1st Trip to Delta - Can You Help Me Plan Itinerary

B

blacter

Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2001
RO Number
5925
Messages
10
Sometime this month I'm planning to trailer my 17-foot center console from my home in Central Oregon to the Delta. My plan is to put in at Sacramento and meander and explore the Delta for two or three days. No fishing, just boating. I've pored over the Hal Schell map and the Delta websites, but still don't have a good idea of how this trip could work. So here are some questions for you locals:

~ What's the best ramp to use in Sacramento? Need a place I can leave my car and trailer for a night or two.
~ What are the best options to spend the night? I don't sleep aboard my boat, so I need a marina with a hotel nearby. Could I make it to Antioch in a day?
~ What are the "don't miss" sights, both on the Delta and in the towns along the way?

Thanks for the help. Be happy to return the favor if you ever head for Central Oregon.
 
Unless your heart is set on launching in Sacramento, I'd drive another hour on the asphalt and launch in the central Delta. There is little to do in the Sacramento area and it is a long trip down to where the action is.

Hotels on the water are pretty rare, The Ryde Hotel is one and the Delta King is Sacramento is another. There are several places where you can camp and either pull the boat out onto the trailer or perhaps pick up a slip; Snug Harbor, Lighthouse Resort, Tower Park, Tiki Lagun and Sugar Barge are a few of them.

Once down in the Delta there are lots of things to do depending on your preferences. If young girls and lots of drinking are your thing, Lost Isle is a good stop. If you like hanging out with some of the Delta locals and throwing a few back, you might try Giusti's or Al The Wops. Tower park has a nice restaurant and a bar as does Village West Marina. If you want to anchor out in solitude, head up into Cache and Prospect Slough area. In short there is a lot to do, share with us a bit of what you are looking for and I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions.
 
As usual, Dave is 100 percent right. Take the time to go down to Highway 12 on I-5, go west a few miles and launch at Tower Park, B&W, or Vieira's a few miles north in Highway 160 at Rio Vista. B&W has some nice cabins and great launch facilities. This area is true delta and the place you need to be. However, if you launch at B&W. watch your depth just south of the Highway 12 bridge there, it is nasty in places.....I know. As Dave stated, if you want to experience the delta you have to see Lost Isle, Al the Wops, Guisti's, the Outrigger, breakfast at H&H Marina and if you are a hunter, the unbelieveable display at Fosters Big Horn Bar in Rio Vista. Have fun

DBH
 
It could be hot. If you have a canvas bimini, you'll be a lot happier. We were going through a quart of gatoraid every half hour
water skiing once. At one point, we pulled up under some bamboo and jumped in the water. All you could see is our sun hats an noses above the water. We stayed that way for two hours.

The mid delta is the nicest for smaller boats. The big channels can be windy in the afternoon.

You could stay in Stockton and launch in several places, this way you could see more of the waters.
 
i'm glad you chose the delta for your short trip.lots of good advice from everyone. a few days on the delta is just a teaser. i have been boating here for 32 years and i haven't seen it all. it never ceases to amaze and excite me. i believe tower park is the best place to start,in their ships store they have brochures and maps to use on your quest.
i hope you have a great time and come back soon. roy

remember, it is better to have loved a short girl than never tu have loved atall.

homeport bethel island.
 
Thanks, guys. Launching further south sounds like great advice...as does spending most of my time mid-Delta. Can you give me an idea of time and distance. Say I'm at B&W and I want to travel at a reasonably leisurely pace to Stockton. And let's assume I don't get lost. How much time am I looking at? Same question from B&W to Antioch.
 
Not sure what you consider a "reasonably leisurely pace", but if you are talking about, say, 20 knots, it would maybe be an hour to Antioch and maybe a bit more to Stockton. B&W is just a couple miles up the Mokelumne River from the Stockton Deep Water Channel, which has been carved out of the San Joaquin River. On the Deep Water Channel you can run at speed without worrying about "no wake zones", which you will find in other places on the Delta--though it's still advisable (and polite) to avoid tossing an unnecessarily high wake at stopped boats, etc. (The Deep Water Channel is maintained to around 30 feet, and you may well see ocean-going ships headed to/from the Port of Stockton.)

Of course, you can go slower, stop in, detour, etc.

BTG
 
I would consider adding The Meadows to the list of stops. It is just above Walnut Grove on the Mokelumne side and is great exploring. Dave's advice on skipping Sac is solid.
 
If you stop in Stockton off of I-5, there are launch ramps nearby. I believe that near Village West Marina there are a couple of motels. This might make a good base with lots of places to go by water each day. Check out Disappointment Slu, Paradise Marina, Windmill Cove. Near to Lost Isle is Tiki Lagoon and Turner Cut Resort on Turner Cut.

Here's a useful website: www.marinas.com
 
Couple of Suggestions ---

1 wouldn't ;eave my rig at most public ramps. Too risky for vandalism etc.So, what to do? Try marinas like Tower Park (has a lift), B&W, King Island, Tiki Lagun.

2. For staying a couple of nights. skip the hotel gig and camp out. Tower & Tiki for sure have campgrounds. Check Hal's ma[ fpr pthers.

3. Lots to do mouth or Mokelumne and Stockton in any direcion. You wpn;t run out of water in a couple of days -- the Delta has 1,000 miles of it.

