Sunning Room Only

Welcome to the lazy, hazy, crazy days of a post-El Nino summer.

The customary crowds of campers started thronging to Ventura County for the Memorial Day weekend Friday, only to find that campsites are even more squeezed than usual by lingering damage from the winter’s storms.

On the other hand, the fish are biting and the flowers are blooming, and it’s tough to stay mad at the weather when the weekend is supposed to be as balmy as a spring morning in Margaritaville.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” said Ron Zahnter, a machinist from Chatsworth, as he lounged outside the RV he had parked on the Rincon since Tuesday.

The propellers spun on three dozen brightly painted whirligigs hanging from clothespins outside the Zahnters’ RV: hummingbirds, dolphins, pelicans, Indian maidens in canoes, all crafted by Zahnter and his wife, Shirley. A plastic rug covered the asphalt patch by the door, a canopy shaded some deck chairs, and the Pacific rolled ashore 20 yards away.

“We’ve been coming here for years and know people up and down the beach,” Zahnter said. “You can play cards, you can go fishing, you can hunt rocks, you can swim, you can just do nothing. It’s the life.”

Thousands on Friday were eager for their own piece of it. The California Highway Patrol braced for the onslaught. In Ventura, a “maximum force”--75% of the city’s officers--was assigned weekend duty, keeping a special eye out for speeders, tailgaters and drunk drivers, Officer Steven Reid said.

Vacationers navigating predictably heavy traffic were to discover some problems a little less predictable.

With a massive landslide from February’s storms still blocking California 33 north of Ojai, about half the campsites in Ventura County’s portion of Los Padres National Forest were inaccessible. The other half--at the Wheeler Gorge and Blue Point campgrounds--were already spoken for.

It was the same story at the state park campgrounds dotting the coast. Reservations for Memorial Day weekend were snapped up as long as seven months ago, said Wes Chapin, a spokesman for the parks’ Channel Coast District.

Pressure on the campgrounds in Ventura County was made even worse by the continued closure of the storm-damaged Gaviota campground up the coast from Santa Barbara. Some campsites at nearby El Refugio were “still soggy,” Chapin said.

In the Santa Monica Mountains, popular trails in the La Jolla Valley area were still off-limits to the public. At the Sycamore Canyon campground, water for campers was unavailable; a pipeline burst during the winter storms and won’t be fully up and running for at least two weeks.

Even so, campground host Jane Holley Wilson anticipated a full house by evening.

A retired administrator from Georgia Tech, Wilson has roamed the country since 1993, helping out in host programs at campgrounds in Florida, the Carolinas, Washington and the Virgin Islands. At Sycamore Canyon, she gives “two-second house tours of my 12-foot Airstream fantasy trailer” and answers questions from campers who need a bit of help.

She said this weekend’s queries will no doubt include: How many rattlesnakes have you seen? Where is the poison ivy? I have a fishhook in my finger--where is the nearest hospital?

One question she might not field is: Where are the wildflowers?

The answer is as clear as the blaze of color at your feet. While El Nino toppled apartment buildings and turned highways into roaring creeks, it also fueled the flowers.

“We’d really like to see visitors out,” said Barbara Applebaum, a spokeswoman for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “This is one of the best wildflower years we’ve ever had.”

After a winter of epic misery, anglers also looked forward to a weekend of El Nino-inspired delights. “People have gotten so tired of being cooped up,” said Russ Harmon, owner of Cisco Sportfishing at Channel Islands Harbor. “Wives are chasing their husbands out of the house.”

The water is three to four degrees warmer than it was last Memorial Day, he said. White sea bass and yellowtail are biting, the calico bass are coming alive, and warm-water fish like albacore and yellowfin could soon take unaccustomed trips to these parts, he said.

Meanwhile, some people are celebrating Memorial Day not with a fishing pole, but with a flagpole.

Dan Lanshe, owner of American Eagle Flags and Banners in Ventura, said business has been brisk for the holiday.

“Memorial Day, Flag Day, July Fourth,” he said. “This is our Christmas.”