Park Review
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Altoona, Pennsylvania July 30, 2001 After a brief drive from Pittsburgh we arrived in Altoona. We headed towards what seemed to be the parking lot for Lakemont and entered through a group of condos (?). We went to the ticket office and tried to buy enough tickets for Angie (my sister) and me to ride the four coasters and for my parents to ride the two woodies and a flat ride. This proved to be an exceedingly hard task thanks to the incompetent 26-year-old working the booth who didn�t know how to count. We first headed to: LEAP THE DIPS - I forgot the designer of this ride, but it is the world�s oldest roller coaster. It is a figure-eight side friction design; I have heard that it is one of the only remaining side friction coasters in the world, but I don�t know where the others are. The ride is 41 feet tall, has a maximum speed of 10 mph, and a largest drop of nine feet. There was no wait at all so we walked up to the station and handed to operator our tickets. He then told us that tickets are no good for this ride; you need either a wristband or a ride token from the gift shop (thanks goes out to the ticket booth girl who knew that we planned on using tickets to ride this). So we went into the gift shop and bought enough for one ride each and then walked onto the ride. The ride operator then started the chain lift and pushed us to it. The lift seems pretty standard, but the anti-rollbacks are nothing more than planks of wood that the train pushes up as it passes and then fall down so that if the coaster happened to roll back it would be stopped by these little two-by-fours. The trains are nothing more than a little two-seat cars capable of seating four people. They are very well padded and, have no restraint of any kind, and have no seat dividers. All that they have is a metal rail in front of you that you can hold onto if you want. The way the coaster works is there are the regular running wheels on the bottom of the car, in addition to side friction wheels on the side. There are no upstop wheels at all, so gravity is the only thing keeping you on the track. The ride starts out with a small drop off of the lift and a long turn. According to Roller Coaster Database, the top speed is only 10 mph, but it definitely feels like a lot more. This is followed by small dip that actually has a slight float to it. This is apparent on almost all the hills by the sound of the train slamming back into the track at the bottom (you�re literally leaping the dips!). The up sections on the dips are very small so by the end of the ride the car is going pretty fast and the float is becoming more apparent. Also, as you progress through the course, the dips are becoming larger. The ride is a lot of fun and a little scary. It also seems that the coaster has rolled back on the lift a few times because a few of the anti-rollbacks are broken in the center. Leap the Dips is definitely worth the trip if you�re in the area. I'm not going to rate this, as there is no good way to rate it. I have never been on a coaster that is similar to this in any way, but it is definitely lots of fun. Next, my parents went over and rode the monster and Angie and I headed next door to the: MAD MOUSE - I think it is an old Mack coaster, but I�m not sure. This is one crazy ride, and not in a good way. The restraints are nothing more than a bunch of padding on both sides of you that kind of hold you in. The ride starts off with the usual hairpin turns and than the long slight drop into the banked turn. This is a very effective wild mouse because I thought that I was going to fall off the track on every turn, and there seemed to be many bumps and potholes along the track. The banked turn really tosses (slams) you to the side. This is followed by a couple of turns and then the standard abrupt and sharp bunny hops. I think this ride has upstop plates instead of wheels, and a big gap between them. The cars really slam up into the plates and then slam down onto the wheels. This was a terrible ride and gets one of the only 3 negative ratings of the trip (cha-ching). �1 Next we walked over to the:
TOBOGGAN - Chance medieval torture trap
SKYLINER � Miller �L�-shaped triple out and back Overall, this wasn�t that great of a park but it did have two good coasters. It wasn�t that clean, though, and definitely could use some trees or something. -Mike
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