Coggshall Park 2015

[Rick Hobbs]

New year, new thread. Haven't posted here in a while. A lot of our day-to-day communication is being done on the Coggshall Park Disc Golf Club page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1661938 ... ?pnref=lhc
I just returned from another foray into the woods, taking on hole 9 again. Thinned out more of the sapling growth and some of the laurel stunted by deadfall. Plans are in the works to chainsaw all the standing deadwood on the sides of the fairway. This will substantially open up the airways and help make the hole less of a "Number Nine Nightmare" than it is now. I plan to continue to remove saplings and deadfall and also some of the more obtrusive laurel. Anyone who has spent around twenty minutes wading through this stuff looking for a disc knows that the branches break off unevenly, leaving sharp spearlike points that tear up your shins. Of all the holes, this one still requires the most work to make it play its best. I'm looking at more work on other holes as well, such as 4, 7, 8, 10, and 11. The lower course holes need a little sprucing up as well, but are playing nicely. Word is that we're adding another new brick tee pad for hole 3 this Saturday, extra help welcome as always.
More people are showing up to work now, not quite the army that Titan predicted, but a few more willing and capable hands have accomplished much over the past year. Every so often I land a disc in a clear spot that wasn't clear before. Substantial work has been done on 18's fairway, for example. The area to the right of 18's basket has been cleared and another picnic table added. This is where we meet for leagues and tournaments. In addition to our weekly Monday night league, we also have a random doubles league on Sundays at 1 pm.
The years of work are starting to pay off. The course has never been in better shape and is being played frequently. It will always have a rustic, woodsy feel to it, but is now coming into its own as a great place in northern Worcester county for a round. Perhaps in a few years, the Rt. 2 corridor will have up to eight courses from which to choose.
Another year, another thread, and still plenty of things to get done. Come play, come work, or do both. Ideas on how to improve the course are always welcome as well. I'm starting to look beyond the course itself and come up with things to do to make the overall park experience better for all users. For example, I would love to clean out that little pond next to 13, make a little pathway around it, add a couple of benches. It looks awful with all those fallen trees clogging it up, and the city had to be called in to remove a deer carcass from it today. Thinking even bigger, perhaps years down the road, a pavilion for chillin' and grillin' where the new picnic table is. So far we have not heard one negative word from the city about what we're doing out there, we are very fortunate. The land isn't being used for anything else, and the city will get a vastly improved piece of park land for almost no cost to the taxpayers.
And so it continues. Many thanks to all who have pitched in, at times I felt like a one-man show.
Now, if I could just take a couple of throws off my score....

[Titan_Bariloni]

For example, I would love to clean out that little pond next to 13, make a little pathway around it, add a couple of benches. It looks awful with all those fallen trees clogging it up

great idea it is rank, always thought that would look sweet cleaned up

deer musta got stuck

[Rick Hobbs]

We think the deer may have been struck by a vehicle on South Street and ran to the water where it died.
Cleaning out the pond would take either a lot of manpower or a lot of machine power or both. But I think it's worthwhile even if it does nothing to directly improve the course. But it would go some of the way to improving the overall appearance of the park.
A few of the logs can stay so any turtles in there can sun themselves. A lot of the rest can go to improve water flow.
I don't know when we'll get to it, but it's on my radar.
Rick

[Titan_Bariloni]

yeah makes sense

wonder if some local org boyscouts,enviro fan or something would help
could be a local media story DG'ers and friends clean rank stank into clean dank

[Rick Hobbs]

Not really looking to make headlines... but having other local organizations pitch in wouldn't hurt. I'd kind of like it to be a disc golfer's project, show the city some appreciation. We'll see how things play out here.
Next big change will be a brick tee pad for hole 3, we're planning to work on it early Saturday afternoon. I'm penciled in for it, anyone else wanting to join is welcome. If we get enough bodies, maybe some of us can branch off and do some cutting/clearing. There's always that.
Rick