Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs is a great place for students to continue their education.  It’s also one of the first disc golf courses nearby to open for the Summer season.  

I had gotten out a couple times this week and found the course in great condition.  The trails were dry, except for a brook caused by a spring uphill, and the bushes have not leafed out completely, which makes it easier to find wayward discs.  

Overall, this is still an alpine mountain course and it plays like one.  Up hillsides and ridges, across ravines, and through aspens and oaks.  There is open terrain to toss a good drive, and often discs glide the way I want them.  There are afternoons when the winds are variable, and gusty.  These days are always interesting, providing for both epic throws I would never think I can do or miserable slogging through tight bushes and brambles to find a lost disc.

This morning I had just enough time to get nine holes in before I was going on a long shopping trip with K.  

To get to the course, a person has to drive up and around the administration buildings and to the dormitory parking lot.  The course starts at the end of the parking lot.  Hole one starts at the pavement and moves around a large area above the dormitory.  Being uphill, the views are often striking.  

The sun was up and there was still some dew on the grass.  It must have been about 8:00 in the morning when I tossed my disc up the short distance to the first hole.  The air was cool and no one was around.  I was pretty stoked because I was using new discs I bought the day before at Boomerang (who has a good selection of Innova discs).

The views were of green and white Emerald Mountain, downtown Steamboat Springs, and the thawing Steamboat Springs Resort.  I followed red dirt trails through bright green grasses.  Picking up discs from patches of glacier lilies and picking up scent of fresh sage.

Finally, on Hole 9, I made a really good throw that was guaranteeing me a birdie shot on the basket.  When I walked up, a guy my age and his golden retriever came over the ridge.  Earlier in the week, he had lost two discs that had sank in a seasonal pond.  This pond is at the far end of the fairway of Hole 9 and exists only during Spring runoff.  Using the rake that is kept there, he found one disc right away.  His second disc would have to wait for another day.

Of course, my disc found the basket for a birdie.  Thinking about my great day ahead, I walked to my car a short distance away.

To continue on the course and get 18 holes in, the original 9 baskets are used, however, the tee boxes are in different places.  With the terrain being so variable, CMC was able to make a great second half to the course.