Quite some time ago, I wrote a few posts about my friend 
Through the process of recovery, they often encourage you to make goals for yourself. Things you want to do again like you used to do or things that you want to try that you never did before. It gives you a purpose and a reason to focus on your recovery. As you can imagine, it can be hard and having something to look forward to is a good motivator to keep you going.
One of the things that my friend had on his list to do when he was healthy enough was play a round of disc golf with me again. He has only been out a few times, but disc golf is a relatively low impact sport that gets you moving and while he might not be playing in tournaments, it's something he can enjoy as a leisure activity.
This past weekend while we were camping, I found a nice little nine hole course close to our campground and I thought if he was feeling up to it, maybe we could give it a shot. As you can see from the photo above, although it was only nine holes, some of them were still quite long. 465 feet is nothing to scoff at.
While the course was pretty wide open, it also had some tight bends around clumps of trees that made it a bit more difficult to navigate than I would have guessed. It also was laid out in a way that it was difficult to find where the next tee pad was. We actually found ourselves wandering around a couple of times trying to figure out where to go next.
Despite that, the open design made it fairly reasonable for my friend to ease back into the sport. It's probably been about two years since he played a round and his strength isn't what it used to be.
I tried to give him some pointers, and by the end of the round, he was throwing some really good throws. I think the biggest piece of advice I gave him was to stand sideways instead of forward when he was throwing. Then you need to pull the disc across your body and pretend you are breaking a pane of glass with your elbow.
I plan on sharing some of these techniques with 
The course is right next to a wetlands area and as I was heading to the first basket from the tee pad, I almost stepped on this little guy. It actually startled me for a second and then I realized what it was.
Unlike some of the more polished courses, this nine hole layout simply used a couple of cement markers to let you know where to tee off from instead of a full concrete pad. I think that is part of the reason we had trouble finding some of the holes.
The course was actually really well kept up and I was impressed by how neatly they had cut the grass. I have a feeling if they weren't so diligent about it, we likely would have been stumbling across snakes versus turtles!
I ended up finishing the course with a score of seven over. Which honestly should have been less, but the confusion about where we were going at the beginning caused me to throw the disc in the wrong direction a couple of times. My buddy scored significantly more than me, but the important part was that he was out and able to do it and having a good time. I have a feeling this won't be the last round we play this summer. Hopefully after a bit more physical therapy he will be able to play a full 18 hole round.
As you can see, we did a fair amount of walking, so I am going to include this as a #wednesdaywalk post sponsored by 
Towards the end of our round, we came across another turtle. Actually
We were the only two people on the course this breezy Friday morning. I was actually a little thankful for the breeze. I have a feeling being so close to the water the mosquitoes would have been much worse if it hadn't been so cool and windy.
The Fort Gratiot Pond course is really nice to play and I would definitely recommend it especially if you are new to the sport. Just be sure to take a photo of the map at the beginning so you can hopefully avoid getting lost like we did. The tee pad signs aren't the clearest and make it a bit difficult to know which basket to aim for.
All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or
