Flowers and Stump

by Mike Lee

Title

Flowers and Stump

Artist

Mike Lee

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

There are two large shallow reservoirs in Lassen County known as Hog Flat and McCoy Flat. They are basically large meadows that get flooded each year courtesy of a couple small earthen dams built by a long defunct irrigation district 100 or so years ago. Depending on the year, they either dry up pretty quickly, as in the case of drought years like 2022, or hold some water all year as in wetter years. In the latter, McCoy gets planted with trout that can grow to epic proportions feeding on small crustaceans if they can just get a couple years of water in it.

When the water recedes, the surrounding meadows are littered with old stumps and driftwood of various sizes and shapes from trees that have fallen around the area over the decades. In 2022, even though there had been drought, we had some late spring showers that I theorize have contributed to a very nice, albeit later, wildflower season throughout the area. On this particular morning, I was driving by Hog Flat on my return from McCoy after I’d gone back and retrieved a piece of gear I’d accidentally left in the field on a failed attempt at a Milky Way shot the night before. This scene with lupine around an old stump right off the highway with the already receding lake in the background caught my eye so I pulled over and grabbed it.

Uploaded

June 20th, 2022

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