Touring * Fitness * Street * Slalom * Artistic *

Take State Highway 120 east from State Highway 99 into the town of Oakdale. Turn left at the downtown intersection with State Highway 108 and go four miles to make a left at Orange Blossom Road. Proceed about a mile and a half to the intersection with Rodden Road, and look for parking on the shoulder. Map: Modesto and Stanislaus County; Compass Maps, Inc., P.O. Box 4369, Modesto, CA 95352.

Orange Blossom Road is a very pretty rural route with grassy hills and shady curves. The rolling grades will entice roadwise in-liners who don't mind skating without benefit of paved shoulders. Early on a spring weekday is the optimal time to encounter the least traffic and the best scenery. This road is sometimes used to bypass Highway 120 on busy weekends, so avoid skating here when local traffic is heavy anywhere else. In any case, always keep your ears tuned for approaching cars, which seem to appear out of nowhere (and whose drivers may not see you) over the curves and hills. The best pavement on Orange Blossom Road is for the first two miles; after that it ranges from smooth to very rough, but when traffic isn't bad you can enjoy some wonderful scenery all the way to the quaint little corner town of Knight's erry, six miles up the road.