ys SKEENA ANGLER. © ROB BROWN Heart of the Park 2 he white water stretched for miles. It was a rodeo ride. 1 knew the demands it was putting on Sharon's river running skills were considerable, After a mile of slipping and sliding, surfing from channel to channet lost its lustre. I found it hard to focus and I wondered how my pilot was able to. After another mile it felt like we'd gone ten. The irregular rhythm of pauses, surges, and rolls was starting to nauseate me; the reverberant rush and roar of the river and the oscillating whine of the engine pressed hard on both. sides of my head. The valley was narrow and spectacular, I ‘stole quick glances at it, wanting to give the land a more careful examiaation, but the hazards ahead of us kept pulling my eyes forward. Sharon appeared riveted to the task at hand, but she must have noticed my discomfort, out of the side of her eye. "Not much longer," she yelled, without averting her eyes fram the river. It wasn’t. In minutes we arrived at a corner so sharp I couldn't see around’ it. Sharon banked, gliding sideways long enough to pick the right slot through the steepest rapid we'd met so far. In moments we were over the top. The Zodiac stopped bucking. We shot straight ahead, knifing through the reflections of reck giants, some the size of pickup trucks, some the size of houses, all of them hurled down the mountainside by avalanches. I looked into the pool. It was green and so deep that only the tops of the large rocks were visible. They looked like the battlements of a sunken castle patrolled ye the prisms of het. | i rfleeit : Shad stanged'e ayes, and lb the current was lethargic, the pools deeper; where birds were everywhere before, now there were none; animal sightings had gone from frequent to infrequent ta nonexistent, “Where's all the wildlife?" I called back to Sharon. “I’ve never seen much here; beaver a few. times, a seal once, if you can believe it, But, other than that nothing. Maybe it’s all this brush. It’s like a watery desert. And, there isn’t much that would want to live up there.” I looked right, at the sheer treeless rock walls toward which Sharon had nodded. Clouds were spilling over their promontories and rotling toward us. To the port side lay an immense, monotonous tract of ruddy low-lying brush. A light rain was starting to fall. "It’s late,” said Sharon, "This is the last good ‘camping spat. We may as well take advantage of it." She pointed the boat toward shore. | hopped up and over the side just back of the prow then ‘slid in the water to prevent the boat from hitting the beach too hard. I reached in and hauled the anchor over the gunwale, then walked up the beach and. heoked it inthe spongy soil. The rain was still light, but the way the darkening sky was pressing down on us suggested that it wouldn't stay that way for long. [ tald Sharon:1 was ready and. willing to take orders. She had a clear vision of how construction should proceed, Moving efficiently from task to task, she gave me precise instructions. In short order we had a Spartan, but comfortable camp. The. rain was falling hard against the tarp by the time we sat down to dinner. "Where'd you learn your bush skills?” I asked, for Sharon had - a lot of them and she couldn't have been much more than twenty, "Outdoorsy family,” she said. "My mom liked to.camp, and my dad was an avid camper, and when it came to hunting and fishing he was driven.” She paused to sip her coffec, Her eyes acquired a sad and distant look then refocused, "My brother and I were in-the woods when we were still on mother’s milk.. My folks backpacked us on some. rugged trips. More of my childhood was spend in the bush than in school." “Your foiks still live here?” I asked. “Mom died when [ was fifteen," she answered wistfully, "Your dad?" ‘Sharon stared into the fire for a tong tine, "Gone too," she answered in a way that made it the endpoint of this conversation. I didn’t sleep well. It was still raining when we set out after breakfast, The rest of the day we rode the rising river through a labyrinth of brush and bog. Sharon tock some compass - bearings and instructed me to flag some of the overhanging brush, Every channel looked the same. The lowlands had been swallowed by — low-lying cloud. Sharon idled the bodt as she looked around, "T think we're lost," she: announced, : —— To be continued... _ (OP spot in four categories: 800 “rity :RRACE The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 21, 2001 - B5 STANDARD 638-7283 moguls that dotted the course at the Mogul Blaster Hill Climb at LOCAL snowmobiler. Mark Sarich launches over ane of many Shames Mountain Mar. 10-11. Riders raced against the clock in an effort to power through 13 gates on the steep, bumpy course. World class sledding at hill climb By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN NORM HEBERT may not be a big man, but when it comes to handling big Sleds he stands head and shoul- ders above the rest. Roaring his way through mo- guis, powering through gates and expertly negotiating deep holes is what Hebert docs best. The local resident and former world champion snowmobile hill climber was up against the cream of the crop at the Mogul Blaster Hill Climb at Shames Mountain Mar. 10-11. Hebert found the right rhythm in each of his races and clinched ep ea je ; ‘Moi jeified: ne ; : owmobilé: federa- tion n sanctioned event drew parti- cipants from as far as Valemount to Fairbanks, Alaska. The hill climb saw sledders racing up A.O.T., a steep, mogul-littered ski run. The course is one of the more challenging on the circuit. Sledders were up against the clock or aiming for the high point on the hill. “We don’t have an extremely large number Vincent Clark of riders like in the States,” said B.C.S.F. ra- . cing division president John Wren. “But today we've got three world champions here