Fitness * Street * Slalom * Artistic *

From U.S. 101 in Thousand Oaks, exit onto State Highway 23 north. About 9.5 miles up, follow the signs to State Highway 118 east. Exit on Collins Drive, marked as the Moorpark College exit. Turn right on Campus Park Drive and follow the road around the east end of the campus and up the hill to park in one of the big lots on the north side, close to the main entrance. Map: Bikeways Map, A Guide to Biking in Ventura County, published by the Ventura County Transportation Commission; (805) 642-1591.

If you're lucky enough to be in town when Moorpark College is not in session, grab your skates and drive up to this hilly campus for a few hours of fun. You may even be serenaded by the coyotes living in the nearby hills. Streetwise and hill-proficient fitness skaters will want to go back out to Campus Park Drive from the parking lot, turn left out of the lot, and make a counterclockwise loop to complete the 2.5-mile circumnavigation of the campus. As you might expect, the big hill you drove in on turns this loop into a real workout. Make a left to follow the bike lane on the north edge of campus, then go left again on Collins Drive to enjoy the downward slope on an eight-foot-wide concrete path. After turning left one last time onto Campus Park Drive, you'll skate back up the hill the way you drove in, on a four-lane road with no marked shoulders. Make sure traffic is sparse enough for you to occupy the right lane to climb the hill. Skaters of other persuasions will be interested in the on-campus opportunities. Before you get rolling in earnest, take a look at the two interesting eight-foot-high computer-chip monoliths at the steps above the campus entrance. Literally falling away from here toward the administration buildings is a profusion of ramps, stairs, and rails. Good luck, kids. Behind the same clump of buildings, broad concrete avenues cross a sloped, grassy quad, making a small but ideal loop for practicing hill skating. To the east and just above the quad, Parking lot F, repaved during the summer of 1995, offers a generous expanse of smooth pavement with dynamite views to the south across Simi Valley.