4. Buy a govt. chart. You can use dividers to figure distances.

5. I consider the are from the Moke east fairly safe for small boats. Late afternoons are usually windy, so when you first arrive, talk to the river rats where you put in to clue in.

Small boats are big in this area because boating is easy. You are in for a treat. Warren
 
P.S. Forgot to say === sticker shock on fuel. Discount gas near my house is $3.49 a gal. of regular. River gas is above 4 bucks. Be prepared. Say, where are you from in OR? I always loved that state when I was camping. Warren
 
There is something for everyone, so I guess we need to know what your interests are. Music? Food? Drink? Wet T-shirt contests?, or just cruising the Delta?
 
Can't tell you how much I appreciate the information and advice I've received here. I'm not much of a camper, so my plan now is to find a motel in Stockton as a couple of you have suggested and use that as a home base.

Just a couple of remaining questions...

~ Is there a preferred ramp in Stockton?
~ Are there Delta towns that would be fun to explore. Hal Schell writes about Locke, for example.

Again, I'm so grateful for your help.

...Barry
 
Just read this thread. Happy to see Al's is still there. Used to go there 35 years ago and throw dollar bills up and stick them to the tongue and groove celling. Are they still there?
 
Snug Harbor and Viera's (another great place to put in and stash vehicle) both have cool little cabins you can rent out with views of the water. Highly recommended. I cannot imagine noodling around the Delta on a center console and not wetting a line. Bring your rod!

George
 
I would recommend Vieira's. That is what we used to do when we had our smaller boat. We rented a cabin and a slip for the boat. Cabins are nice, now with satellite tv. They come fully equipped with everything. You are close to a lot of the small towns plus Rio Vista and Antioch not being that far away. Just a thought. We definitely enjoyed it.
 
Viera's is a great place and close to many of the small towns I had mentioned. However, the Sacramento River, especially around Rio Vista, can really whip up the small craft warnings! Bring your VHF radio and keep an ear on the weather reports. Winds are the worst during the afternoons unless they are from the north. Late summer, early fall are the best times for calm waters.
 
If you do want to go out of Stockton, I can't think of any Hotels right next to the ramp. There are some that are close by like the Marriot Courtyard which is about a mile or so away from Riverpoint Landing.

Snug Harbor and Viera's are nice, but the only problem is that to get to the heart of the Delta, you have to go all the way around via Three Mile Slough or Georgianna Slough. This is a bit of a long trip and in the late afternoon the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers get really rough so you don't want to be caught out there. But you could stay at Viera's and launch at one of the many ramps on the Delta Loop as that is only a couple miles away.

Or you could stay on the Delta Loop at BW Resort which has some one bedroom cabins starting at $110 per night. Not sure what your budget is for this trip, but if it is a little tight, then I would stay at Viera's for $75 a night and put in at a place like BW. BW has a decent ramp. I have launched there before.

From there, your options are endless. For one day you could head West via the False River and explore Bethel Island taking in food and drink at one of the many establishments along Piper Slough. Sugar Barge and Rusty Porthole offer a nice view of Frank's Tract and are favorites of boaters. But whatever you do, don't take the temptation to cut across Frank's Tract as there are a number of snags in there that you want to avoid. Many who know the Delta have no problem riding on Frank's Tract but I would not want your first experience to be a bad one, so it's best to just stay off it.

After that you can head East via Roosevelt Cut, Old River and Connection Slough to Mildred Island. Mildred is a flooded island where many boats like to anchor out. You can enter at the northeast corner and exit at the Southwest.

Now you can head East once again on Empire Cut and turn left on Turner Cut. You can stop at Tiki Lagoon or Turner Cut for more water or continue on. You will soon come to a fork. Take a left if you want to stop in for a drink and view some scantilly clad women at Lost Isle or you can take a right and continue on. In either case you will want to move south on the San Joaquin towards Stockton taking a left on Fourteen Mile Slough. When you come to the "T", take a right on Fourteen Mile Slough and follow it all the way to Village West Marina. You can then have lunch at Garlic Brothers which is a great place to eat and have a few drinks. Before you leave, check your fuel tank and see if you need gas. Village West has some of the best prices on the Delta. Not much more than what you pay at most gas stations in town, so if you need gas, this is the place to get it.

Moving on from there, go back on Fourteen Mile Slough only this time instead of heading back to the San Joaquin, keep heading north. Unless of course you want to see more of the scantilly clad women at Lost Isle, then you would take a left and head back there. Take a left on Disappointment Slough, take a right up Honker Cut, veer left on White Slough, then right on Potato Slough until you come to Tower Park. You can stop there or take a left after the bridge and head back to BW.

Not sure how fast you will be going or what you will be doing, but with the exception of Piper Slough, there aren't many long slow speed zones on this route. So potentially you could do this whole route with some time left over. If that's the case, feel free to explore some of the many sloughs or whatever looks interesting to you. Just keep the map handy.

When you get back to BW, reward yourself by driving into Rio Vista with a nice dinner at Foster's Big Horn. I wouldn't recommend taking the boat to rio Vista as the wind will be howling late in the afternoon making for an unpleasant ride. But if you just can't get enough of the water, then keep heading over past BW to Moore's Riverboat on the Delta Loop before you pull the boat out for the day.

This is just an example of what you could do and I'm sure others will add their thoughts and you can go from there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top