TR: Mt. Olympic 6/10/05

JUNE 10, 2005
MT. OLYMPUS WATER AND THEME PARK AND TIMBER FALLS
WISCONSIN DELLS, WISCONSIN

Being that I am a member of RideWorld, I was able to join the Midwest Coaster Conquest crew in Wisconsin Dells on Friday, June 10. I departed work at 10 AM in the Twin Cities, drove through some heavy showers on I-94 in western Wisconsin, and made the three-hour journey from Golden Valley down to the Dells. However, the closer I got to the Dells, the worse the weather looked. The first clue was noticed when I stopped at a rest area just past Black River Falls. The radar indicated a large blob of rain moving towards the Dells. After going past the Tomah split, the sky ahead grew more foreboding. Half an hour north of the Dells, the rain finally came.

I pulled into the parking lot at Mount Olympus shortly after 2 PM in a pouring rain. I parked next to my other RideWorld coaster friend, Jerry Dorf. Jerry was not on the tour, but had come down earlier that morning to see the gang. He filled me in on the activities of the morning during the rain delay. The thunderstorm stopped around 2:30, and by 2:45 all the coasters were back in business. I purchased my unlimited use pass (4-hour passes are now a thing of the past), and we entered a deserted park. The sun came out, and with it came incredibly high humidity (dew points in the 60s).

Prior to becoming a coaster-enthusiast-in-training, I had thought that Noah’s Ark Waterpark was the only reason any self-respecting college student would even get off the freeway at Wisconsin Dells. However, the combination of Hades, the purchase of Family Land Waterpark by the owners of Big Chief’s Carts and Coasters, and the merger of the two into Mount Olympus now make that a true destination worthy of the critical theme park mind.

The first place Jerry and I went was Hades, the wooden coaster that has set coaster message boards ablaze for the past year. The jury will not take six days to get a verdict on Hades, unlike a certain trial out in Santa Monica, California. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new champion. Pre-lifthill, Hades is better than a lot of wooden coasters. The drop and tunnel is all about speed. It is impossible to know just how much banking is in the tunnel without some sort of vertical reference point, so you can definitely tell that you go through a steep banked curve, but you can’t tell if it’s 90+ degrees. Also, reverse of what many would think, Hades delivers more airtime in the front of the train than in the back. Keep in mind that this is while the coaster is relatively “green”. This time next year, Hades will be an absolute monster.

After a couple of rides on Hades, we then tried out the other selections in the park. First was Zeus, an old CCI creation. Zeus looks good from the road, delivers lots of airtime, but this coaster has not aged particularly well. During some of the airtime, which was plentiful, the train ran on the upstops. Hard. I also didn’t like the back row in these cars, as my knees took a battering. My rides on Zeus are like High Roller at Valleyfair, better from the back row due to more legroom.

Next was the infamous back row of Cyclops. Wisconsin state law requires that all riders in the back car to be over the age of 18. For good reason. Perhaps it was because Jerry had most of the seatbelt on his side of the seat, or maybe because of the relatively loose lapbar, but this was incredibly ridiculous. Nearly completely thrown out of the car. I can see why you must be 18 to sit in the back. Rest of the coaster is relatively tame compared with the back row.

We cycled through those three coasters for the next hour. We then found our way to the relatively tame coaster of the bunch, Pegasus. Jerry and I rode separate, for good reason. That coaster is all about laterals, and we would have beaten the daylights out of each other. Like I said, relatively tame. We also met some of the people on the Midwest Coaster Conquest, as well as the RideWorld chiefs, Chris and Natalee Godsey.

After riding the daylights out of the coasters at Mount Olympus until about 4:30, the crew met at Timber Falls at 5 to get specs of ERT. As it turned out, there would be no ERT. However, the park would be open until 10. After paying a special group rate, the Trekkers partook in a round of miniature golf on one of Timber Falls’ three mini-golf courses. I hadn’t mini-golfed in a long time, and I forgot how fun/frustrating mini golf can be.

Mini-golf completed, we descended upon the 12-person train on Avalanche. This coaster doesn’t look like much. Boy, are you in for an attitude adjustment. This is a WILD coaster, with ridiculous airtime, just enough of a rough ride to keep you hooked, and a very agreeable re-ride policy. While this coaster is deliriously full of airtime, it’s a tough one to power-ride. Very intense, and quickly became a favorite of everyone. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this ride as well. Avalanche is going to hit the top-10 list of most enthusiasts who pass through the Dells.

The CoasterTrek armada left for Illinois at 7:30, and Jerry and I stayed to ride Avalanche a few more times before I departed for Madison and my accommodations for the night. The Dells coasters seem thoroughly underrated in the realm of the coaster world. This was discussed by some at Timber Falls, and we agreed that the reason for this is that not many enthusiasts get up here, as compared with Florida or SoCal. Anyway, if you are not bothered by the obscenity of the “Strip”, the Dells is a great place for coaster enthusiasts to get their fix.

En route to Madison on I-94, I was forced off the freeway twice by rain so heavy I couldn’t see 100 feet in front of me, and I did not care to get my car smashed in. I did get to Madison and back intact, while staying with my residents (OK, ex-residents now) the night in Madison. All that walking and the heat meant that I was sore and exhausted upon arrival in Madison, and I slept the sleep of the dead.

PAUL’S BOLD PREDICTIONS

1) Within a few years, Hades will be having tracking issues in the tunnel, simply because so much speed is carried through the tunnel that the lumber can’t handle the load. GhostRider and SOB all carry lots of speed through parts of their track, and neither of those has held up well.

2) There isn’t enough cheese in Wisconsin to go with all of the whining the ACErs will create when CoasterCon rolls into town at the end of next week from Six Flags Chicago. The trains are short, there is one train on each coaster, and the park is very, very hilly. I lost a few pounds climbing stairs, and I am in good walking shape.