Longship on Blankenship

6.21 Explored the roads, streets, and cul de sacs off Blankenship in my neighborhood in West Linn. That street sounds like a comic strip swearing, like "Dad Blankenship Darn It." The road I found was beautiful, lined with lawns, trees, and manicured shrubs or various shades of green. It was unusually long and only steep in one spot. I figured I'd have to footbrake in that part of the run. There were a couple of hazards: light but regular vehicle traffic and a loud collie type dog that looked capable of jumping its iron fenced yard. The road wasn't wide enough for my traverse and squashed S carve method, but there were some other braking possibilities, grassy edges, and some side streets to turn into. I looked at the driveways too but they all had lippy transitions and some had rocky gravel that would have meant trouble if the wheels didn't hit 'em just right.

On the way up I looked at a church parking lot. There was a really cool double ramp curb which I skated over to and kicked back and forth in a mini half pipe run. In front of the curb was stencilled, of course, "no skateboarding."

I'd planned on turning off on a side street way down near the bottom but it turned out there was one at the top with a beautiful banked entry. In the shot you can see the bank below the 25 mph sign. On the first run down I spontaneously turned right and went over the bank, picking up speed before going down to the right on the side street. I spread my jacket like a drag chute and carved off the speed, but lost too much speed and had to push a bit uphill to a cul de sac. There were people puttering around their cars, washing them or stocking them for a sunday picnic. I was glad I had the quiet soft wheel setup again. I was out of place enough skating through their neighborhood on my big board, with long hair held in place with a black cap, taking pictures of their street, without also rolling loudly and scraping off speed with barking slides.

I restarted the hill at the left out of the side street and easily carved it out to the bottom. The dog was never a factor.