On Waking Up Early For Fun

By: Kase van Rees

Until I moved to Colorado, waking up early by choice was a foreign concept to me. Luckily I quickly found myself hanging with a group of local outdoorsmen. With friends like these, it was impossible not to appreciate how far getting off your ass would get you in the wilderness.

With buddies involved in the skiing, climbing, and fishing industries, I get regular opportunities to go on stunning trips. I've found something I really love in each and every adventure sport I do, but fishing is altogether different. Nothing I've experienced compares to a trip on the water and I've never been able to put into words exactly why.

Around 9 at night one Tuesday, we loaded up the last of our gear into Leo's 4Runner and started on our 3 hour drive to the Dream Stream. The closer we got to our future paradise, the less we could see from the windows of the car. Restaurants and lighted highways faded slowly into a cold, quiet two lane trailing off straight and flat through the dark. A long, rutted dirt road seemed to take us back in time, before we pulled into a small dirt lot where we would park for the night. As soon as we stepped out and looked up we couldn't help but feel instant bliss. The sky loomed over us like a cathedral of darkness sprinkled with bright stars unlike any others. We soon geared up for our walk to the water and hid our signal starved phones away where they would soon be forgotten. We walked the banks and casted for a few hours to get a feel for the river before taking a quick nap and snack break in the truck. We walked back down where we continued to fish the rest of the night. Eventually the sun would cast light on a new day and reveal the landscape under a sky the color of cotton candy.

Most the time on the water we were just practicing to make better more convincing casts. The more you understand the flow of the water and how to tune into it, the more real your fly will look to those big trout you're aiming for. Water flowed past our legs with a cold push and a quiet but steady sound as we casted back and forth. The combination of sounds and sights plus the relaxing routine of casting lulled us into a meditative state of calmness. Suddenly the feeling of tranquility was interrupted as the line pulled tight and the reel spun up while the end of the rod took on that heavy feeling you forgot you were waiting for. A fish, finally.

That is the eb and flow of fishing. Casting, walking the banks, and appreciating the calm escape from reality peppered with some occasional moments of adrenaline. On the surface it could seem tiring, cold, and uncomfortable, and most times it is a number of those things. But, if you get the chance to go on an extended length trip on the water, take it. You may just find peace in being one of only a few people trying to read the water in a vast landscape of unbeatable allure.