Winter Recuperation Is Natural
February 9th, 2012I’ve been enjoying a winter break from guiding—most of my clients don’t do winter fishing. It’s given me a chance this winter to continue focusing on my health—losing weight and getting fit—with some winter backpacking. I’m about to finish eighty-five miles of the Ozark Highlands Trail and perhaps will finish the first 100 miles before guide season begins in March. The trail runs across just about every major headwater stream of the Boston Mountains in the Arkansas River drainage and some of the White River tributaries as well.
Seeing all those headwater areas in more pristine settings than we see on the tailwaters has gotten me to thinking about rest, recovery and health. Many of these streams are intermittent and “dry up” during the summer and fall. In reality, many of them simply go underground as the flows reduce. To see them running and enjoy their waterfalls, you have to catch them as they begin to recharge in the winter. To do so requires some cold weather hiking and camping. If you wait too late into the spring, the streams are often too high to cross and not safe.
In winter backpacking, you sleep in subfreezing temperatures; and daytime temps may not make it over forty degrees. Calorie and metabolism requirements are very demanding on us humans under these conditions. I calculated on my trips that I typically spend thirty percent of my time actually hiking, ten percent in food preparation and eating, and the majority of time (about sixty percent) working on establishing camp, shelter and living out the night in a mummy bag. My calorie intake increases from 2,000 calories per day to about 4,000 on these outings. Covering as much as ten or twelve miles of rugged terrain in a day requires resting the feet and allowing them to recover. Even though we make campfires at night, on really cold nights I might spend as much as twelve hours in the sleeping bag. That’s a long time confined like a mummy, but it’s the only effective way to ward off the cold and let the feet recover in the Ozark wilds.
One of the things I have enjoyed is crossing streams wet in forty degree water. Even when it’s cold, the feet are usually hot, and it feels so good to cool them down. Sometimes we can rock hop, but pants with zip-off legs and a pair of water shoes are usually a part of my backpacking gear.
There is something mentally restful too about seeing pristine headwater streams. I drink water from these streams (filtered, of course). They come alive in winter and spring when rains replenish their sources. Water trickles from heads of ravines and underground seeps and eventually begins coursing its way down a holler until a full blown creek has formed. The gurgling and talking sounds of the water and waterfalls is nice music in the wilderness. I often recall the Franz Schubert lied (a German vocal song, pronounced leet) I sang in college, “Das Wandern ist des Müllers Lust, Das Wandern,” or “Wandering is the Miller’s joy. Wandering!” The next verse tells us, “We learned it from the stream.”
Rock Hoppin'! I successfully crossed this stream without wet wading. Jim Warnock photo.
Brown trout wander up and down the White River tailwaters too. They migrate upstream to spawn where they expend such a great amount of energy they lose weight. Their bodies become long and lanky, heads sometimes being the biggest looking part of them as they have burned off fat reserves in the process. But as the spawn comes to a close, they rest, move back down stream, and begin to recover their body weight. Being cold-blooded, their metabolism is still slow from winter stream temperatures, and their recovery takes weeks. By the time cumulative stream temperatures begin to rise and the first real hatch—the large caddis hatch—occurs in Bull Shoals tailwater, they have begun to feed heavily once again and become healthier looking. If a lot of threadfin shad come through the dam before the caddis hatch, brown trout can gain a good amount of weight feasting on the small fish. I begin guiding in early March and can tell the fish have begun to fatten up. By April and May, we are into some obese fish!
I don’t mind doing other things during the winter or being a three-season guide and angler as it gives me a break, and it gives the fish a chance to rest up and recover as well. It’s the way the God of nature intended.
© 2012, Scott Branyan
