Fernhill Park, NE Portland

[fernhillphil]

This beautiful park at NE 37th and Ainsworth is just begging for a DG course. google map (http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1T4ADBF_enUS315US316&q=ne%2041st%20and%20ne%20ainsworth&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl) The northern most part of the park is the place where the course would go. The terrain is rolling hills. There are a lot of mature trees and just enough field space to add some length and variety. There is plenty of room to fit 9-12 quality holes. It is definitely too small to fit 18. This course could have it all: tight and technical, big bombs, up hill, down hill, etc...

The location is almost perfect to fill the gaping hole in East Portland between Pier Park and Rockwood/Vance Parks in Gresham. I say almost because it does lie pretty far north, leaving the SE with a bit of a drive. Given the growing demand for the sport, the overcrowdedness of Pier, and the city's lack of available land to add more DG courses, this park is THE park for another Portland DGC.

And now to the downside: The area is presently used as an off-leash dog park area (and a really cool one at that). This is the main hurdle that would need to be overcome to get a course at Fernhill. I see a few remedies to this problem. 1) This area has easy access to 2 other off-leash dog parks at Alberta Park (NE 22nd and Killingsworth) and Wilshire Park (NE 33rd and Skidmore). 2) The large open area located south of the track is the former sight of a high school. I imagine that Parks owns or is trying to own this huge piece of property. While it is currently void of trees, it could be converted into a nice dog park with time. 3) The current off-leash area is huge! Some sort of compromise could be met where the dog park area is condensed and the course is fit into a smaller plot of land.

If you are a Portland area disc golfer and desire another course in the city limits, take the time to walk around this park. I promise you will be salivating at the potential this place has for an awesome 12 hole course!

[Todd Andrews]

We have actually played a tournament there quite a few years back on a temporary course that was set up by Keith Shupp. It was a fun place to play and had some great holes set up. Unfortunately, if it is currently used as a dog park the dog people will kick and scream before they give up a nice piece of property. My suggestion would be to talk to the Stumptown club and see if they could help you with step one in contacting the City to see how amenable they would be to your proposal.

Good luck.

[Kevin Madrid]

I remember playing in that tourney Todd. :rockon: I think I even played a tourney there with Break Away Disc Golf with ??? oh memory :rolleyes2:

This is a great park, BUT there will be some big walls to climb over on this one. Before Pier was in and we only had Timber and Rockwood, and Champoe (back in the day). My wife and I would play this as an object course. We played in the summer there and noticed a lot of people like to go there to BBQ and have large family get togethers and with all the dog walkers in the park made it a little difficult to play. Now there is a dog park :chinscratch: ...this will be your biggest fight. People won't give up a dog park for us especially with Pier is so close.

If you really want to get this course in I would try to get a hold of Keith Shupp on this forum and ask him what kind of other things may come up. For some reason I thought Keith tried "back in the day" on trying to get a course here, but was unable to do so (maybe because the high school was still there at the time).

Kevin :cool2:

[jevon]

I've thought about this park many times. It's just too heavily used though. The best option would be to move the dogs to the school land and have a cool 9 holer. Second best would be to install a 9 holer on the school land and plant a bunch of trees.

[fernhillphil]

I know that the dog park is a huge obstacle to overcome, but it seems like it could be doable. There is very little infrastructure invested in it. Almost nothing would have to be demolished or drastically altered to make the place disc golf ready (instal, obv). It is basically a dog park by name only.

Yeah, it's not really the $ that is the issue, it is the dog owners. People love their pets and they love being able to take them out to play right by their house. I don't blame 'em. They aren't gonna roll over and play dead if their dog park is at risk (see what I did their?). Dog owning disc golfer's could be a huge asset if this dream were ever to get pushed forward. It's frustrating that Pier Park is so close yet Alberta Park is so far.

I found this year old link (http://www.nwdiscgolfnews.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1923) that mentions Fernhill in the course update section. Does anyone have any more info from Stumptown meetings?

[keith_shupp]

We tryed for years and have played many events there since 1986 and even held the State championships there. The main reason we could never go foward is the people who own homes around the park they do not want extra traffic in there nice quiet area. Plus it was made into a dog park because of the need for more dog parks. All you can do is ask and maybe Stumptown could help but I would pick another park because it will be uphill battle.

[ryanajanes]

i live less than a mile from fernhill, and would love a disc golf course that is closer than 10-15 miles away....................................oh yeah and the school that was there wasnt a high school it was whitaker middle school and got shut down for radon poisoning.