Bloomington, IL

[The Green Monkey]

I lived in Bloomington, IL from the summer of 2002 until the end of last summer. It's a decent enough place to live, but not great. Pales in comparison to Champaign, its neighbor 50 miles to the SSE.

Anyway, these two mild hills are there and are pretty fun. Being a college town, it wasn't the safest area to be riding around at night, but if you waited until 4AM, most of the remaining conscious drunks were at their final destination for the night so it's pretty safe. Wishboner and I first hit 'em up after a night of drinking when he came down to visit. Despite the fact that he hadn't been on a skateboard in 15 years, he convinced me it was a good idea for him to try it. He nailed it, and we ended up riding my TVS/wedged Indys/Krypto Rt. 70s and BDSLB/Seismic 155s/80a Avalons all over downtown (these and other hills) a few times, which turned him on to skateboarding...

This hill is at Prairie and Jefferson, facing north. Uphill runout, you generally run out of steam about a block past the white car.




This is at Grove and McLean, facing south. It meanders on for about 3/4 of a mile or so, including the crossing of two busy (relatively speaking, of course) streets. It's pretty relaxing.



I thought that central Illinois was flat, but then I moved to southeast Florida. I'm currently at an elevation of 8', 8 miles from the ocean. It's nearly totally flat here. Our lone hill was once a garbage dump.

Champaign is far flatter than Bloomington, by the way--the only aspect in which Bloomington is superior. If you ever find yourself in either town, let me know and I can give you all the information you could possibly need...

[MachineShop]

this post is really really old but...
just in case you still check it.
I currently go to school in champaign/urbana. so far haven't found any great hills
Wright st going south [from armory to... i donno springfield ave] looks to be pretty decent except for the fact that even at 4am, it's still pretty busy being that it's basically at the heart of campus by all the bars and restaurants.

[The Green Monkey]

this post is really really old but...
just in case you still check it.

That's what the 'notify me of replies' subscription doodad is for...

I grew up in Champaign, left for undergrad, and returned for law school, so I can say with utter certainty that Champaign is pretty darn flat. I brought my Subsonic with me when I visited my family last summer, just so that I could check out the hills of my childhood on a board designed for hills, rather than a mid-80s shortboard... I couldn't have been more underwhelmed. It was honestly not worth the effort.

That being said, check out Armory Dr. where it runs along the northern border of Champaign Country Club, and all of the various iterations of Greencroft Dr. on the southern/southeastern border of CCC bounded by Prospect and Kirby.

Also, St. Mary's Rd., just south of the Assembly Hall, Ubben, the practice fields, etc., and north of the South Farms and the vet school has a bit of rise to it. It may have more traffic now than when I lived in Champaign, as I understand they're really developing the hell out of that area. There may also be construction-related detritus in the road, but it's worth a shot. Beware of teenagers driving too fast though--I once pulled a 540 out there in my dad's Maxima as a 16 year old with the road wet after a bit of rain...

The gnarliest hill I ever rode in the area was somewhere out in or adjacent to Allerton Park in Monticello. A buddy's dad had a conference out there one day, so a bunch of us tagged along and skated all day with his mom chauferring us from spot to spot. I can't remember where this one killer hill was (and I've looked for it since), but we saved it for last due to the fact that it was so burly. It was a good thing, too, as one guy stepped off early on and got a bit of road rash, another guy fell halfway down and got a lot of road rash, and another guy made it almost to the bottom and earned a ruptured spleen and other assorted injuries for his efforts. I was the only one who didn't get owned... I'd suggest taking a day trip out there to scout it out (take a ladyfriend, some Jimmy John's subs, and a couple bottles of wine...) or else using Google Earth to try to find the badass hills. I can't really remember much more about where they are other than if they're inside the park grounds, they're in a very remote area, away from all the artwork and gardens. They may be just outside the park somewhere as well.

Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you want any townie secrets as far as restaurants, bars, or anything else goes.

[MachineShop]

Wow, thanks for the tips haha.
I'll be sure to check them out when I'm back on campus.

That being said, I've got a couple more years before I can legally procure "a couple bottles of wine".
I'll finally be able to get into the bars this summer when I turn 19, but I'll be long gone overseas for vacation; hopefully Taipei won't be as disappointing as Champaign was =P

[Alai]

Hey a little odd but, I live in champaign for the summer and I was wondering were you longboard. I have been going to the parking garage at allen and the one near north wright street. By any chance do you slide? I am getting a sliding board soon and I am looking for someone to give me some tips.

[The Green Monkey]

I live in Miami now, so all the tips I have to offer are above.

The offer still stands if anyone needs townie advice on other issues though...

[217luge62675]

New Salem state park in Petersburg. One side has a high, long, relitivley straight hill, which crosses the highway and goes up a shorter much faster hill with sharper turns. Down the road from the first hill is another that's tall and fast with pretty sharp turns. Not to mention a few others. Town is full of them too... My 'llocal spot' was a church that asphaulted it's lot and had like, a big funbox entrance, and a country opera house with a 2stair, and the marble Lincoln statue in the park... I grew up in the country outside town.