OVER THE HILLS & FAR AWAY
This......this is what I drove 3 1/2 hours for.
The 6th longest wooden roller coaster on the planet resides here, in Muskegon, Michigan. It's the headlining attraction at an otherwise unremarkable park (sorry guys, it's the truth!) and plays out just like my lead-in says.
MichAdv's aptly named coaster is essentially just hill after hill after hill.....with a couple slick tricks up its shivering sleeves. But we'll get to that later.
Clocking in at over a mile in length (5,383ft to be exact), Shivering Timbers lasts a full 2.5 minutes and reaches a speed of 57mph. The chain lift tops out at 122 feet at its apex, making it the tallest ride at the park. Two train operation keeps the queue line moving swiftly.
Timbers is an absolute balls-to-the-wall airtime JUGGERNAUT. The only other wooden coaster I've ridden that can compete with the sheer quantity of negative G's is The Voyage. Although you'd think the back row would receive the most airtime, it's actually the front row that will yield the best results on this spectacular coaster.
Just because it's an inversionless woodie doesn't mean it can't have its own delightful quirks. Such as.....
~Special ride elements~
*double up (going out)
*double up (coming back)
*TRICK TRACK!!
*630° helix
You don't have to be a coaster fanatic to figure out what a double up is. And the ending helix that delivers some excellent lateral G-forces is fairly self explanatory. But what on earth is a "trick track"?
Besides currently being the only coaster **in the world** to make use of it, Shivering Timbers features a flat (and by flat, I mean non-elevated) section of track that very quickly banks from left to right and then straightens out again. Legendary coaster designer Harry Traver used a variation of this on his coasters (most notably the Crystal Beach Cyclone) and labeled this sudden side-to-side motion "jazz track".
Well the train hits this trick track section doing a solid 45mph, and given Timbers' 17 years of age, this maneuver has gotten rough. It's still fun, still hella unique, but the transition isn't quite as smooth anymore. I strongly recommend waiting the additional time for the front row, and if time permits, ride in the back row as well just to compare/contrast.
With this review, I've now been on 5 of the 10 longest wooden roller coasters in the world.....and that's not including the ill-fated Son of Beast, which would've made it 6/10. The others are in China/Japan/Korea, so completing that list won't be happening anytime soon.
Timbers has been consistently ranked as one of the best in its class, peaking at #1 on Mitch Hawker's wooden coaster poll in '98, '02, '04, and placing 2nd from '99 to '01. It's dropped in the ranks in recent years, but Timbers still rolls on.
After riding this several times over a couple days, the question needs to be asked:
If a tree falls in the forest......does it get made into an award-winning wooden roller coaster?
I certainly hope so.
IT'S GOIN DOWN, WE'RE YELLING ______ read more