Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Disc Golf Course

When entering the Student Center from the library, you might have noticed a metal basket with a yellow strip at the top and a black 12 on it. This is part of Hocking College's Disc Golf Course. As of now there are 12 holes throughout the hill behind the Student Center, Shaw Lab, Davidson Hall and the Public Safety Services buildings. We hope to expand and make our course a full 18 holes.

In order to play the course all you need to do is go to the main desk in the Student Center and ask them for the map and also ask for the discs. To use the Outdoor Pursuits discs, you must give your student I.D. to the worker. This ensures that O.P. gets all their discs back from the course. You will get your I.D. back when you return the borrowed disks. If you over-shoot a basket and your disc goes into a ravine, please do your best to retrieve it. Since the course is in the woods, it makes for a great challenge and a nice hike.


The course has two different par levels, one for the beginner and the advanced. Each are shown on the score card that is on the back of the map.







At each tee off there are signs that show the thrower where the basket lies and the way the fairway curves. Also the signs tells what the par is for that hole and how many feet it is from tee off to basket.
The first tee off place is between the Student Center and Shaw Lab. You then throw across a little run-off stream and around some trees to the basket.







Second shot to basket one.











After making the first hole there will be signs pointing you in the right direction to hole 2. Hole 2 is also played in a more open area; there are some trees in the fair way but that just makes it so much more interesting.









Hole three starts back in the woods so there is a trail that starts across the street. After the ascent you come upon hole 3. This is a nice open fairway that starts in the shade of a white pine.



The white dot is Tim Rice standing beside hole 3's basket. This picture taken from the tee off.





Hole 4 is where things really get interesting. There are two fairways to choose from. One is up a little ridge where it is trickier to keep your disc on the course and the other is through the lower portion where it may get stuck in some mud or hit a sapling. This is the lower portion. The upper portion is to the left more. The basket is on the left side of the little island of trees.



Hole 5 is a straight shot with woody brush on both sides of the fairway, over a small run-off creek, past a clump of trees where the basket is sitting a few feet behind. Don't worry it is easier than it sounds. It is simply a par 3 for both the advanced and beginners.








After a short hike through the woods you come upon hole 6 at the top of a small ridge. This hole is a downward throw and relatively easy, after you avoid the trees in the fairway. No worries though, most of the little brush has been cleared for your convenience.







Hole 7 is tricky. It may be tempting to throw your disc down the pathway but if you look at the sign you will see that the fairway actually curves into the wooded area behind basket 6. It looks tough but after you clear the first couple of trees, the little valley is quite clear of obstacles.







Hole 8 is a simple par 3 and only 198'. It is a nice throw that curves a bit to the left. There is also a little hill to take you out of the small valley. The brush has been controlled to make this hole more bearable, but the trees remain to test your skills as a disc golf player.






Hole 9 is semi-tricky for a few reasons. A. it is pretty much uphill. B. it is relatively narrow for such a steep throw. C. you must be careful not to toss your disc in the valley to the left at the beginning of the throw. Other than that, this hole isn't too bad. It is only 160' and a par 3. This hole is leads up to a fun throw on hole 10.





Hole 10 seems like the easiest hole in the entire course. It is certainly one of the more scenic holes, I must say. But don't let its openness fool you. It is 370' to the basket from the tee off. There is a valley between you and the basket which causes you to throw harder or even misjudge your force and not throw hard enough. But be careful, if you throw too hard then you risk over-shooting the basket and what awaits your disc is a cliff with a whole lot of multiflora rose, a very invasive species not native to Ohio. Anyway, after you throw there is a trail leading off to the left of the tee. Oh, and when you go to make your second throw and can't find your disc, be sure to look UP in the trees. We once spent 10 min. looking for a disk that was orange and it turned out to be caught in a branch 5 feet above the area we were looking in.


We draw near the end of our course with Hole 11. This one is different than all the others due to the fact that it has a 90 degree right turn towards the end of it. This one is a 407' throw and a par 4. The fairway is clear of trees until the turn. Then you shoot through some trees and find the basket a little deeper in the forest. Careful in the rainy season because it can get very soggy back there, as well as on the rest of the course. Hole 11 is a good challenge to see how good at distance throwing you are. In order to get the par you must be a superb thrower.


