In the Thick of It : Recreation: Scores of county residents head to the backcountry for snowballs, sledding and skiing.

All Jeff Banner wanted to do Friday was romp in freshly fallen snow in Lockwood Valley, deep inside Ventura County’s backcountry.

So when the van the Camarillo college student was driving got stuck in a mucky snowbank before even one snowball got thrown, Banner was bummin’. Big time.

So was the 19-year-old’s girlfriend, Andrea Shade. The van belonged to Andrea’s mom.

“Can I get grounded for this?” 17-year-old Andrea ventured as she and Banner stood staring at the chainless van.

For scores of Ventura County residents who headed for higher elevations Friday, searching for piles of new snow under a blue-jay sky, pitfalls such as Banner’s were the exception.

Most spent the day building snowmen, firing snowballs and sledding down hills covered with at least two feet of snow left from a powerful storm that moved through the county this week.

Eric Pelinovschi, 4, of Simi Valley was typical of the preschool set that raced around the snowy hills liked crazed elves.

First he jumped off a snowbank. Then he fell back into a snowbank. Then he beaned his mom, Caren, with a snowball.

“Mom, I like the snow!” Eric shouted. “Can we come some more?”

Caren Pelinovschi, 29, said she brought Eric and her 2-year-old son, Alex, to the snow Friday so they would miss the weekend crowds. Her strategy appeared to work: Dozens of cars lined both sides of Lockwood Valley Road, but getting in and out of the area was easy.

Chains were not required for most major roads Friday, although another large storm that could dump up to a foot of snow was expected to hit the county late Friday.

If the storm arrives, roads leading to Lockwood Valley, Pine Mountain and other backcountry spots may be closed, officials said. The snow level is expected to drop to about 4,000 feet by today, said Jay Stockton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Sharon Evans said she and her husband, Jim, brought their daughters and a niece to the snow because “it’s perfect conditions today.”

“There’s plenty of snow, open roads and not a lot of people,” said Sharon Evans.

The Ventura couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Renee, quickly adapted to the frozen earth even though it was her first time in snow, said her dad.

“She’s psycho about sledding,” he laughed. “She wants to go off the top!”

Renee said she likes sledding “because I get to go fast. And I like the snow, but my butt’s cold.”

Not everyone came seeking raucous horseplay.

Christine Anderson, 28, and her father, Stanley Melcher, 64, came to cross-county ski through the freshly fallen snow. During their three-hour trek, the Camarillo residents said they saw several animals and stopped to take in pine-studded vistas.

“It’s really fantastic out here right after it rains,” Melcher said. “It’s so quiet and everything’s so fresh and clean. There’s no tracks anywhere. It’s almost like another world.”