SHIVERING TIMBERS!!!

Shivering Timbers was built in 1998 at Michigan's Adventure, and has consistantly ranked as one of the top wooden coasters on earth. Here is an element by element description:

You start with a flat left turn out of the station, immediatly followed by the lift hill. You head up to the 125ft apex, with the rest of the park behind you and Timbertown railway to the left.

Finally you reach the top.

In the back seat, without warning you are yanked upwards and you float down the entire drop... 3 seconds of pure negative gravity. Front seat riders lean way over the drop, you don't pick up speed until you are at maximum steepness. Then you take off and hit top speed as timbers pass overhead.

At the bottom you are pressed down as you rocket up the steep second hill ascent. At the top of the second hill you barely slow as you are once again launched out of your seat in a repeat of the first hill. The third hill is exactly the same... tons of air and a huge drop.

Then for a change of pace you float over a smaller hill. This hill has so much airtime in the front seat you think you'll never land. Immediatly the train flies up the huge fifth hill. The fifth drop is more abrubt than the first three, and the airtime is a bit more sudden for the back seat. Then a double up with a slight dip and you go directly into the turnaround. By now you are so far away from the park all you can see is Shivering Timbers.

The turn around dips very tightly, creating some strong G forces. Then a very short straight away about 70 feet in the air, and next comes a surprise drop to the left which creates some serious lateral and negative G's for the back seat.

After that amazing drop comes a small air-time filled hill completely within the super structure. The next hill is a true double up, then a very large drop into the "trick track" where you lean from side to side.

Heading down into the trick-track. No, that's not the first big drop you see on the right, that's the third drop.

Next are 5 more hills, all different sizes, that you float over. Three of them are completly within the structure, and this is where you seriously doubt you should have your hands up. One more hill leads into a double helix, which has a very powerful combination of positive and lateral G's as it dives down to the left and spirals back up within itself. Watch out for your hands again!

This is my picture that was featured on page 11 in the Fall 1998 issue of RollerCoaster magazine!

Then into the final, and only, brakes. If it seems like a long ride, IT IS!!! It's my favorite out and back wooden coaster (However I do think Raven at Holiday World and the Phoenix at Knoebels are better).

If you choose the front seat, you will experience a whole lot of airtime going over the top of the hills, even the big ones. The back seat doesn't have as much airtime over the small hills, but it has those four huge drops. Make sure you ride in the very front and very back, because while both offer a different experience they are both awesome.

Two more views of Shivering Timbers

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