Finally you make your way out of the forest to Hole 12 and you will come out in the fire tower field. Please be careful as you make your way back towards the Public Safety Services building and Davidson Hall because the fire tower area might be in use and it could be dangerous. When you get to Davidson Hall, just follow along the pond and you will come up on the 12th and final tee (for now). This is a spacious fairway. Your biggest worry is that your disc might curve into the pond. If that happens, we ask that you ask for some sort of net to retrieve the disc. Hole 12 curves around the pond and sets you close to the student center to return your discs. Or, if you want to play another round then Hole 1 is very close as well.

Hope you go out and play the Disc Golf course!! It is fun with family or friends!!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Tea Creek Back-packing Trip

This trip ended up being all Outdoor Pursuits Staff, we left Hocking College at about 10:30 and had a long drive to Monongahela National Forest. We arrived refreshed from napping and ready to hit the trail. As we loaded our packs on our backs we realized that we might have packed too much. The trailer was closed up and we were ready to hit the trail at about 5 pm. The trail began with a nice man-made bridge across the creek and we were excited at how beautiful it was. The first day was definitely the hardest because it was all up hill. We had to take frequent breaks and wait for people to catch up because we had some first time hikers. The trail was along a steep cliff and it was not fun almost getting knocked off by the three dogs running back and forth at our feet! The trail was also very muddy and wet so it was nice to have water-proof boots, and for those who didn’t that stinks. We had a little trouble finding a place to camp the first night, but finally ended up on the top of a ridge among some trees. We set up our tents and then headed to the cooking area to get some warm food in us. It was very cold with the wind blowing and the rain. We did not have a camp fire the first night and by the time we had all prepared our meals it was starting to get dark. We had to set up our bear lines in the dark and the rain! We had a little trouble getting them up and it was close to ten by the time we all hit the hay. It stormed all through the night and the lightning came quite close a few times. It was freezing cold the next morning and we decided to get our tents packed up and move off the ridge before we made breakfast. We stopped about an hour later to make some breakfast of hot chocolate, oranges, and oatmeal. We all put our rain gear, gloves, and hats on as we started our hike on Saturday morning. It rained on and off throughout most of the morning. The trail was beautiful hiking through open meadows and then walking with trees on either side of you so thick you couldn’t see even 10 feet! We walked through water all day and ran into some boy scouts hiking the same trail. We ended up making it to camp by about 2 o’clock and there was a nice wooden shelter with a fire pit. We all took our tents out and let them dry out and started a fire. The sun came out as we were setting up camp and it was nice to feel a bit warmer. We set up our sleeping bags in the shelter and ate some snack stuff for lunch. We refilled our water bottles and went out exploring for a bit and some of us took a nap. We hung our bear lines early so we didn’t have to do it in the dark. We hung our clothes around the camp fire to dry them out and burnt a few socks!! We had an earlier dinner and had brownies for dessert! We all sat and talked around the campfire for awhile and we one by one headed to bed. It got very cold that night and we were all huddled together under our sleeping bags. We got up early the next morning and had a quick breakfast before we hit the trail again. It rained a little bit on Sunday and we had our rain and wind gear on. We had to cross the creek quite a few times and everyone got wet somehow! Boomer (Zach’s dog) was the only one of us who was scared to cross! Some of us ended up with bruises and scraps from our encounter with the BEARS!!! Just kidding, but we had trees fall on us (I’m being serious on this one)! Mark, T.J. and Zach did end up seeing a bear cub and the dogs scared it off. We were all looking forward to getting back to the trailer and getting into dry clothes and shoes. Overall the trip was amazing and full of fun times and laughter. We stopped at Shoney’s on the way home and stuffed our faces with the Mother’s Day Buffet! We got back to Hocking at about 7 pm and unloaded our wet and muddy backpacks. Thanks for the fun times and the learning experiences!

