Turning over old leaves

Fall disc golf in New England

It’s leaf season here in New England. The woods are lovely now (but not too dark or deep), the air is crisp, and there are not many bugs. And no snow — yet.

Lone Tree Hill, Belmont Massachusetts. (Not a disc golf course, but this is exactly what a leaf-strewn fairway looks like in November.)

But danger lurks for disc golfers. While the beauty of the woods is seductive, discs like to burrow under the leaves, and the leaves like to envelop the discs.

Today, I courted danger, and played a round at Muldoon Park in Pelham, New Hampshire, a lovely wooded course. On hole 2, which has a right-bending fairway just under 300 feet to the basket, I threw a nice shot off the tee that flipped up and climbed, turning slightly right before fading back to the left and landing in the leafy fairway just before a couple of trees (I thought).

I searched the landing area, trying to go back and forth in an organized search pattern.

Twenty minutes later, a couple of disc golfers showed up behind me and played through. I spotted one of their tee-shot discs, which was completely buried under the leaves. On their way to the basket, one of them called out “Is your disc red?” I was looking in the wrong place! Disaster averted — yay!

Here’s the satellite view (GPS track) of my initially fruitless search:

Satellite view of my disc search on hole 2 at Muldoon Park.

I had to search for a couple of other discs, but nothing like the epic search on hole 2. I helped a couple of other disc golfers find their discs, and managed to complete the round without losing any discs — a major achievement.

Be careful out there!