Like many a Texan, I watched our lakes fill up this spring. I watched many of them overflow too.
I once heard that all our droughts end in a flood. It appears so. Every summer I would go camping with my grandparents at Lake Buchanan. On the Lake is the pretty much the only place I ever say my Granddad without boots on. Off came the boots and on went the white low top converse right before he backed his old boat down the ramp and into the water.
I loved those trips. I guess anyone would as kid going camping with their grandparents. We would sleep on cots out in the open under the stars which was nice since it was usually August when we went. We often had visits from a raccoon. Sometimes Uncle Ray would drive over from Brady and to help run the trotlines. I caught my first fish, two on the same trip in fact, on that lake.
We try to get down there at least once a year with our kids and dogs. We have watched the Lake slowly drain away during that time, but still found our own fun. We have some great rocks of pink granite and quartz found here and there.
We also pulled our boat up to an emerging island in the middle of the Lake a few years ago and caught a bunch of grasshoppers to use for bait.
We monitor the lake levels of all the highland lakes on the LCRA website. Buchanan is the first in a chain of lakes leading all the way to Austin. They have a great live update showing river flows into all of the lakes. I found myself checking this site often during the spring rains.
Buchanan in many ways is a diamond in the rough when compared with the other lakes in the chain. I kind of like that about it.
Many people don’t know that Bald Eagles winter there or that Inks Lake is just across the dam or that Longhorn Caverns and Enchanted Rock are just down the road either. That is ok by me. In my ideal world Lake Buchanan would stay frozen in time, always full of water, fish jumping, and Granddads that only take off their boots to get into the boat.