Written By: Jessica Willbur June 3, 2008

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

To Mt. Rogers and Back









What a Trip


Friday morning came so fast this past week and it was already time to load up the trailer with our backpacks and head on down the road on our journey to Mt. Rogers. We left around 10:30 and had a nice comfortable 5 hour drive ahead of us on a 75 degree beautiful sunny day. We had no problems until map quest suggested we go left and what they really meant is go right but beyond that no problems arriving at Massie Gap parking lot around 5:00 pm. It was beautiful out as we all got our packs loaded on our backs and began our walk in the woods.
We stopped for camp after only hiking for about a little over and hour and half into the woods. We camped with wild grazing ponies that night on top of the beautiful Wilburn Ridge. The views were definitely something I could get used to. Amazing! You could see in the distance the Smokey Mountains which was so beautiful. Well after stuffing our face and enjoying a nice fire we all packed it in and got a good night rest.
Saturday was very eventful to say the least. The morning was a little windy and a little chilly but that was the best part of the day which we didn’t know at the time. On our journey to summit Mt. Rogers, we ran into some fog in meadow with a nice cross rain that came and went every half hour. So there we were putting raingear on then taking it off to only put it right back on to take it off, which was a little frustrating. We came upon a beautiful shelter along the famous Appalachian Trail which was named Thomas Knob shelter. It was a very nice little hut in the middle of the woods, if I would have to say so. Right behind the shelter was a natural spring where we all refilled our water containers, dropped our packs with T.J. and went to summit the Mountain. There is absolutely no view from the summit of Mt.Rogers, but you get a good feeling to know that you have been to the highest point in the state of Virginia. The rest of the afternoon was filled with rain. The fog got so heavy at one point in the scales which is a big meadow, the visibility was down to 50 feet. Exciting!
Thanks to David, Dennis, and T.J. for an awesome fire to dry some of our wet clothes during the time it was raining was awesome. We set up our camp right along a really nice creek bed which was very peaceful during the great storms of a little mixture of rain and hail. The rain would continue through out the night in 2 hour intervals. Most of us were able to stay warm and dry which was a nice and for the ones that weren’t so lucky it wasn’t so nice. Saturday was very eventful. Thanks to TJ’s tarp shelter most of us were able to cook our dinner where it was at least a little dry. After dinner most of us didn’t take much time getting to the tent and closing in for the night.
Sunday we had a nice hour hike back to the parking lot wrap up our loop for the weekend. What a great weekend. Memories were definitely made and shared that weekend. To top off the trip we stopped a t a Pizza Hut in Wytheville for a nice pizza buffet to fill our bellies for the 5 hour drive back to good old South East Ohio.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

New River Bouldering Day Trip

It was 9 am and time to leave as we sat in the Student Center parking lot. We were waiting on one person whom no one could get a hold of. After 10 min. of waiting we decided to drive over to his place and pick him up. Shay ran inside a got him up right fast. At last we were on our way to the New. It was about a 2 hour drive with Tim at the wheel and one stop for food. Around 11:45 we made it to New River Gorge, WV with the trailer still attached to the back of the van. The 12 of us got out and started to unload the trailer. As we were unloading we discovered that we had brought 9 bouldering pads, granted no one was complaining it was simply funny. When everyone was comfortable with what they were carrying we started the trek to Hawks Nest where we would spend the day bouldering. It was a lovely hike through the woods and Shay and some others started to keep an eye out for mushrooms. All through the hike we could hear the river rushing to our right. Everyone was super stoked to get on some rock but as we got down to the boulders we discovered that the dam was opened so therefore most of the boulders were covered in water or just completely wet. It was a little disappointing after the beautiful hike but luckily there were some more boulders back up the trail. The downfall was that we had to hike all the way back and past the vans to get to the boulders called Cotton Hill. When everyone had gathered round, Tim pointed out somethings to be cautious of, mainly poison ivy. Then let us loose. Most of us started out on some easy V1s and V2s. Then we split a little and started working on other stuff once completing a project. After climbing a few hours many sat down and ate to build up energy to climb some more. After another hour we were called back to the road to move on to some more boulders. This time we took a short hike up a hill near the parking lot to get to more boulders. Everyone split up into little groups to go climb and discover. Towards the end half the group ended up at a cave with a couple different problems in it. It was sweet to see people climbing in a little cave you could barely stand up in. This was the end of our time in WV. We gathered everyone together and headed back to the van for the ride home. Everyone was pretty quiet on the way back. It had been a great day of bouldering.


Getting to the top of Cotton Hill.











Working in the cave Hanging in the cave











Joel needs a license to
carry those guns. Putting the guns to the test

Hocking College Climbing Competition


The 5th annual Hocking College Climbing Competition took place on Saturday March 1st, 2008. Preparation started the Wednesday before by the Outdoor Pursuit staff. The route setters were Tim Rice, Joel Yott, Mark Hofmeister, Tim Osterfeld, and Shay Rosser. There were three placements, beginner, intermediate, and advanced as well as a pull up comp and dyno comp. On March 1st the O.P. staff who were working or climbing came in and finished setting up shop for the competition. At about 9:00am climbers started to trickle through the doors with excitement on their face. As more and more climbers and on lookers arrived the noise level increased and you could just see the electricity from the amount of energy that was in the room. 10:45 rolled around and Joel got everyones attention and read the rule list off. Then it was time to see who was the lucky person that got to go first. One by one names were written down by the three judges, Joel, Tim, and Shay. At last at 11 o'clock am the climbing competition finally began. The first event to take place was the climbing. The noise level once again grew as fellow climbers and on lookers were cheering on their friends and family. When every one had climbed every route in their grouping it was time to move on to the pull up competition and the dyno competition. More cheering on and yelling happened as people tried their strength at the hang board. Lastly was the dyno comp. This was interesting because there were so many people at the base of the wall attempting and sticking these insane explosions of power. After 30 minuets of screaming to stick a dyno everyone turned their paper in for a quick score count. The entire competition results are as follows.









