Journeys›Photograph

Early June Out at Stampede Reservoir

·Sierra County, California·#summer#tahoe#landscape#off-roading#reservoir
A Polaris General UTV with a dog crate and speaker in its bed is parked beside a vast blue lake and forested mountains.

Took the General up to Stampede for the day, dog crate strapped in the bed and the speaker wedged beside it. It's a short run from Truckee, out along the Little Truckee, and early June is a good window — warm enough to want the water nearby, before the boat crowds show up in earnest.

The reservoir is down. There's a wide band of bare bank all around, gravel and mud where the waterline used to be, and the little green shoots coming up through it. Parked on a rise above the shore for a while, then dropped down to a beach on the far side and let the dogs out to work the water's edge. The water goes tea-brown in the shallows before it turns blue.

Somebody was out on the far arm, too distant to tell if they were trolling for kokanee or just cruising. Mud packed into the tire treads by the time we loaded back up.

A bright sunbeam streaks across the blue sky above a sparkling lake bordered by rocky ground and evergreen trees.A wide blue lake bordered by a forest of evergreen trees and distant rolling mountains under a blue sky.A lake with ripples, backed by forested mountains under a blue sky, with a muddy shore and scattered rocks.Two dogs stand on a brown, rocky shore next to a blue lake with tree-covered hills under a blue sky.

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