Walking, fishing and finding things

José Niño has no patience for inactivity; one way he “rests up" from a day at work is to go for a walk. But he doesn’t go alone–he always takes his fishing pole. 

 

Daily, and sometimes more than once a day as long as the weather allows, he makes his way around Clear Lake, stopping to fish at some favorite points, and picking up trash and aluminum cans along the way. He deposits the trash in public receptacles along his route. The aluminum he stores up and sells for a little extra cash.

 

Any fish he catches, he releases.

 

Niño, 69, has been connected with the Waseca area since the 1980s. He raised his children, two sons and a daughter now in their 30s, here. Among his former employers are Brown Printing and Viracon.

 

Now a resident of Elm Homes, he works in Mankato most days, returns to a much anticipated supper, and then helps his food settle by taking a walk. Sometimes when he’s looking for a shorter diversion, he will circle Loon Lake. Whenever he’s on outings with Elm Homes groups, says staff member and friend Stephanie Shoultz, Niño takes every opportunity to go fishing.

 

His love for angling, he says, is something he acquired when he moved to Minnesota, after growing up in Mexico and living in Chicago for a time. Now a holder of a lifetime fishing license, he had never held a pole before arriving in Minnesota.

 

He says he takes his long walks because it feels good to him to be out in nature. He picks up trash because things should be kept looking nice. In fact, he indicates, shaking his head, it’s a mystery to him why people let unwanted items become litter.

 

His habits have not gone unnoticed.

 

At least one person along the lake has let Niño know that, even though there’s a “no trespassing” sign on his dock, he should feel welcome to fish there. Another person passes along his aluminum cans for recycling. 

 

“Pretty much everyone knows me,” says Niño of the acknowledgments. Yet another person gave him a bicycle, perhaps thinking Niño would like to get to his favorite fishing spots more quickly: while he does occasionally ride the bike, he admits he prefers walking–apparently speed was never any part of his intent.

 

Niño’s habits have some additional inherent benefits. He has a collection of fishing poles which he has found abandoned along his route; some of his favorite lures were also found along the lakeshore.

 

In the vicinity of the golf course, he frequently finds and picks up golf balls. He says they’re some pretty nice ones, and jokes that he would welcome an offer on his collection. Shoultz recalls that once, a while back, Niño donated more than 1,000 balls to the school golf team.

 

Although it is not a frequent event, Niño has found two working cell phones while out on his walks. In one case, the phone happened to ring as he was approaching it. When he answered, he was able to arrange to return the phone. The other one was turned in to the police, who were able to locate the owner. Niño has also found a few wallets, and been able to return them.

 

Along with that, he enjoys keeping a small collection of trinkets and odd items he has come across, including souvenirs left behind after the county fair, parades, and other public events.

 

Niño mentions that he always wears long pants and tennis shoes–something people often comment on when the weather is especially warm. Heat, he says, doesn’t bother him. His one concession to the temperature is a red bandana he wears around his forehead. Although he jokes it’s to cover up his bushy eyebrows, the cloth helps keep sweat from dripping into his eyes.

 

He frequently also takes his walks on rainy days, or at least when there is intermittent rain. He points out there are public buildings along the way where he can take shelter until the rain passes.

 

When he can’t go out, Niño has a treadmill and some weights to give himself some exercise. Those get a lot of use, he says, when the change in seasons makes it hazardous to walk outdoors. More importantly, his resistance to heat is not matched by any tolerance for the cold; he practically shivers even as he says the word “winter.”

 

Perhaps it’s his desire to soak up as much summer as he can that takes him outdoors so persistently: He often walks 7 or 8 miles at a time and frequently stays out until 8:30 or 9 p.m. In fact, he says he sometimes chooses “the long way around” to get from his house to the lake, taking the trail behind the high school and continuing a bit to the north before curving back around to his usual route.

 

“It just feels right to be walking,” he says. “I’m glad I can do some nice things for other people while I’m also being nice to myself.”