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In my continued series about vacationing during the pandemic, here’s another great idea… Rent A Houseboat! Pick your favorite crew – maybe family or friends that you’ve been quarantining with or trusted people that have been covid tested and cleared!
For this particular trip, we picked Lake Shasta in Northern California; a man-made lake built for flood control for the Sierras. The lake is a 7 hour drive from Los Angeles just straight up the 5 freeway.
Shasta Lake has been named as one of the top 10 houseboating lakes in the US, and for good reason. It covers 30,000 acres and offers some of the best fishing in the North State, with trout, bass, salmon, crappie, sturgeon, bluegill, and many more species of both coldwater and warmwater fish. The lake is also surrounded by 360 miles of stunning mountainous landscape, which includes beautiful waterfalls, impressive caverns, and secluded trails.
The best way to maximize on your trip is to get there by 5 pm on your check in so that you can get all the formalities out of the way. You only need a regular drivers license to drive the boat but you have to go through orientation to learn all the basics of operating the boat. Once you do that, you are free to take the boat to any part of the Lake and pick a spot to anchor.
The houseboat is basically an RV on the water; built exactly like an RV and comes with all the basic amenities, full kitchen with stove, microwave and fridge, a bathroom with shower and bathtub and a living room area. There were also two outdoor sitting areas on each end of the boat, one with a BBQ and the other with a lounge area from which to enjoy your drink and watch the sunset. Our boat had a capacity to sleep 10 people but keep in mind that
Once anchored, you can dive into the refreshing lake or just kick back with a cocktail on the deck of your floating vacation home and drink in views of Mt. Shasta’s perennially snowcapped, 14,180-foot/4,322-meter peak. All boats come equipped with life jackets for all the occupants and it is advisable to have them on whenever you get into the lake regardless of your swimming skill level. Some boats have a slide on the side of the boat to slide into the lake.
For entertainment, what works best is music; just come with an already downloaded playlist because streaming via WiFi won’t work well, signal reception is quite sketchy. The upside to that is the fact that you can crank up the volume (not recommended) quite a bit since you’re in the middle of no where. There’s plenty of room to move on this 30,000-acre/12,140-hectare reservoir, the largest in California! Another huge plus for not having WiFi is that it forces you to unplug from the world and really enjoy some rest and relaxation while you enjoy each other’s company.
On day 2 we figured that you could cruise around the lake and find a good WiFi spot. Once you see those 4 bars, then anchor there… unless of course you’re looking to be unplugged on purpose!
When you anchor, please pay attention to the direction of the sun because you want to wake up to a postcard beautiful sunrise. This was my daily highlight; serene and peaceful.
This was truly a great experience that exceeded all our expectations. We plan to make this a tradition!
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