Northwest Trip/Road to 500 Pt. 3 - Silverwood!
Associated parks:
None
Friday, August 1, 2003
After our amazing nights sleep at the Motel 6 in Butte, Montana, we loaded up the car with new ice and food for the cooler and headed out on our way to another new state and two new-to-us CCI’s! The view was once again amazing, and as soon as we entered Idaho, you could definitely tell a difference from Montana in the fact that there were lush forests on the mountains now instead of nothing. The people seem to have a great sense of humor as well, as you can see from this sign that was at a gas station we stopped at. And you have to love what it says on the license plates in the state! I got a kick out of it. Also, the terrain was much rougher and created much tighter turns on the highway, which resulted in some slower speed limits, booo. But I sure could get used to these views!
After four hours in the car, we were finally greeted with the amazing views of the two CCI woodies dominating over the park! Timber Terror, which ran right alongside the road, displayed the fact that we were definitely at Silverwood!
When entering the park, *I* saw the sign that said parking lot next right, but apparently Keith was too preoccupied with the amazing woodies to notice it, so we turned left into what looked like an entrance, but was really only for handicapped vehicles and maybe premium parking? I don’t remember exactly. I do remember the traffic on that road was crazy though because it took a few minutes just to go across the street to get into the $2 parking lot! Maybe they need a traffic light there.
Oh well, a minor setback and we got to see a sweet shot of the woodies from outside the park. And soon enough we were in the correct lot handing over our $2 (now there’s a parking fee I can live with!) and parking in the overflow gravel lot. Uh oh, overflow lot and it’s about 11:30am, only a half hour after opening? This can’t be good!
So we parked our car in the first row of the gravel lot and headed out to the park with my camcorder in tow. We paid the $30 to get in and made a left toward the “main midway” (lol it was so narrow!). We passed the log flume which looked rather nifty and these rides always get a plus when people can pay a quarter to drench riders!
Onward we went into what the park calls “Coaster Alley”; this consists of walls of wood on both sides of you! It’s quite an impressive sight and very unique.
The first of the two CCI’s you come to at the park is Timber Terror. We queued up for what looked like a longish line, considering it had one train operating and dispatches weren’t as quick as say, Holiday World. But then again, not many parks are! So it turns out the wait was approximately twenty-five minutes, which definitely wasn’t horrible, but could have moved faster. Keith and I opted for the front row for our first ride and waited two more trains. In the front row queue, you get a good view of this creature. I have no idea what it is!
While waiting, a person with an exit pass hopped in the front seat before us and had a camcorder out, filming, in plain view. So I guess it was okay on this coaster to tape, so I pulled out my Canon MiniDV camera and filmed away.
As you can see from the top of the lift, it was an absolutely gorgeous day and for anyone who hasn’t been to this park, you get a fantastic view of the surrounding mountains!
We dropped down the quick drop and were treated to copious amounts of airtime on the out run! There was air on every single hill, including both parts of the double up. Keith and I were stunned at how good the air was, too! We could be heard saying “Holy ****!” and “Oh my God!”
The turnaround was damn good, very nice positive G’s and this ride was very smooth so far! The drop out of the turnaround was decent in front, so I couldn’t wait to try the back seat as I knew it would have some awesome air. A few more bunny hops and into the clockwise helix which wasn’t as intense as say, Legend or The Boss, but had a nice kick to it…then to one of the BEST parts of the ride, the quick dip and turn into the brakes. In the first seat, this part just annihilates you! We hit the brakes with such ferocity, I was flung forward into the seat (yay for single position lap bars!). What an ending to a great coaster! Keith proclaimed he liked it better than Shivering Timbers. While I can’t agree with him on that, as I’ve had some *absolutely stunning* rides on Timbers, I will say it is definitely what an out-and-back coaster should be.
One CCI down…whatever should we ride next? Hmmm, how about that one that goes through dem tunnel lookin’ things!
Tremors was just a hop and a skip (no jump) away from Timber Terror which made re-riding each coaster very easy. Again, the line looked on the longish side and I was told earlier that this coaster only operates with one train (for some reason I had thought there was two trains available).
