My 2021 Waverunner trip to Lake Oroville and Trinity Lake

[Ronnie]

My wife and I are leaving this morning and are planning to stop by lake oroville on the way to redding, ca. Tomorrow we will go to trinity lake, the third largest in the state. Before returning home on Saturday we will check out whiskytown lake and hopefully iSUP/iKayak there (thankfully I called ahead because I found out that they do not allow personal water craft on that lake). We have never boated on any of these lakes and I have only seen a small part of oroville. Due to the poor rainy season most lakes are low and will likely close early this summer.

this post is a workin progress which I will update sometimes with pics throughout this weekend.

First stop, lake Orville.

Here are the skis stats as we start the adventure this morning. My idea ski has more hours (and a bigger as well as touch screen display).

 

[Ronnie]

A few more pics from yesterday. Our first time boating/jetskiing on Lake Oroville (near Chico and Paradise, CA).

The best looking house boat I’ve ever seen.

One of the floating campsites.

Triple decker with its own dock and water slide.

I assume this guy had a bad launch or recovery experience which is why he has such tall trailer guides for his seadoo.


Stats from our time on the lake.


Just one of many, many house boats moored at bidwell canyon marina.

A shot of the sunset on the way to Redding, CA.

 

[Ronnie]

Miscellaneous pics taken on the lake.
The lakes most notable features are two large bridges and a dam.

This lake was dedicated in 1963 by JFK during his last trip to CA.

California State Parks

California State Parks, State of California

www.parks.ca.gov

Finally, here is a link to a video of the dam’s spillway failure of 2017.

 

[VitaminSea]

Nice, photos, thanks for sharing. As for the ski at the ramp with the long trailer guides, I have a single trailer, and we have a large SUV - unlike a double trailer, you can’t see the ski/wheels as your backing up. The trailer guides assist greatly in backing in. I initially started with a ~30” kit, and ended up at the hardware store buying longer PVC pieces!

It’s nice how the newer dashes show the gas in 10% increments (along with the other stats).... my ski only indicates in 1/4’s.

 

[Ronnie]

So Trinity Lake in North Eastern CA is beautiful but the water is cold this time of year. The biggest hint being snow on top of nearby mountains. This alone with the wind made me cut the time on the water down considerably even though we had the water almost completely to ourselves.

Between this and Shasta, I’d take Shasta, it’s a lot closer to the freeway and town/civilization/hotels.

Between Oroville and Trinity, it’s Oroville for me. I didn’t check out the tent camping but a weekend out on a floating campsite with the boys would awesome. With Chico State nearby and an Indian Casino Outside the gate I’m sure there would be plenty to see and/or do or stay if we can’t get a floating camp site.

 

[Ronnie]

My original plan, after discovering that whiskytown lake does not allow pwc’s was to go there on the third/last day of the trip to use our iSup and inflatable kayak (the latter for the first time.

however the forecast for the area predicted heavy sustained winds and it was correct so we opted to pass on whiskytown and hit black butte lake about an hour south instead. Unfortunately it was windier there as well, so just view it from the parking lots.
Much smaller but still a nice place for camping and wake sports. I probably won’t be back there again as I have better options closer to home. Like lake trinity there are very few / no vendors on the water and the nearest store is miles away. Unlike trinity this lake is only a few easy miles from the main freeway, about an hour further North than lake Berryessa. Berryessa is currently my favorite day trip destination and I may try camping there as well this year.