Tues June 17,2008. 7:52 AM

Sitting here on a picnic table in our Manning Provincial Park campground is a cool but lovely place to greet the world.  We've come up from Vancouver Island, at sea level to 3200 feet or so and the air is bright and crisp.  I've got to eat breakfast right now, but I'll be right back.

     OK, now I'm back with granola and homemade rhubarb sauce, nuts and seeds etc in my tummy and feeling even better.

Since leaving the confines of Corvallis, I've been able to play disc golf in a few places.  I hd two intensive days in the rain with John Ross at Milo McGiver, in Estacada, and then a day at Pier Park in Portland, all while Wendy was becoming mor erudite about folk and classical music at Reed College.  

     Then as we traveled north to the Olympic Penninsula, I hit a course just south of Port Townsend which was only 8 baskets, but growing and very pleasant and technical, albeit with rather short fairways, at HJ Carroll Pk in Chimacum.

     After arriving at sister Helen and bor-in-law Bill's place in Maple Bay, near Duncan on Vancouver Island, I played the Malahat course north of Victoria once, and found it to be rough, hilly, and neglected.  I talked to the proprietress of the establishment, who told me that she couldn't compete with the free courses and planned to sell the place and move back to Victoria from the mountain location.  I don't think there will be a Malahat course much longer.

Much more positive was my experience in Nanaimo, north of Duncan, where I played 36 holes each on two separate days.  This course at the Bowen Sport Complex on a large tract of wooded, hill, mowed land was a great combination of technical challenge and the occasional longer hole.  No hole was a simple straight shot, with trees in play to challenge the skills of all.  Some would fault it for having too many shorter holes, but of course, I'm not one of those.

I'm planning to play in a one day tournament in St Paul, MN, the Kaposia Open, on June 28th and there is a course in Vernon BC that I expect to take in tomorrow.  Overall, it is a lot of fun trying the different courses andseeing how I can do on each of them.  I haven't lost a disc yet, although there have been some searches required.

I'll give you an update on my disc adventures after the 28th.