Touring * Street *

From State Highway 99, take the Pinedale/Herndon Avenue exit and head east on Herndon. Go 7.5 miles and, just before you reach the intersection with State Highway 41 (you can see it a block away), take a left on Blackstone Avenue. One mile north, Blackstone curves to the right to pass under Highway 41 and at that point becomes Friant Road. Proceed 10 miles north until you see the dam of Millerton Lake. A sign marks the turnoff for Lost Lake Recreation Area on the left. In the off-season you can drive in and park for free; if the kiosk is attended, you can avoid paying the $5 entrance fee if you turn around, park on the shoulder of Friant Road, and skate in on the wide, perfect pavement of the park's half-mile access road.

The namesake lake is truly lost here, unless the name is meant to describe the San Joaquin River in the wake of the rain-soaked winter of 1994-95. After that deluge, the river ran so wide through Lost Lake Recreation Area that by April, several picnic tables were still immersed up to their benches and a section of park road was submerged under three feet of water. But normally you should be able to skate a full loop around the park all year round. Start skating west on the high road by the entrance kiosk. This road connects to the lower river road in the shady picnic area, and it's wide and paved with top-quality asphalt for its entire length. On a busy midseason day, the high section is apt to have cars parked on the shoulder and a lot of foot and automobile traffic. But in the cool and unpredictable weather of early spring, you can have it all to yourself. To the south, the view is wide open, revealing low hills that are oddly flat on top, perhaps due to some long-ago volcanic lava flows. Wild grasses by the road hold at least three kinds of prickly stickers that are sure to lodge into the stockings of children and the ears and noses of pets during summertime. Squirrels scamper onto the road and then dart quickly back into the grass before you roll by. At the west end of the upper road, a picnic area and shade trees have been added fairly recently. Ignore the left fork where the road makes a "Y" just after the picnic area--the pavement is too rough for skating. Instead, turn right and follow the road down into the shade next to the river's edge, to where it heads back in the opposite direction. Again, on a busy day you need to stay alert for children, cars, and all of the other action happening in the heart of the park. At the far east end, the park road dissipates into a parking lot, but you can keep skating by taking a loop through the small campsite area, if you like checking out how folks "rough it" in these parts. Exit the campground near the check-in hut to get back to the high road and return to the entrance kiosk. Add another very sunny mile, if you aren't tired yet, by skating out to Friant Road and back. Unfortunately, this is the only paved "trail" of any kind next to the San Joaquin River in the entire Fresno area. The city hasn't yet built a path on the riverbanks, but plans are in the making for a very long multiuse pathway that will someday stretch all the way from Lost Lake to State Highway 99, a good 20 miles. Land acquisition is still in the talking phase, though, and that path will probably materialize "later than sooner," as one local put it.