With all the rain we have had lately, the Kishwaukee river has finally risen over its banks. I stopped by the course today to see the picnic table by hole 1 floating away along with a garbage can. The river has completely covered the whole park, basket high or higher on several holes, with swift current in some areas. The course has already taken a beating this summer and has lost some of its challenge. How bad can flooding damage a course? I imagine there will be damage caused by erosion and objects crashing into the baskets. What kind of damage have you seen from rivers flooding. Jason
From my experience, flooding can be very bad.
Worst-case scenario: I lived in St. Louis in '93 when the Missouri River flooded Creve Coeur Lake Park. The course was completely decimated. We lost 80% of the trees on the course. The course had little challenge afterward because the ground was flat, and the holes were designed around trees that were gone. After the flood there was about eight years where the County Parks refused to mow floodplains, and guess what the course is? We had serious discussions about moving the baskets and just doing away with the course before things got worked out. Now The course has been totally redesigned to be a long wide open course to take advantage of the land that is left, and the maintenance has improved a lot.
So, the good news is that there is still a course there and if you never played the original you would just think it was a pretty good course. Only the old-timers remember how good that course was and how much we lost in that flood.
Note: The loss of the Creve Coeur course mobilized the disc golf community in St. Louis and resulted in the courses at Sioux Passage and Jefferson Barracks being installed, and those are two great courses. So, indirectly the destruction of one course lead to the establishment of two more.
http://bdgc.org/
go to galleries
click on homie spring fling
little calumet flooded riverside park big time
I got as close to the course as possible today and none of the baskets were visible. At 2 p.m yesterday the basket for hole 4 was completely dry, now it is underwater. There has to be over 10 feet of moving water where the baskets for 3 is located. Last year, the river was barley flowing when school started. Jason
The baskets being underwater is not great for them, but they will hold up. Of course, if the water is flowing fast and something significant hits one there could be damage...you have to wait and see. The weak part of the baskets is the bolts, which will rust out. The best thing to do for the baskets when water goes down is to take the top and basket attachments off, let everything dry and replace all the bolts.
However, the course may not be playable for a while. The grass could be dead, some trees may need to be cut down, and the baskets may get pulled while the grounds are being repaired. The longer the course is under, the more damage will be done. It could be a long process to get the course back together depending on how much flooding there is and what needs attention. If a revenue-generating facility like a softball field is affected, you can be sure it will get taken care of before the disc golf course. I hope the damage turns out to be minimal and the course can be open quickly.
a little update, i drove by today and all the holes are visible...from what i could see there is standing water on and around the basket for hole 1, 2, and 4....also guessing that theres some water on the back few holes, but all in all didn't look horrible from what i could see...hopefully it's good to go somewhat by next week sometime
I walked the course today for the first time since the flood and it survived pretty well. None of the baskets were damaged, but three picnic tables were washed away and some tree limbs came down. There is some standing water but the course is playable. I wouldn't play the course until the standing water drys up and tees harden up. The bad part is the standing water looks disgusting and the course smells like a toilet. Jason
Quote from: jsun3thousand on August 24, 2007, 02:37:08 PM
Last year, the river was barley flowing when school started.
Must have been NIU's Back to School Beer Bash....
;)
played yesterday and the course is definately playable. not too much damage at all, the only thing that really needs to be done would be to re-wood chip the tees and baskets. TONS of mosquitos from the flooding and all the standing water....bring bug spray! other than that course was playin great