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Run-fish-run

Mixing mountain running with fly fishing is an adventure that’s KAVU to the core! Endurance coach/athlete, Brittany Aäe lives and guides with a passion for nature we had to share.

By KAVU

April 17^th, 2018

dawn

Water, pen, notebook, pocket knife, film canister full of flies and tippet, wind-shirt, Tenkara rod, and a landjäger all had to fit inside my running backpack so I worked the puzzle of gear at the dusty trailhead wishing I was already running.

On that dark-of-dawn midsummer day, the temperatures promised to soar far above my comfort zone so I had to find an excuse to get above the valley haze and linger in alpine lake water.

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

Mixing my running practice with fishing seems so natural to me. Running makes me think like Moose; fishing makes me think like Trout. Building empathy with the natural world with whom I move is an exercise in deep listening.

At last, finding the correct configuration to both fit and secure my strange array of gear from flapping or dropping behind me on the trail...

I was off.

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

Blithely traveling....

....through stands of avalanche-scoured ponderosa and elderberry I noted the song of waking birds, the lapis flash of a mountain bluebird darting from grasses to bush, penstemon raging purple alongside paintbrush's vermilion. Soon this underbelly of forest gave way to lodgepole, orange granite, and the mist thrown from a stream rushing in its trough

almost there.

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

Arriving at the lake in the tender hours I found a rose blush growing on the eastern horizon which fell away to the hot valley from which I'd escaped. The disintegrating granite battlements surrounding the lake projected whatever hues sunrise chose.

The turquoise waters were the texture of iridescent leaded glass windowpanes in the old houses I love so much in Fremont and West Seattle, suddenly rippled by waking trout.

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

First, one silvery nose broke the surface and I thought, how glorious it is to witness the mysterious rise of these ancient, infinite cutthroat. Then another, followed by another, as though gossip of my fly tapping the glassy surface had spread to the depths of the lake waking all the hungry trout to feast on my feathers and barbless steel.

A light breeze expanded in a radial pattern, with scalloped edges and scaled texture which excited the trout so much they flashed their beautiful tail feathers skyward, their precious metal bellies catching the quickly-intensifying sun's glare.

Soon...

I was the sole audience to an impressive display of arabesques arcing against a golden shaft of light that snuck through the trees and cast itself on the lake.

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

Usually on the shores of this very same lake, I have to think like a bug in order to get a single bite.

I habitually make circuitous paths to my fishing perch of choice so the shadow of my pole or my body doesn't fall on the lake, tipping off its slippery inhabitants to my true identity (not a bug).

I usually test all manner of intuitive flicking, stripping, dancing, drifting, sinking maneuvers with my line. I often leave without a single bite but this time was entirely different.

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

Every hand-sized cutty seemed to be on the prowl for breakfast and on every alternate cast I had a fighter on the line.

I allowed them to move for a minute or two, observing how they darted, feeling their out sized strength bend my feeble rod. In hand, I gained a certain urgency: either crack the fish and swiftly make him dinner for two or remove the hook and let him swim again.

That day... I let them all swim... then ran back to my car, settling for a morning bowl of granola from my cooler instead.

And all felt right in the world

Run-fish-run

Run-fish-run

words and photos: Brittany. Additional photos: Laura Larson and Kelsey Noonan

Run-fish-run

Footnotes

Brittany founded Magnetic North in 2012 and, as a coach she partners with athletes to create movement, recovery, and self-care solutions to help them thrive in the alpine environment.

FootNotes

Brittany founded Magnetic North in 2012 and, as a coach she partners with athletes to create movement, recovery, and self-care solutions to help them thrive in the alpine environment.

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