear it!
It has been a fun project so far and I think it will take me to many courses I would never see otherwise.

Steve Wood
The Geology of Disc Golf
http://geodiscgolf.blogspot.com/

[Jeff Wiechowski]

I would love to hear about Joralemon Park if you ever find yourself west of the Hudson.
Click on some of the pics to enlarge.

[Titan_Bariloni]

yeah Jpark did enter the mind when I first read OP

Conway,RFG,Otterbrook would also be a great read

If we could ever get a sub terrain DG course in NE that would be cool

cool stuff

[Steve Cavender-Wood]

Thanks Titan and Jeff for checking it out.

Joralemon is on my shortlist. I have been there once and it is a very cool course with interesting rocks, I am playing a tournament at Otter Brook in June so I should be able to take pictures of that one then. I will check out the other two.
I also was in Santa Cruz last week and got pictures of De Laveaga, very cool course, it was fun to toss a 450 ft drive with a mid-range. Need to do some research to understand what was going on in the rocks that I saw.

[Franklin Sullivan]

this is really cool. looking forward to seeing some more posts!

[Bob Johnson]

I would love to see what you can tell us about Otter Brook. Come up before June for a practice round and I will buy you lunch!

[Rick Hobbs]

Interesting project. The geology of Coggshall- mainly the big cliff behind the fifth tee- is in no small part responsible for how the course was laid out.

[Steve Cavender-Wood]

I was just at Coggs on Friday, taking more pictures and figuring some of the stuff going on in the valley. I should have Coggs done sometime this week. Rick, How did the cliff behind 9 affect the layout?

[Rick Hobbs]

Behind 5, you mean? Actually, it's a cliff band about a half mile long that effectively divided the land we used in two. The only sane way to get up or down from the top of the cliff band was to use the old park road. There's actually room for a hole or two at the base of the cliff, to the left of 1,2, and 3, but no way to incorporate this section of land into the course. We once had 19 baskets. Hole 6 was a short uphill teeing off from near the path by 5's basket, which was removed (stolen actually) when we decided that too many of the big arms would drive right over the cliff edge and risk getting hurt trying to retrieve discs. So now we have an upper and lower nine, but not sequential. You can play 1-3, then 13-18 for the lower nine, or 10-12 and 4-9 for the upper nine.
There are other areas of ledge on the course, and the way the rock layers jut out determine where water collects and flows. But the big cliff in the middle of everything was the major obstacle.

[Steve Cavender-Wood]

Ok. I know what you are talking about now. You can see it well from 3 and on the walk up to 4. It seems to be a more resistant layer of schist, probably more quartz rich than the rock below it in what I think of as the Valley (1-3, 13-15). One interesting thing in that area is that the SE facing slopes are very cliffy, and the foliation of the rock is cut by the topography. The NW facing slopes are much more gentle, and shiny due to orientation of mica grains. You see this pattern really clearly on 5 and 6, it is really obvious on a smaller scale on 3 (along with little faults that cut the smaller ridge into little pieces) and also 7 and 12.
I have always thought that the lower 9 was made first (so the orignal course went 1-3 then 13-18) then the upper nine was added later. It is cool to see how geology shaped the course.

[Rick Hobbs]

You're right, the lower nine were built first. And about halfway down the ninth fairway there's some exposed rock with a lot of mica grains visible.
The cliff bands run sort of south-southwest toward Rt.2. I also imagine thus chunk if geology us responsible for the big hill you have to drive up just west of the South Street exit. Not much farther southwest is Crow Hill Ledges in Leominster State Forest. These cliffs also face east to southeast.
Best class I ever took in high school was Geology in ninth grade. We did a field trip to Mt. Monadnock in the fall. If you want to learn geology, you have to go out to where the geology is.

[Steve Cavender-Wood]

I have posted my geologic review of Coggshall Park DGC.

You can find it here
http://geodiscgolf.blogspot.com/p/coggshall-fitchb.html

I will be at "Welcome to the Jungle" in May, So I will see some of you all then.



Steve Wood
Geology of Disc Golf
http://geodiscgolf.blogspot.com/

[Steve Cavender-Wood]

I have posted my next course Borderlands

link at
http://geodiscgolf.blogspot.com/p/borde ... -park.html

next up (I think) De Laveaga DGC in Santa Cruz CA

Enjoy

Steve Wood
The Geology of Disc Golf
http://geodiscgolf.blogspot.com/

[Steve Cavender-Wood]

I have an entry for DeLaveaga DGC in Santa Cruz California up now

link here
http://geodiscgolf.blogspot.com/p/delav ... uz-ca.html
Something new and different

Otter Brook up next!

[Steve Cavender-Wood]

I have just posted a review of Otter Brook. Lots of pictures in this one.

bonus shot of hole #7 basket, relief that the hill has been conquered with a par.

Link here
http://geodiscgolf.blogspot.com/p/otter ... -2016.html

Up next the Quarries!