Houseboating : Shasta Lake in the off-season offers smooth-as-glass water and private coves

We were asleep on the houseboat when it tore loose from its spiked mooring on a mudbank in a pitch-black night. The rain pelted its decks and walls and slid off in huge sheets into Northern California’s Shasta Lake, about 20 miles north of here.

The rain orchestrated its own splat-plop melody, with the huge drops playing to an audience of five of us asleep in various compartments between the thin-paneled wooden walls. Thunder rolled over the lake and lightning flashed across the shoreline in a surrealistic pattern reminiscent of a Salvador Dali painting.

Green black and live oak trees, and ponderosa, digger and knobcone pines with arms entwined rose shoulder to shoulder on the hills above the waterline and stood in silence as the rectangular boat slowly drifted, rocking from side to side, toward the middle of the lake.

Despite the dark, the danger wasn’t in floating into another mudbank and the trunks of armless trees, but in getting rammed by a passing boat or possibly striking an old bridge that had broken the surface of the low water.

Our 56-foot houseboat, one of the largest on the lake, suddenly had become a target for other passing craft. Although during the day its red, orange and yellow stripes showed brightly, the night obliterated its gaudy colors. The farther we drifted from shore, the greater the danger.

Another boom of thunder roared, louder and more threatening. Lightning followed, blindingly brighter.

The noise and movement had jarred us from a deep sleep. My wife Lucille and I, both houseboat amateurs, jumped out of bed, scampered through a trap door that was part of the upper padded floor and dropped down a six-foot metal ladder to the main deck, where two friends, Ken Rhoades and Marshall Kandall, were trying to start the engine.

It only took a minute to get the engine started, but the experience had made us jittery. From mid-lake we aimed for the lights of the marina, groping our way slowly to shore through the darkness. Had this been a movie, the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot would have made an eerie appearance, reaching out for us with mud-covered claws. In about half an hour, however, the danger passed. Once more we were comfortably moored and fast asleep.

In the morning the raging storm had turned into a whimper and dark clouds still drifted overhead. By the time we cast off from the marina, the sun was playing hide-and-seek through the gray-black overcast, and the temperature was rising to a warming 90 degrees.

If this kind of adventure is your cup of tea, by all means consider a houseboat vacation, particularly in the off-season after Labor Day. By then the lake is almost clear--except for a sprinkling of houseboaters, water skiers and fishermen, who maintain that the fish bite better between Sept. 15 and June 1, when the water is cooler and the temperature winds down.

From June through September, during the peak summer season, as many as 3,500 fishing, pleasure and ski boats ply the lake, along with hundreds of houseboats, about half of them privately owned. Also, bass boats, sailboards, skiffs, dinghys, sailboats, canoes and kayaks dart around like minnows in a stream.

Brown and black bullhead; rainbow, brown, brook and cutthroat trout; king salmon; largemouth and smallmouth bass; crappie; bluegill; green sunfish; channel catfish and sturgeon populate the waters, making it a fisherman’s delight.

Fishing and water skiing are the major activities. Some houseboaters simply drop their hook and line, baited with bread, into the water and hope for the best. If the fish bite, fine. If not, it’s no big deal.

On the other hand, Ken took fishing more seriously. He brought more than a dozen rods and reels, different weights of line and all types and styles of lures and bait, including marshmallows and imitation worms.

In addition, he possessed an electronic depth-finder that found the fish. Each fish that came within range caused the electronic instrument to ping and record the number of feet where it swam below the surface. But he didn’t get a bite.

Unhappily, we went without a strike until the final day, when our luck turned. Finally, Ken caught several trout and catfish. He cleaned the fish, cooked them and proudly served them laid out in a circle on a tray with fruit in the middle in picture-book fashion. With a bottle of ’86 Puligny Montrachet, the fish were delicious.

Houseboats move slowly, loaded as they are with such conveniences as refrigerators, a trash compactor, AM/FM stereo, showers, tub, microwave, wet bar, closets and a dishwasher.

Their whimsical names included Afternoon Delight, Crap Out, Grapes of Raft, Happy Hour, Lost Ark, Skinny Dipper, Eee Zee Living and Sun Your Buns, all of which chugged past us during our holiday. Other houseboaters, courteous and cordial, inevitably exchanged friendly waves as we passed them on the lake.

Overhead, bald eagles wheeled; we saw ravens, falcons, robins and band-tail pigeons, plus valley quail and wild turkeys. Ducks and geese glided across the water.

Some advice: A marina is a necessary convenience when buying food and gas, topping off your toilet tanks or taking on fresh water. Then you can pull up to any shoreline, hammer in the iron spikes and tie up. If you’ve brought along a television set, just plug it in. A generator provides the electricity when the engine isn’t running. But be warned: The generator uses up four gallons of gas an hour.

For water skiing, jet skiing and snorkeling, plenty of surface water, as smooth as glass, beckons without a ripple, particularly during the off-season.

The shores of Shasta Lake, with 14,162-foot Mt. Shasta looming 40 miles to the north, are perfect for hiking. About 15 miles of scenic trails, from one to eight miles, are scattered throughout the hills around the five-fingered lake. Some are rich in Wintu Indian history, others lead past old caves and mines. Most, however, have been designed for sightseeing.

