Thunder in the Hills

This past weekend, I took a short drive to the local favorite skiing site called Moya Hills. Since it's summer now, there's no snow and no skiing, but there are still some "green season" activities. There are several tennis courts open for reservation, and there is a small rock-climbing wall, jungle gyms, and a mini zipline for the kids to play on. The main attraction, however, is something called "Hills Thunder".

Basically, it's a steep and winding pavement path that starts halfway up the hill and ends at the bottom near the lodge. To get up, you just take the lift like you would for a skiing trip. To get down, you ride a "luge cart". It's not a luge cart in the Olympic sense of the term, but instead looks a lot more like a low-profile, plastic-body go-cart. They have 3 wheels, one handlebar, and a drum brake... and that's about it. No seat belt, harnesses, roll cage, or even air-filled tires. Essentially, they're death traps, especially when you consider the course you're riding down.

Buddies getting ready to rumble

The course is about 1 km long, depending on which route you take, and has a 12% grade at it's steepest point. Riding down feels like riding in a roller coaster, except you have to pilot your own cabin. The course is pretty long, but at the speeds you can reach, it goes by quickly, and you can finish the course in about a minute. At one point, there is a massive banking turn angled AT LEAST 30 degrees.

It's an extremely thrilling ride. As you get rolling, there is a slow winding section that lets you get used to the steering and brakes. Not long after, it throws you straight into the deep end, which is the 12% straight drop, and you can get up to 50-60 kph in a matter of seconds. There tend to be some slowpokes just riding the brakes all the way down, so I shot past them, causing them to scream and pull over to the right, nearly running into Kristin pulling up the rear.

Then, there are a series of tight turns to tackle. Not all the turns are banked, so taking some of the sharp turns too fast causes the cart to terrifyingly pop onto 2 wheels and scrape plastic body on rough cement. Also, since the wheels are solid and not inflated, the ride is rough and jarring (the sound of the carts rumbling down the track sounds like rolling thunder in the distance, and thus the name Hills Thunder). Some of the cracks in the road knock you clear out of your plastic non-cushioned seat, and no harnesses means there is serious risk of getting bucked out of the cart. At those speeds, taking a tumble would probably lead to serious injury, yet our only safety gear was an ill-fitting helmet. After halfway, the road vibration through the handlebars is enough to make your hands go numb, but the adrenaline makes you continue gripping on for dear life.

And yet, it's incredibly fun and exhilarating. I've been down the track 3 times, and I wish I could do it once every weekend. For anyone who has a need for speed, Hills Thunder is the place to be.