Play disc golf, shine or rain

(Here's another Excursions column, published bi-weekly in the Jackson Hole News&Guide.)

By Amy Schenck

What: disc golf

Where: Fifth Street Park in Driggs, Idaho

Cost: Free

Equipment: at least one disc, but the serious players have a quiver

Time: about an hour

Tis the season … to scale back.

My weekend plans started out grandiose. My friend and I had put together what we deemed “the ultimate day in the Tetons.”

Start at 5 a.m. in Grand Teton National Park. Crust cruise out to The Potholes. Return to our car parked near Jenny Lake, and ditch the skate skis for backcountry skis. Tour up into Hanging Canyon. Time our descent so that early morning sun warms the top sheen of the snowpack, creating perfect corn. Return to the car, and replace the backcountry skis with bicycles. Bike on the Teton Park Road to Pacific Creek. Pre-stage a car and canoe at Pacific Creek for the final costume change. Paddle the Snake River to the takeout at Deadmans Bar, where warm clothes and a six-pack of beer would be waiting.

There was just one problem. The forecast predicted rain. Not just a drizzle or occasional squall, but a relentless downpour.

Somehow our ultimate day seemed less than ultimate without the springtime sun along for the ride.

So I switched gears.

Another friend and I decided we would drive to warmer climes to go mountain biking. I just got a new mountain bike, and I’m quite literally on the edge of my seat trying to figure out how to use it.

But there was a problem with Plan B too.

The forecast for Pocatello, Idaho, mirrored the forecast for Jackson.

I had to face up to it. A rain cloud would cover the area, extending for miles in every direction, and all I could do was accept it.

What fun can be had under a saturated sky, I asked myself half-heartedly.

The answer hit me: Frisbee golf.

I perked up at the thought of having an excuse for my disc golf skills, or lack thereof. If the disc sails the wrong direction, into a tree or over a barbed wire fence (all of which ended up happening), I could just blame it on the bad weather.

I found two hardy souls who agreed to don rain jackets and gloves for a game of Frisbee golf.

Since snow likely still covers the 10-hole disc golf course at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and 18-hole course at Grand Targhee Resort, we headed for the nine-hole course in Driggs, Idaho. All three courses are free to play.

To get to the course, from the main intersection in Driggs, go east on Little Avenue, which turns into Ski Hill Road, as if headed toward Targhee. After a few blocks, take a right on 5^th Street. The course begins and ends in Fifth Street Park, just past a new skatepark.

Of the three of us playing disc golf, only one of us had half a clue how to accurately sling a disc – that one wasn’t me.

While Dr. Intrepid, as I’m calling the one who could actually play disc golf, either met par or scored a meager plus one at each hole, my other friend and I duked it out in the range of plus two, plus three and once even plus five. (That was with a generous share of mulligans).

I found that I had some ability with my “put and approach” disc, but turned into a complete disaster when my fingers wrapped around the “long range driver.”

By the game’s end, I had posted something in the vicinity of plus 20.

And it didn’t matter.

The beauty of disc golf is that it’s a fun activity for novice and pro, child and adult, and in rain or shine.

Columnist Amy Schenck’s brother got her a set of discs for her birthday. If your sibling isn’t quite as on top of it, you can pick up a disc or two at most outdoor stores.