We queued up and listened to the *random* music that was playing over the speakers. There was entertainment in the form of some dude trying to make his own sno-cone…too bad for him there was nothing in there. It was daaaaamn hot outside though; I think it was approaching 95º! This all boded well for the woodies performing at their peak potential though, so no worries here.
Thirty minutes later we arrived in the station and once again, Keith and I decided the front row would be best for our first ride. A few trains later we hopped aboard the PTC train and had plenty of room to feel the negative G’s, if there were any (ha!).
Tremors (#473) was OUT OF CONTROL from the first drop to the stop! Since we were in the front I didn’t get any negative G’s on the incredible first drop, but those headchoppers in the tunnel were spectacular! What everyone else has said is spot on – those headchoppers are *scary*. The second tunnel I think is the most effective because you are out of your seat (especially in the front) and are just that much closer to nipping your hands on the tunnel ceiling. And who can’t say that tunnel exit in the gift shop isn’t wicked cool?
The middle of the ride starting from the interesting and unique helix provided some great laterals and again, smooth as a baby’s behind. It baffles me that these small parks can keep their CCI’s running in tip-top shape but larger corporate parks can’t, and they have more revenue! I guess they just skimp out on the maintenance budget, and that’s really a shame.
Anyway, back to the ride…after leaving the helix you get a great spot of air (when riding in the back) and there’s a bunny hill which had some strange sign saying “bridge out” (wtf?). The next helix is even more intense and out of control feeling than the first is and sets you up for the last part of the ride – more bunny hills and tunnels!
There is one slow spot right before the on-ride photo drop, but it’s really nothing. The last two bunnies have some very good air in the front, but as you know, the ride was just warming up and would pale in comparison to later in the day.
Extremely impressed, Keith and I walked off Tremors on a high, and over to the last coaster in the park, the dreaded (and I mean dreaded in a *good* way lol) Corkscrew. On the way to said Arrow, we passed by the parks rapids ride, but it didn’t seem to be doing much “rapiding” from what we could tell!
SIDE NOTE: I guess Halloween starts a little earlier in Idaho.
Back to Corkscrew (#474)…the entrance has a cool sign with some great photo ops underneath it. Despite the park being rather busy, and the two other coasters have long-ish lines, surprise, surprise, the first Arrow corkscrew ever was a walk on! And for good measure, too. This thing needs “butt pads” more than anything! Sitting on that uncomfortable fiberglass seat without any padding makes an already bad experience worse. Another coaster that is in need of some padding is PKI’s Vortex, although that ride is still much better than its older cousin. This sign is worth a thousand words….”fly out of”, “get bashed into your skull.” Same thing.
Next up on our trek around the park was a stop at our first flat ride of the trip, an octopus by “I don’t know who made this.” It was one rockin’ ‘pus though! Man, this thing spun VIOLENTLY and we had a helping heapin’ of airtime all over the place. We’d say “GO!” and then move to the direction of the spin as to get it going full speed. I guess our accomplishments were noticed as we had a lady tell us “You guys had it workin’ real good!” Great ride and it’s scary to think that wouldn’t even come *close* to being the best octopus on the trip…
Onward we went, and it seemed like we had done the park already! We didn’t feel like queuing up for the water rides since the lines were so long (did I mention it was HOT out?) so we took a leisurely stroll around the park and I filmed some things like this nice chat with a ride op who was obviously hard at work. I asked her how she liked living in Idaho and all that. You know, important stuff. Good times!
More filming and since the line had gone down on Timber Terror we headed out for a second ride in the back seat now. Back seat was fantastic again! I tell ya, I love it when you can’t pick your favorite seat on a coaster because both are so good.
We departed the station happy as clams and wandered over for a second ride on Tremors, this time in the rear of the train. The line was about the same as before, so we made it up to the station shortly, and queued up for the back. What was cool is that most people hog the lines for the middle of the train, leaving the back with a relatively short wait!
However, Tremors had other plans for us. Right before we boarded the train the ride went down. Turns out something was messed with the brakes (yeah that’s a technical term). They actually had to evacuate the train, which was pretty entertaining to watch.
