Eagle Mountain Lake


Spent two hours hiking around Eagle Mountain with my parents. The air was a crisp 40 degrees Fahrenheit, especially early in the morning with not much sun warmth. It was a beautiful hike, though the trees looked dead and exposed as most of their leaves had fallen. The flora consisted mostly of trees. However, there was the occasional splotch of cactus that broke up the landscape from the expected grasses and trees. Course, it is Texas, so cactus should have been a commonplace flora but it still surprised me every time I encountered it. The cactus reminded me of my bestfriend's house growing up. He had a small amount of cactus in the corner of his driveway and it always seemed like a nuisance because our basketball would always fall into it. It's crazy how memories of my bestriend's house always arose seeing cactus. The rest of the trip was marked by small windows of treeline where I could glimpse the pristine lake, besides one 10 minute stretch of shoreline trail, and a couple encounters with animals. I love looking at water, for it serves as a peaceful and reflective agent. I had a long, deep conversation about faith with my parents around the 10 minute stretch of shoreline and I'm sure the water was a little behind it. For some reason it's easier for me to open up around water, as some of my best memories from high school involve lakeside bonfires where my friends would talk about life and just relax. As for the animals, I ran into a hawk, many squirrels, a red robin, and a family of deer. Running into the family of deer was the most memorable experience from the hike. They were white-tailed deer and it was either the mother or the father that saw us first (I don't know how to distinguish). We stopped in our tracks as the deer were literally only like 20 yards away. We didn't want to scare them away and just stood there examining them in such a close environment. The deer weren't moving either and watched us with excruciating keenness. It's like the deer sensed danger and there lives depended on their next moves. From my perspective, I was fascinated. It was probably 3 minutes before the deer eventually ran away, with the baby deer following behind, but it felt like 30 minutes. I considered in that moment what it would be like to hunt a deer, as I never have before. I couldn't get myself to ever think of killing it. The deer were so precious and amazing creatures. almost innocent behind those sweet eyes.

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