CLILMBING:

Adcanced:
Men:

1st Tyler Hanak
2ndTodd Wenkam

3rd Eric Dahlstrom

Women:
1st Jamie Rice
2nd Courtney Grimm

Intermediate:

Men:
1st Lewis Aden
2nd Elliot Marquet
3rd Zach Hart


Women:

1st Abie Loebich


Beginner:
Men:
1st Erick Fisher
2nd Kevin Maille
3rd Dustin Whyte


Women:
1st Lauren Mahfey
2nd Jill Dershaw

3rd Julia Schnider


PULL UP: Brought to you by The Pedaler and Packer
Men:
Tyler Hanak

Zach Hart
Elliot Mar
quet

Women:

Jaime Rice
Abie Loebich

Courtney Grimm


DYNO: Brought to you by Wild Mercantile, Ltd.

Men:
Tyler Hanak

Women:
Abie Loebich

Well done to all the climbers and a special thanks to the Sponsors of Hocking Colleges 5th Annual Climbing Competition.
Sponsor's:

Wild Mercantile, Ltd
The Pedaler and Packer
So Ill Holds
Project Holds
Revolution Holds
Kuhl Clothing
Mountain Hardwear
Rocky Boots
Joshua Tree Products
Benchmade Knives
Solution Rock Gym
Papa John's
Ramono's Pizza
Lowe Alpine
Krogers of Nelsonville
Rock and Ice Magazine
Sterling Rope
Walmart of Athens
Tammy's Country Kitchen
Asolo
Nicros Climbing
Moose Jaw
O'bettys
Bagel Street Deli
The Coffee Cup Restaurant
Pizza Hut
Hocking College Book Store

What an Event! - By "The Hoff"

On Saturday March 1st, 26 individuals from the surrounding Athens area came to show off their climbing talents and abilities. What a day it was! As the climbers began to show up, stretch and study their routes, the hard working Outdoor Pursuits staff was making last minute checks to make sure that they were ready to put on the best Climbing Competition Hocking college has ever seen. The advanced climbers begun climbing their warm up route as the intermediate and beginner climbers continued studying the routes and began stretching to climb the best and hardest they have ever climbed.

The climbing competition was very exciting. Climbers were pulling down on holds and twisting their bodies into crazy positions, to successfully get through a move. Wow! Some of the moves that the climbers were doing were making participants hurt just watching. It was an awesome event. The competition was very tight for each division making it very interesting and exciting to watch each climber try to get farther than the other. The climbing on that Saturday was really rad! As the climbing slowly starting coming to an end people began to compete in the chin up competition. You get one go, how many can you get. This was definitely exciting seeing people push them self to get just one more chin up in, to maybe win the event. The adrenaline was definitely pumping during this event.

As all of the divisions began wrapping up their last climbs and the chin up was coming to an end the O.P staff began tallying up the scores to find out who were the winners in each division. The beginner division ended up having a tied for third making a climb off, which was a cool twist to the competition.

The Numbers have been added the places have been decided and it was time to give away the prizes. As the winners began receiving their prizes the look on their face was awesome. The prizes for the competition I do have to say were really, really sweet. They came climbed their hardest and for some walked home with free, sweet gear. What a great event. After all the prizes were handed out, their was still one more competition that we had in store for the climbers.

The dyno Comp!! The climbers were ready, excited, and pumped to through their bodies as high and sideways as possible to grab a big hold and hold on for dear life. What an event! This was very exciting and crazy to watch. Some of the climbers were able to stick some very hard dyno’s that as a staff member didn’t expect anyone to get. Peoples bodies were all flying everywhere but you know inn a safe manner though. What a day! After handing out the dyno prizes people begun to show their gratitude of the event with plenty of thank you responses, coming from climbers and spectators together. Everyone seemed satisfied and so did I. What a great day and successful Climbing Competition that in my opinion will go down in the books as one of the best the school has seen!