Touring *

From U.S. 101 in Oxnard, take the State Highway 1 exit south and pass through town. At the intersection with Wooley Road, go straight to remain on what has now become Saviers Road. Follow Saviers to its end at Port Hueneme Road and turn right. Turn left at Surfside Drive. Just down the street on the right, a big sign announces the Evergreen Springs Recreation Greenbelt and Park. Turn in at the parking-lot entrance and park. Map: Bikeways Map, A Guide to Biking in Ventura County, published by the Ventura County Transportation Commission; (805) 642-1591.

The Bubbling Springs Greenbelt starts out as a richly landscaped bike path that connects the lovely grounds of the Port Hueneme Cultural Center to wide-open Bubbling Springs Community Park. Although the landscaping quality slips somewhat as you proceed north and the concrete starts showing signs of wear, the grass is just as green wherever you go. To do the southern leg first, start from your parking spot at Evergreen Springs and skate south on the greenbelt trail. Be careful when you pass under the quaint wooden footbridge just before leaving the Evergreen Springs recreation area; the trail is very narrow and there's a blind curve. The landscape en route to the Cultural Center looks almost tropical, with mossy grass carpeting the banks of the little creek and leafy trees forming an arching tunnel of shade overhead. Beyond the foliage along the banks are some attractive small homes, with street lamps lining the path. Turn back where the path meets Surfside Drive at the Cultural Center. (See the next listing for details on Hueneme Beach Park, just across the street.) After you return to Evergreen Springs, continue north to where the greenbelt trail crosses Port Hueneme Road. Try to avoid skating on the lumpy decorative bricks of the pedestrian crossing. The trail now enters another, less moneyed neighborhood; watch out for patchy concrete quality through here. When you reach the seeming end of the trail at Joyce Drive, look for the distinctive decorative bricks on the street that mark the route: they'll lead you to an apartment-complex driveway that's barricaded by posts. On the other side, the greenbelt path resumes, with the creek on the left and eucalyptus for shade. Soon the trail meets Pleasant Valley Road. Turn left to follow the sidewalk up to the interminable light at Ventura Road. After you cross, turn right, back down Pleasant Valley, to enter the edge of a parking lot next to the greenbelt trail sign. Forget the trail and skate across the much smoother asphalt of the parking lot to where the trail exits the lot as a proper bike lane. Follow it as it curves to the right to pass through another neighborhood. The last section of the Bubbling Springs Greenbelt delivers you to sunny Bubbling Springs Community Park, just south of Bard Road.