Shasta Houseboating

We have a houseboat trip coming up in June out of Silverthorn marina. Wondering if anyone had advice on any neat places to go or board? I heard the pit arm is great?

The Pit is great if the water's high. The problem is that there are a lot of old trees sticking up above the waterline and many lurking right below. If the water is high enough, they won't be a problem. However, and maybe someone can confirm this for me, I think the water at Shasta is still relatively low. If you go far enough up the Pit you can get glass all day long that winds around a ton of great bends. Another thing to watch out for is that the shore in some places is made up of this red clay which will stain your clothes brownish red.

The Pit is my favorite place on Shasta to wakeboard, but you've got to watch out for those trees.

pit arm & squaw creek arm till the end also awesome water.

Squaw creek arm. I agree with SLY, with low water levels, be very careful in the Pit.

Pit is money and you'll be fine in June water level is not going to be a problem then.

Oh and id worrie more about the blind corners on the Squaw then the trees on the Pit. Espessially when the waters down.

I live in Redding, which is just 10 min south of Lake Shasta. The water line is still pretty far down, last I checked it is roughly 6ft higher then it was this time last year. I would agree with the previous posts the squaw and pit can be epic riding spots just be careful about riding along the shoreline. I would even say, steer clear of the squaw arm. Silverthorn is close to both, but stick to the Pit. You could even try up the Mcloud which is your next closest arm that heads north. I took my boat out about a month or so ago and the debris was horrible, hopefully with time and the rain we recently got, it washes a lot of the logs and junk out of the arms you are interested in checking out.

If you don't mind going for a hike check out the end of little backbone over by the dam. its a cool hike and theres a natural slide up that area.

I was out a week ago and the debris up by Jones Valley werent too bad. Up by the damn it was alot worse. By June you should be good.

I love Shasta. Beautiful lake and great riding. This is just personal opinion, but, make sure you guys have either two wakeboard boats, or at the minimum a spare prop. Nothing can kill a houseboat trip faster than losing your tow boat to a bent prop.

Shasta is a prop killer. In my lifetime (30 years on the water)I've bent only 1 prop on my boat. Out of 5 trips to Shasta I personally bent one prop on a friends boat (wayyyy out in the middle of a channel) and I was on another boat that we bent a prop on. One was early season and the other was late season. I'd say you'd be OK in the middle of summer, but it's way too easy to just cary a spare.

Evan...That did suck..Who new we would stop dead in our tracks in the middle of the F-ING lake...

I was just there this past weekend in the rain to do some work on a buddies houseboat. The lake is really low but the debris was not that bad. Many think it’s going to surpass the 1977 low by September/October. However, even when it’s low, it’s a great lake to boat. My $.02 on the Squaw/Pitt debate would be to head up the Squaw arm. However, the Pitt can be quite nice as well. Why don’t you try them both?

The lake is still really low? The shasta website says the lake is 50 feet below the dam crest? I don't know if this means the level is good right now or not. I was up there in Sept last year and it was really low then. I thought it would be normal by June.

The lake is 57' below the crest witch is low for this time of year but higher than last year. Good news is its come up 3' from this storm.

Great advice Evan.
I've been lucky and never hurt a prop on Shasta but have friends who have. Actually a friend of mine ran his Malibu onto a submerged island out in front of Silverthorn a couple years back. Basically tore his prop/driveshaft off and cost him over 5 grand.

For anyone interested heres shastas web site

http://www.shastalake.com/shastalake/index.html