Mixed feelings. To be sure, it's mighty pretty. If you're not staying in one of the places in the mountaintop complex, then parking is pretty much unavailable. If you are, then ventilation is pretty much unavailable, but maybe the weather will be cooler and breezier than last year. We had two decent-sized fans in our condo, but needed a couple more. I ended up sleeping in the back of my truck in the parking lot, where the air was somewhat cooler.

Food was good, but prices were kind of steep, about like any tourist place where the nearest McDonalds is an hour away. The cafeteria-style breakfasts in the restaurant near the sign-in place were reasonable and pretty decent. The restaurants at the foot of the mountain were pretty good and reasonable in price.

The courses are mighty pretty. Rocky, slick as all get out if it rains or there's much heavy fog (and there's usually much heavy fog in the early mornings), and challenging. Lots of angles, and shooting through narrow "tunnels" in the trees. The courses I saw were well set and presented a very good mixture of ranges and situations. Can't fault the crew who set the course at all. They did a fine job with the terrain they had to work with. The view from the lifts is really neat when they run. They seemed fairly reliable last year, but we ended up waiting around forever for shuttle busses the year before because the lifts were usually out of commission. Then last year they were shut down temporarily after someone forty miles up the valley thought they heard thunder.

The locals who work there are about the nicest and friendliest people you'll ever meet, and so are the local folks down the road, for the most part. The personnel putting on the shoot were also very easy to get along with. Polite and knowledgable for the most part, with the exception of a bit of understandable temporary confusion when the weather crossed them up.

So, if you're staying on the mountain and your condo is un-air-conditioned, like most, bring some extra fans. If you're staying elsewhere, just have the chauffer drop you off in front of the main entrance and park somewhere near the bottom of the hill, where you can reach him on the two-way, because your cell phone probably won't do much good there. At least mine didn't. But it's mighty pretty.

My personal opinion is that it would be a great place to visit for a family vacation, and a poor place to try to host an archery tournament. But it is really pretty. Watching the deer walking around on the open areas as the rising sun started to pierce through the early morning fog was among the nicest views I've seen anywhere. I've been twice now and may be back again in spite of the negatives I stated above.

However, if we're voting, my vote would go towards looking for someplace out of those stormy, foggy mountains to hold such a weather-dependent event. Yes, it rains everywhere, but some places much more than others. Yes, they have lightning everywhere, but not nearly as much most places as they have on mountaintops. Most places they don't need to shut everything down because of a storm forty miles away. Yes, they have muggy nights in other places in August, but the motels most everywhere else are air-conditioned.

I'm not recommending that anyone NOT go, by any means. If you're even thinking about it, then it would be a good idea to go at least once and experience it. Just trying to let some folks in on the things they might want to prepare for, and to express the opposing opinion about whether staying there would be a good idea long-term.

Wow... I almost find it funny I had to dig all the way back to a 2004 post to find any mention of the fiasco that was the 2003 World shoot!

Funny how all the 1000's of post from Aug 2003 have "disapeared" along with the scores from the shoot.

I wonder if any 1 of the 100's of shooters who demanded a refund, ever recieved one?

If you weren't there, you missed one helluva near redneck riot

And now I see on another forum, reports they handed out "beer mugs" as trophies to kids this year.


perfect!!