Evening Drive by the Creek at Englebright

Late May evening drive, and this time I went farther than usual — out to Englebright Lake in the foothills west of Grass Valley, a reservoir on the Yuba that right now is barely acting like one. The water has pulled back far enough that the river runs as a creek through its own old bed, braiding around grass that has already come up green through the silt. Whole stretches that should be underwater are meadow, rocks scattered where boats would normally sit.

Ran the Jeep down the drawdown slope and across the channel where earlier tracks had already picked a line — a few inches of water over gravel, easier than it looked from above. A dark storm cell hung over the mountains to the east the whole time, snow still showing on the higher ridges, but out on the lakebed it stayed dry.

The climb out is the same two-track that drops you in, straight up between the pines. Stopped at the crest with the Jeep still wet to the fenders from the ford and watched the cloud bank keep moving without ever reaching me. The creek was loud enough to hear from up there.