Checking out the Bowen Park Disc Golf Course in Nanaimo

By Keith and Heather Nicol

Since we started disc golfing at the start of the Covid 19 pandemic we have enjoyed playing disc golf in the Comox Valley where we are blessed with 3 courses that are well marked and maintained. We have also played the course in Campbell River, another in Victoria and 3 courses in the Vancouver area. After checking out these courses we realize that we are very lucky we have so many courses here that are easy to get on and fun to play. For instance, Vancouver with many times our population has just 3 courses and one of those is not played often since baskets locations require throws over parking lots and other obstacles. If viewers are interested in finding out about these courses simply type in “disc golf” in the search bar of this blog and previous blog posts will come up dealing with the courses we have played. 

                                            

We had heard about the Bowen Park course in Nanaimo and so when we had to be there for a medical appointment on Thursday ,Sept 15 we decided to check this course out. This course is quite open compared to the mainly wooded courses in the Comox Valley but it is longer to compensate. The 18 tee pads are concrete and there are 2 tee off locations which means that as you improve you can play the longer course. We played off the shorter blue pads and really liked the varied terrain and open nature of the course. However the course does have some drawbacks since it is very close to roads, parking areas, volleyball courts and walking trails. In fact, there were several signs warning about problems with discs ending up on the sand volleyball courts. So the course favours accurate throwing. To aid finding the starting location and course map we did screen shots of the course on our phone before we left so that we knew which parking lot was closest to the start. Bowen Park is large and has several parking areas so check out the map on the following web site before you go to make getting to the first tee location as easy as possible- https://www.nanaimo.ca/parks-recreation-culture/parks-trails/park-maps   Then click on the Bowen Park Map and then the Disc Golf Map.  If viewers have other recommended disc golf locations on Vancouver Island let us know as k2nicol@gmail.com  We definately want to play this course again now that we know the layout.
See you on the course.