The Texas Hill Country has held a place in my heart my entire life. I hadn't hiked its riverbeds since the devastating flood of 2025, so when I returned this past May, the landscape still bore witness to that event. Large rocks littered the tops of boulders. Trees bent at sharp angles. Along the water's edge, piles of flood debris had come to rest — branches, organic material, and discarded objects woven together into large, nest-like forms. These tangled masses had been swept up by the current and carried along until the water slowed, finally releasing them where they now lay.