I’m not athletically inclined and would rather just sit than move around, so I chose a lounge chair on the sun deck, as did Lucille and Camille Pollock, another friend. While Ken and Marshall fished, we read books, sipped beer and soda and sometimes lazily watched a bald eagle cast its shadow as it flew by, while a black-and-white osprey dove for fish within a few feet of our boat.

Deer, friendly and fearless, appeared from the forest, mostly in the mornings, to beg for food. Also living in the Shasta Lake area, but less available to cameras, are mountain lions, black bears, Rocky Mountain elk, gray fox, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, weasels and otters. Catching them on film is a challenge.

One morning I heard my wife screaming from the rear deck. “Norman! . . . Norman!” she yelled. “Hurry!”

She’s deathly afraid of bugs, I thought, so I grabbed the fly swatter and dove down the ladder.

She was furious. “Not the flyswatter, you idiot. Hurry up! Get the camera!”

We photographed six black-tailed deer staring at our houseboat from the bank--so near that you could almost reach out and touch them. I threw them a slice of bread and they ran away.

First explored in 1820, the Shasta Lake area, which today is 29,500 acres of surface water, was formed when Shasta Dam was finished in 1944.

The lake has 365 miles of shoreline and is 35 miles long. From the air it resembles five spindly, arthritic fingers spread out palm-down, consisting of the dam area and Big Backbone Creek Inlet, the Sacramento River, the McCloud River, Squaw Creek and the Pit River.

Before the dam, trapper trails also served as pony express routes. Today some of those trails lie beneath the lake, as does the town of Kennett, which was born in the Gold Rush of the 1850s and which died after World War I.

Above the McCloud Arm are towering gray limestone mountains formed from ocean sediment that accumulated 200 to 300 million years ago. The range contains fossilized remains of corals, snails and clams, as well as sea creatures that existed in prehistoric times.

Water running through the cracks in the rocks has carved two caverns within the mountains.

Shasta Caverns is only closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. A summer schedule, April 1 through Oct. 31, offers guided tours every hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In winter, Nov. 1 through March 31, daily tours start at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. Cost is $10 per person. Boaters can join the tour on the east shore of the McCloud Arm where the ferry ties up. A bus delivers them to the caverns.

A limestone and marble cave, Shasta Caverns features an assortment of stalactite and stalagmite formations, studded with brilliant crystals and milky-white flowstone deposits in miniature waterfalls. For more information, call (916) 238-2341 or (916) 238-2386.

Samwel Cave, also known as the “Cave of the Lost Maiden,” is about two miles south of McCloud Bridge. It is believed to contain magic pools in which the Wintu medicine men bathed. A trail along the shoreline at Point McCloud leads to the cave, which, except for its first room, can only be viewed with a special permit from the U.S. Forest Service.

The Squaw Creek arm of Shasta Lake is rugged and remote. Here you’ll find the ruins of Bully Hill Mines, one of five major local mines that once spewed out copper. It can be seen on a flat just above the north shore. The ruins of the smelter, the remains of some of the buildings and, in season, grapes, figs and plums, lure tourists to the site.

In the off-season, life changes drastically from the “bumper-to-bumper” rush of houseboats. Then the U.S. Forest Service cleans up the lake, the sky seems to turn a deeper blue, the air seems more refreshing and the water runs smooth and cool.

On the banks, the leaves of oak trees turn from their lush green to a dull, yellowish brown, and the cooler water temperatures at the bottom of the lake send the fish closer to the surface in search of warmth.

There’s a lazy and serene atmosphere on the boats as pilots explore the lake and seek out private and uninhabited coves in which to tie up for the night--nights that bring peace to a world divorced from cities far beyond its shore.

Redding is the nearest city to Shasta Lake, about 20 miles south on Interstate 5. If driving up from Los Angeles, vacationers can stop here to buy supplies before boarding houseboats. Redding also has an airport, so one can fly up, rent a car and drive to a marina on the lake. Redding also has hotels and motels and three bed and breakfast inns in which to stay, before or after a houseboating adventure.

For more information about Shasta Lake, houseboats or Redding, contact the Greater Redding Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 1180, Redding, Calif. 96099, (916) 243-2541, or call the U.S. Forest Service at (916) 275-1587.

Although there are plenty of houseboats to rent, it’s best to make reservations well in advance, even during the off-season:

Antler Resort and Marina, P.O. Box 140M, Lakehead, Calif. 96051; (916) 238-2553.

Bridge Bay Resort and Digger Bay Marina, 10300 Bridge Bay Road, Redding, Calif. 96003; toll-free (800) 752-9669.

Holiday Flotels, Packers Bay Marina, P.O. Box 336M, Redding 96099; (916) 221-5666.

Holiday Harbor, P.O. Box 112, O’Brien, Calif. 96070; toll-free (800) 258-2628.

Jones Valley, P.O. Box 739M, Project City, Calif. 96079; (916) 275-1204.

Lakeshore Resort and Marina, Star Route P.O. Box 760M, Lakehead, Calif. 96051; (916) 238-2301.

Lakeview Marina and Resort, P.O. Box 2272M, Redding, Calif. 96099; (916) 223-3003.

Shasta Marina Resort, P.O. Box EM, O’Brien, Calif. 96070; (916) 238-2284 or (916) 238-2121.

Silverthorn Resort Marina, P.O. Box 4205M, Redding, Calif. 96099; toll-free (800) 332-3044.

Sugarloaf Marina, P.O. Box 599, Redding, Calif. 96099; (916) 243-4353.