So we just chilled on the station platform talking to the locals about where the best place to eat was and the like. Then we noticed a couple behind us with ACE gear on and we chatted it up with them for the remainder of the downtime (which was around 30min). I believe their names were Wendy and Sam but I am probably WAY off lol! Either way they said they read Coasterbuzz and were from Sacramento, CA. So if you guys are reading this, what’s up!
We boarded the ride soon after the empty test cycles finished and climbed the lift hill seated in the last row of the six car PTC. The drop, as expected was stellar from back here and I’d probably rank it among the top 5 CCI drops out there (with the likes of Legend, Tonnere de Zeus, Rampage, Shivering Timbers, and Hurricane). The tunnel effect worked even better as we flew into the second one, since you just see everyone’s hand fly down and BOOM there’s the tunnel ceiling!
The middle of the ride was more ferocious from the back overall, and definitely became our seat of preference. Toward the end of the ride there are some good drops with more airtime felt in the back of the train (especially the on-ride photo drop).
Out of breath once again we hit the brakes and proclaimed the ride much better overall as was expected. With our two backseat rides in on the coasters accomplished, we chose to cool ourselves off by heading over to the waterpark for some wavepool action!
Now I know that this waterpark is new this year, but man was the place sparse on attractions. Everything had an absolutely insane line and I’ve *never* seen a lazy river more congested than Silverwood’s. But alas, that didn’t matter since we were headed to the wavepool anyway. The water was the perfect temperature to be refreshing, and as the sun was going down now, it was actually a little bit chilly as the wetness hit the air when you left the pool.
I think we were in the waterpark for about 45mins and then decided to dry off and head back into the park for our final rides of the day. The whole process of hiking out to the car killed about twenty minutes or so but soon we were back in the park and our first stop was at the Paratrooper. I hadn’t been on one of those in God-knows-how-long so it was fun to get back on it. And this one was especially cool because surrounding you was water in every direction basically, with a ton of bumper boats splashing away. It was quite funny as towards the end of the bumper boat cycle, about eight of them got stuck in a narrow passageway for a few minutes. LOL to them.
Our ride lasted an insane amount of time, I thought, and I was actually getting a little nauseous since I was taping on the ride and getting all sorts of weird angles. But soon enough we were done and headed over to the Skydiver.
I, nor Keith, had ever been on one of these before, since when I went to Lakemont in 2001 it was closed. I had always wanted to try it though since I love anything the rider can control (I’m such a controlling person ). While in line, some dumbass kid jumped the fence to get a *quarter* on the ride platform, coming within a few feet of the spinning wheel/cars! The ride op and I quickly told him to jump back over the fence. It was pretty scary, I thought I was going to have to sell my tape to Real TV.
The ride itself was unbelievably scary though because it creaked like no other and since I just have to spin, I spun it as fast as I could. The car rotates horizontally rather than vertically, like a Rock-O-Plane does. It was WICKED intense, with amazing laterals that almost hurt Keith had enough, so we relaxed until the end of the cycle, where we proceeding to spin the crap out of the car, showing soon-to-be-riders what they could be in for.
The pretty much ended our flat rides for the day, and for good reason. Damn was that ride dizzying when you spin it like crazy people! So what to do next but get a nice, refreshing $3.50 slushy from the stand near Timber Terror. As you can see, the red one was really red.
Another amazing Timber Terror ride from the front of the train (and only a short 15min wait…yay for lines dying down!) and we found ourselves once again in line for Tremors. By this time, the sun was almost set and it was definitely getting dark – night rides, baby!
Sat in the back (where we’d be for the rest of the night) and headed up the lift. What a BEAUTIFUL sky! The clouds were wispy and the sky was purples and pinks everywhere. Now this is scenery. The ride was noticeably faster this go around, and we still had about 1.5 hours left until park closing! I couldn’t wait til 10pm for my last ride and how well it’d be running then.
We strolled between Tremors and Timber Terror for the rest of the night, racking up three more rides apiece on them. We also met up with our friends from Sacramento so the four of us rode with each other for the rest of the night as well.
