Broomsticks to bikinis: Whiskeytown hosts Halloween 'witches' out for a good float
Witches, ditch your brooms and grab a paddle board or kayak.
The 2023 Whiskeytown Witch's Paddle collective will float out a few days before Halloween.
Kayakers, paddleboarders and canoers costume up with pointy hats, striped socks and black gowns ― or bikinis ― and gather for this free family-friendly event. This year’s witch’s paddle is 5 p.m. to dusk on Oct. 28 on Whiskeytown Lake.
In past years, people of all ages showed up “dressed as witches, wizards, warlocks and sometimes vampires” for a late-season paddle near Brandy Creek Beach, said event planner Lisa Ferguson of Redding.
Most participants bring paddleboards, “but anything that floats is welcome,” Ferguson said. “We've had people in rafts, inner tubes, air mattresses, kayaks, paddle boards and surf boards.”
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Anyone in costume is welcome, she said. Just wear a costume that allows you to swim if needed and a life jacket.
This year, witches will have a short race for fun if weather allows, she said. Otherwise, there’s no special route paddlers take.
“This is the most loosely organized event ever. You just show up. It's super casual and family friendly...just a bunch of people chilling on their favorite floaty thing,” she said.
How Whiskeytown became a destination for North State Halloween witches
Ferguson, a retired Shasta High School Spanish teacher, and her friend Shelbie Vanek, formerly of Redding, brewed up the first Whiskeytown Witch’s Paddle in 2021.
The two women heard about a similar event at Lake Siskiyou in Mount Shasta, Ferguson said. “We drove up wearing some amazing witch costumes and hoped it wasn't a hoax.”
It wasn’t.
When they got there, they had a blast. The “costumes were fantastic,” Ferguson said.
On the drive back to Redding, the two friends “hatched a plan” to host a witch’s paddle the following weekend, she said.
They had only a week to plan and spread the news on social media, said Vanek, a nurse who now lives in Bend, Oregon.
“We had about 40 witches show up, which absolutely thrilled us. We had no idea if anyone would show up at all,” Ferguson said.
This year, almost 300 people have clicked the “going” button on the event’s public Facebook invitation. “I don't know how that happened, but yay,” Ferguson said.
When they realized how many people planned to come, Whiskeytown park staff worked with her to change her permit application to accommodate them, she said.
They also asked her to move the date from early October to its current day, in part so it wouldn’t compete with the Whiskeytown Harvest Festival, said Whiskeytown National Recreation Area Superintendent Josh Hoines.
Despite her currently status as sole planner of an annual outdoor recreation event, Ferguson said she’s not into water sports. “Every time I die in my dreams it's because I drown. So... there's that,” she said.
Instead, she spends her free time in retirement as a classroom aide at Enterprise High School, teaching kids whose first language isn’t English. “I absolutely love it,” she said.
Other Halloween witch paddle events are listed on Facebook, including ones in California in Folsom and southeast of Yosemite Forks at Bass Lake.
Of course, for “Wizard of Oz” fans, the big question is: Do witches really melt when they get wet?
“The jury's still out on that one,” Ferguson said. “So far we've been fortunate to not have anyone go overboard.”
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Grab a Halloween costume for the Whiskeytown Witches Paddle
