Opinion: For anglers and hunters, Mother Nature is the great equalizer

Heavy fog hindered my view from the dock at the fly-in fishing lodge, but I didn’t need to see the lake to feel the calm that being near water brings me. Sipping my coffee and staring blankly ahead, I reflected on what could only be described as a blunder the evening before on a large fish. In the midst of my rather unkind, self-deprecating musings, a well-timed—or ill-timed—chuckle wrenched me from my thoughts. It turned out I wasn’t the only one enjoying the lakeside calm that morning.

Not 30 feet away, another guest was reading a humorous story in an old copy of Reader’s Digest, long ago left on his cabin porch. I lightheartedly let him know his chuckle startled me, in turn startling him, making us both laugh. We began talking, and I soon learned he was a professor from Arizona on a three-week journey across the Upper Midwest and Canada in search of larger-than-life northern pike.

Later in the day while I was fishing, my morning encounter got me thinking about the unlikely group of people staying at the lodge that week, including me, a vagabond who spent all of her expendable income on a week of muskie hunting. Before long, I was connecting the dots to every single eccentric, famous and otherwise average person I’ve met through fishing, such as lawyers who’ve passed the bar in three states, paddlers setting off an 800-kilometre adventure, airline owners, professional athletes, families with fishing-crazed kids, music producers, and even inventors.

The list goes on, full of people from all walks of life, all drawn to something wild, tangible and experiential—the outdoors.

I’ve always thought of the angling and hunting world to be not only small, but also rather compact, where six degrees of separation could easily be whittled down to two or three. But that morning’s train of thought made me realize something far more interesting than just how small the outdoor community can be—it opened my eyes to the possibility that this natural world of ours can also be the greatest equalizer.

Generational wealth could lead you to a fly-in lodge or outfitted hunt, or perhaps two years of saving up could get you there. Whatever the case, once you arrive, you experience the very same thing as everyone else around you. The bull moose you’re calling in couldn’t care less if you recently sealed the deal with a large advertising client, and the fish certainly don’t pay attention to what’s in your savings account. The blackflies and mosquitos care least of all.

In the great outdoors, you are also no longer the catalyst. Mother Nature holds all the attention, power and status. And it’s her call on how to deal the cards. If you’ve ever spent a week at a fishing camp, for example, there’s a good chance you’ve been humbled by a beginner angler or a kid with a Spider-Man rod-and-reel combo catching what would have been the fish of a lifetime for you.

In the great outdoors, you are also no longer the catalyst. Mother Nature holds all the attention, power and status

It’s no secret to anglers and hunters that spending time in nature offers benefits beyond our comprehension. That’s why some of us can’t put into words why the outdoors makes us feel as alive as it does. I’m willing to bet it has something to do with how nature can reset our brains to default, allowing us to remove prejudices, become uninhibited and ultimately exit the rat race to enter the world we were meant for, or at the very least, get a healthy taste of it.

If that’s truly a glimpse of what most people experience when they step foot outdoors with purpose, perhaps that why it’s easier for us to truly see one another more clearly out there, despite our differences.

It wasn’t some predetermined fate that led me along the path to my fishing and hunting adventures. It was my free will, and I recognize that same free will so easily in the company I meet in the outdoors. When it comes down to it, we all have the opportunity to be somewhere else, yet we all choose to be out there, chasing fish and game in wild places, with secretly wild people.