I think it’s safe to say that once Tremors was ridding during pitch blackness, it becomes a different animal, not unlike Legend or Raven. Since there are very few lights in the vicinity, night rides on Tremors up the out of control factor, and reminded me VERY much of Legend during SRM! After our first night ride I was convinced that this was one special coaster, and now I understood why everyone said it must be ridden to be believed.
And after our second night ride (and Keith and my third, since we got on an empty row before the last train of the night) Tremors was kicking ass on all levels. It had me saying “OHMYGOD” throughout the whole ride (with some colorful words thrown in for good measure, as I’m known for!) and jumped up to my #3 wooden coaster, behind Legend and Shivering Timbers. And in all honesty, I think in its current state I’d pick Tremors over ST, but I haven’t been on ST since last TimbersFest where I did get some amazing rides in at night. So I’ll just leave it the way it is now, not that such a thing even matters – they are both world class coasters that enthusiast like us search far and wide for. Timber Terror is the icing on the cake…the cake being Tremors.
Keith and I were most excited about riding Tremors (as I said in my RollerCoaster! profile a while back) and it did not disappoint in the least. If you can get a night ride on this thing, do yourself a favor and get it. You’ll never forget the experience!
We left Silverwood, headed to the car with my new Tremors pin, and slept the night nearby (well it should have been near…it took forever to get there because of construction traffic!) in Spokane at one of their eight Motel 6’s (inside joke that only Keith will get, lol). After what our bodies had been through on those CCI’s, sleep was more than welcomed. We had an absolute blast at Silverwood and I am really thinking of making it an annual thing, even though it’s so far out of the way.
Thanks for reading! Next um (I am never promising anything anymore lol) is the drive to Vancouver and Playland.
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You suck big time.
*** This post was edited by Legendary 9/17/2003 8:14:17 PM ***
*** This post was edited by Legendary 9/17/2003 10:08:33 PM ***
*** This post was edited by Legendary 9/17/2003 10:24:45 PM ***
Glad to see you had as good a time at Silverwood as I did.
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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"The safety word is 'banana'." -- Family Guy
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"Let's go to PGA and ride...Oh, wait. Nevermind!"
I think I've seen the "Creature" starring in such feature films as Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Ernest Scared Stupid, Boogie Nights, and From Justin to Kelly. With the "roller coaster" career, it's no surprise he's working at Silverwood in Coaster Alley. He's definitely the angriest coaster character I've seen, but you should have seen what that kangaroo did to this courtyard!
So I don't get too off-topic, I haven't been more excited about riding a new coaster (Tremors) after reading this TR and Moosh's a couple weeks ago. The tunnels... the airtime... the layout... the gift shop... sound nothing short of "wicked cool".
-Danny
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Coaster Insomniacs- Coastin' the Night Away
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-Sean Newman
Thanks for the responses. You'd better enjoy the pics or else since they take a lot of time to add! >:O
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You suck big time.
Koaster King said:
I think I've seen the "Creature" starring in such feature films as Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Ernest Scared Stupid, Boogie Nights, and From Justin to Kelly.You saw From Justin to Kelly. Baahaha to you.
Speaking of the creature though Joe. You know good and well although I've never seen him, he's kinda my dawg. :)
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-Brian, who enjoys long walks on the beach, wooden coasters, avoiding being called a "jobber" while keeping it real in the 9Quad.
Joe, great TR, and very detailed. I think that kid is the dreaded "ritalin boy" from PNE last year!
When are you gonna talk about me? ;)
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Rob - Jerk/Loser - Standing up for the unfunny and unattractive. - Click here for details
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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"The safety word is 'banana'." -- Family Guy
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-Brian, who enjoys long walks on the beach, wooden coasters, avoiding being called a "jobber" while keeping it real in the 9Quad.
Don't believe the hype, go ride Tremors for yourself....
The $2 parking fee was quite comical, they must pay those guys in....potatoes!
bill, found a slice of heaven on the Skydiver...apologies to Jill...;)
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"Ju-ju-just like the bad guy, from Lethal Weapon 2, I've got diplomatic immunity, so Hammer you can't sue, can't touch me...." The Peter Griffin Rap
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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"The safety word is 'banana'." -- Family Guy
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Rob - Jerk/Loser - Standing up for the unfunny and unattractive. - Click here for details
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