Warriors of the Weekend Clog Roads, Camp Areas : Holiday: Memorial Day forecast calls for partly cloudy skies, very crowded thoroughfares and beaches, and copious amounts of barbecue.

Get ready for traffic jams, parking jams and campground jams. Prepare for overflowing outhouses and blanket-to-blanket beaches. Dig out the sun block and sandals and shorts.

Memorial Day weekend starts today.

As usual, thousands of Ventura County residents will hit the road this holiday weekend, seeking an out-of-the-way place to enjoy a mini-vacation.

To reach their fun spots, however, they’ll have to wade through the usual Memorial Day perils: heavy traffic, drunk drivers and people, people, people.

Several local campgrounds are already booked. Others will be full by tonight, with rangers turning away cars at the gate.

“The only thing we have open now is overflow camping” on a patch of hardscrabble dirt, said Art Caldara, who manages Lake Piru Marina. “The best way to describe it is that it’s out in left field.”

For those who want to honor the nation’s soldiers, cemeteries throughout the county will offer special Memorial Day services. And for those in need of a patriotic exhortation, a 37-year veteran of the Marine Corps will deliver a stars-and-stripes speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tonight’s fete in Ojai will splash the evening sky with colorful fireworks and rock the high school football stadium with music. And Monday morning, an hourlong show will highlight great moments in U. S. military history at Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

Along with the organized events, thousands of county residents will revel in their own, often-chaotic spring flings.

“This is what people kick their summer off with,” said Dave Bair, an employee at CISCO Sport Fishing in Oxnard.

The weather, at least, should cooperate.

Meteorologist Bruce Entwistle of the National Weather Service predicts morning fog followed by hazy or partly cloudy afternoons, with temperatures ranging from the mid-50s to about 70.

Patches of drizzle might fall here and there, Entwistle said, but “nothing’s going to spoil” the weekend--”unless you forget your sun block.”

While sunscreen can take care of one holiday danger, vacationers should also watch out for other potential threats.

California Highway Patrol officers arrested 40 people for drunken driving on Ventura County freeways during last year’s Memorial Day weekend. And while they’ll boost their staff by about 15 officers each day this weekend, the CHP recommends extra vigilance on the roads.

Drivers should stay out of the fast lane, keep alert for weaving motorists and expect cars to zip through red lights.

“Aside from the drunk drivers, there will be all kinds of other people on the road in a hurry to get somewhere,” CHP Officer Chris Day said.

They might be hustling, for example, to get to Mt. Pinos, a rustic wilderness tract on the border of Ventura and Kern counties. Already, most of the 52 camping sites are reserved, even though Ranger Ken Jordan has warned of potential thundershowers in the mountains this weekend.

“People don’t seem to care,” Jordan said. “If there’s only a chance of rain, they’ll chance it. Anything to get away for three days.”

A similar attitude seems to be driving sales of backpacking equipment at Swiss Chalet in Oxnard.

Recognizing that most beach and park camping grounds become zoos on Memorial Day, outdoor enthusiasts seem to be “heading more to the outback,” said Mark Brown, manager of Swiss Chalet’s mountain shop, where many weekend warriors are stocking up on supplies.

With the catch relatively good these days--rock fish, barracuda and halibut are all biting--sales of rods and reels have been picking up as well at Swiss Chalet, Manager Dean Reyes said.

“It’s the only time people can get off work, so it becomes a family-type event,” Reyes said. “Usually, Memorial Day weekend is their second hit for fishing, after the trout opener.”

Once they’ve purchased the gear, fishermen and campers can usually count on opening their wallets several more times over the weekend.

Entrance fees, boat rentals and camping charges rack up quickly at Lake Piru Marina, where Caldara relies on Memorial Day to help fill his coffers.

“I just wish we had four more of these holidays,” Caldara said. “And four more Fourth of Julys, and four more Labor Days.”