A very quick update for y’all Mighty Mouse-ka-TEE-ers:
CAUTION: On Sunday a group exiting and I was entering said they encountered yellowjacket nests near hole 7’s basket and hole 9’s tee. I didn’t see either, but proceed with awareness there, and everywhere, now that we know they are active.
Another group of disc golfers playing last weekend discovered water running through hole 11. Upon investigation, they discovered that the school’s water tank was leaking. They paused their round to notify several people with both the school and water district, and likely saved hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. I will be sure to include that in my report.
The emergency response training on the tri-campus has come and I didn’t hear of any disc golfers getting hauled out in zip ties, so I assume everyone stayed out. Thanks!
We are still in the waiting stage for scheduling a crew from Camp Ben Lomond to come cut up and move downed trees on the course. I wanted to wait until after that to schedule work days, but without knowing when they’ll be available we might as well do what we can. Watch for an announcement soon.
Since we completed our initial mission of reopening the course (HOORAY!) I’m changing the homepage. Keep your eyes peeled. After collecting testimonials for Black Mouse as part of this effort, I thought “Why not collect testimonials on this site from everywhere about how disc golf changes lives?” So maybe that’s what I’ll do. What do you think?
A new threat of permanent closure; a new plan for and a new idea for cleanup and maintenance
Starting with the positive, Black Mouse is open for play. BUT NOT DURING SCHOOL HOURS! More on that in a sec.
If you haven’t been up there since the winter storms, and as you might imagine, much new damage to the course has taken place.
Photo taken on 2-12-23. Several more storms have come through since then.
Those who hold Black Mouse disc golf course precious are faced with two basic and not insignificant challenges:
Keep the course open.
Maintain the course so that it can fulfill its maximum potential as a community resource and awesome disc golf venue.
Number 1 is simple, sort of. The rules themselves make complete sense given the course’s location. Even those in the disc golf community who would rather bend a few agree that the trade-off is more than worth it.
“The best we can do is spread the consistent message that breaking those rules will get the course closed down for good. So please, do that.”
The problem is that not everyone who decides on a whim to go play Black Mouse is part of the “disc golf community.” The social mores that help keep members of a community accountable to one another don’t apply if the offenders are not part of the community.
The best we can do is spread the consistent message that breaking those rules will get the course closed down for good, in hopes that any community members who are among the rule breakers (thinking they will go undetected and therefore no harm, no foul) change their ways pronto. So please, do that. Hopefully they will hear the message.
I bring this up because I received an email from the school district over the weekend.
Taken at their word, the district agrees with the value the course brings the community and wants it open. They have told me they won’t shut it down for a single rule violation. But after that, it gets kinda vague, and that concerns me.
Course Cleanup & Maintenance
The recent storms were of the once-in-a-century variety, and their impact on the course will require at least as much work to get things ship-shape as we recently did to reopen. The reality, though, is that the same qualities that make The Mouse so special also require steady upkeep and maintenance even in normal years.
To address the big stuff, Bodi Tunheim and I took a class that will hopefully enable us to get a work crew from Camp Ben Lomond in during the summer. This is a CalFire facility in Bonny Doon that houses low-risk inmates who choose to serve their time working outdoors. They will be able to bring in large saws and hauling equipment to clear downed trees.
As for the smaller stuff and ongoing maintenance, I have an idea and would like feedback.
One notable aspect of the overwhelming response to our petition that helped reopen the course was the existence of many different clusters of friends and family. In other words, many unrelated “subsets” of our local disc golf community. Let’s call them crews— people who play together on the same course on a regular basis. They might even have unofficial names, like the Sunday Funday crew or the Bucket Brigade.
I think we easily have enough of these “crews” for each hole to be adopted by one. Maybe Victor, Steve, and Karen take one hole, Rob, Faith, Ron, and Marshall take another (although Marshall may insist on three), and so on.
After several months of no news on reopening Black Mouse Disc Golf Course, we recently posted not once but twice on the same day. And now more to share.
The same day that I spoke to the head of district operations and learned of the septic project just going out to bid, I received a call from the superintendent. He said he wanted me to know he wasn’t avoiding me, just busy with end-of-year stuff. He promised to call a week later, but called early, the day after graduation.
He said they were informed by their arborists that those trees had to come down as they posed a safety risk; having played the course plenty since we built it 20 years ago, I’ve seen plenty of downed trees- a couple almost as they happened. He said they plan to go in there and clean up but have another pressing issue.
The best bid they received to replace the turf at the Quail Hollow site came in way high, according to the super, so they need to use their own staff to do the work. After that, they plan to clear the recent tree falls. That will hopefully happen while the septic project is being undertaken.
I know it’s frustrating and even nerve-wracking waiting and hoping for the Return of the Mouse. My personal perspective is one of optimism. As long as I am not hearing No, my assumption is Yes.
The previous paragraph aside, this blog’s purpose is to ensure you all know what I know as I interact with school district officials. In other words, straight news. The proper forum for sharing opinions and making decisions is an official club meeting, and as president I suggest we schedule one soon. All in favor?
We should be closer to a reopening of Black Mouse than we were at the time of the last update, 1.5 months ago. However, nothing has changed in terms of the remaining hurdles to be cleared. Hurdle 1 (the main one that is out of our control) is the completion and state approval of a septic/leach field project that is in the same area as the course.
I checked in with the superintendent a couple days ago, and here is his reply:
Jack,
Thanks for reaching out and glad your clean-up day was a success. We are still waiting for final approval from the state, should be soon. When we get approval, we can work on the timeline and when you could access the area.
I replied asking if we could use this lag time to begin evaluating an additional site he mentioned as a possibility for a new course in Boulder Creek. I’ve been cautious about taking this approach as I don’t want them thinking we’ll settle for this course instead of restoring Black Mouse, but I don’t think this is an issue now. When I hear back, I’ll be sure to share.
In the meantime, hang in there, and please continue to respect the school rules. Thanks for your support!
We seem to be in a hurry-up-and-wait stage of Black Mouse’s triumphant comeback. The school board may not let us on the course to do cleanup work much less put the baskets back in until the new year (I’m working on it), but there is still some news and progress to report.
The GoFundMe campaign was a huge success! To those who contributed, thank you! We raised nearly double the requested $1,650, all of which will eventually go toward course signage, improvements, and then upkeep. If you didn’t get a chance to donate this time, there will be plenty of future opportunities.
It took some red tape-cutting, but at the request of the district I updated the Google listing of Black Mouse (ignore the permanently closed notation) so the address is the address of the high school and not the middle school. This will hopefully result in people who Google directions to the course parking at the high school rather than the middle school, which is one of our big issues. I’ve also added some details about school rules, and will fine-tune further when we’re ready to reopen.
We created a new Facebook group that will be the primary FB page for communicating about Black Mouse and other SLV disc golf matters once the time comes. Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/slvdiscgolfclub to join the group.
I think that’s it for now. Stay tuned for more news, and thanks for your support! —–JackT
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