and 10 finalists for the world champion- ships.” Wowing the crowd was the 2001 ESPN X-Games silver medalist in snowmobile hill cross, Vincent “Vinny” Clark from Valemount. H The 28-year-old is by all accounts 4a class act and that was evident during the hill climb. Just as one of the dash-for-cash heats was 4 under way one of Clark’s oppo- nents rolled his sled. Clark saw the roll-over and immediately turned back to help him out. q But when it came to racing 4% against the clock it was no more g Mr. Nice Guy. . Clark, racked “up. four first plice ..., standings in Stock 500,:700 Mod- ~ ified, 800 Modified and Stock King. He also placed second behind Norm Hebert in the King Modified division. Local rider Mark Sarich was off to a great start Sunday with a first place in the Stock 700 class and a first in the 700 Improved. But he was having a tough time later on in the day on the bigger machines and came out with only one more top-three ranking. He placed third behind Kevin McCray and Vincent Clark in the Stock King division. Terrace’s Brent DeJong also put in a hard day’s work and was rewarded well for it. He placed third in the 700 Improved, 800 Improved, 1000 Improved and 700 Modified. He also clinched fourth spot in King Improved. Trevor Gibson also had a good day tackling the moguls. The local rider placed second in 800 Im- proved right behind Norm Hebert. He took third in the 1000 Improved, fourth in 800 Modified and fifth in 700 Modified. And just like the rest of this winter, the talk on the hill was about the snow. The lack of snow at other sites on the B.C.S.F. racing circuit has seen several events fall through this season. “Bien in the Statés '‘thére--is ‘not much * snow,’ ~ Said..Norm Hebert.,-But there's, tons. of.*: “SHOW “here. I think there’s even more than fast year.” The course itself proved to be a challenge for a lot of the hiil climbers who found a hole at the 9th gate a tough feature to contend with. Flat light and fat, wet flakes of snow also added to the challenge quotient. “Your goggles get full of snow,” said Vin- cent Clark. “It’s hard to see the bumps and find a good line.” | THE KIDS at Spring Creek Adeventist school were outside en- joying the beautiful weather last week. Their teacher, Betty Fraser was teaching them the finer points of baseball. Showing the true spirit of sportsman- ship the kids cheered for everyone who had a chance al bat. ___ Hoopsters face big competition By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN WALKING into the AAA provincial high school basketball championships no team wants to be ranked 16th of 16 teams. Not only were the Caledonia Kermodes girls ranked at the bottom of the pack in Van- couver Mat, 7-10, their first game was against the number one seeded team, Heritage Park from Mission. it’s a tough situation for any team, but to add fuel to the fire Cal went south with only eight players. While most teams have a 12- team roster, the Kermodes were at a disad- vantage. But Cal’s gicls handled the challenge with -prace, hard playing and determination. “The girls represented themselves, Cal and the whole northwest very well,” said coach, Bill Gook. ° The girls knew they would be up against some serious competition but playing Heritage Park gave them an even better understanding of the intensity of play at the AAA level in the soulhern portion of the province. The first half of the game pretty much deci- ‘ded this one. Going into the second Cal was _ down 50-4, “We were able to slow things down a little in the second half,” said Gook. And slow them down they did. Turning on ' the defence, the girls managed to hold Mission sito only 27 points in the second half: and man: | aged to log an additional 20 points for them- selves, . But after all was said and done, the top- seeded team in the province won 77-24, They would later take top spot at the tournament to become provincial champions. The next game saw the Kermodes take on Thomas Haney from Maple Ridge. This time the girls were up against one of the tallest teams in the tournament. The first shift of the game saw Caledonia facing Maple Ridge’s starters who towered 671", 674” and 5°11” over the Kermodes. Meanwhile the tallest Kermode stands a mod- est 5’9”, “All the teams had some height,” said Gook. “So it’s hard.” Maple Ridge overpowered the Kermodes 67-24, Game three pitted Cal against G.P. Vanier from Courtney. “As far as our team defence went it was very good,” said Gook. But Courtney’s defence was also very good and they plagued Cal’s offence with constant one-on-one coverage. “Their big gitls were all over Kelly Haug- land who is our main-ball carrier,” said Gook. But powering through Courtney’s defence proved to be a chore and GP Vanier came out on top 50-22. ©: Going into their fourth game of the tourna- ment against Cranbrook’s Mount Baker, the Kermodes knew they were playing for 15th or 16th place. The girls held their heads high and conti- nued playing-as hard as they could but in the end they lost this one too, 65-37. This is the first time in three years that a team from the northwest has attended the AAA championships and Gook was impressed with how weil the girls stood up to the hardest com- petition any of the players have ever faced. “The level of play is very high. There is a lot of intensity and without ever playing that style of game it’s challenging,” he said. Gook is hoping that next year the Kermodes wilk have a second shot at the provincial championships. But next year Cal faces anolher challenge with a change to how schools are deemed AAA. The change will see schools with 225 prade 11 and 12 girls or more classified AAA. That means Cal will be the only AAA team this side of Prinve George. It also means that they will have very little chance to take on other teams with the same ranking. “In terms of getting competition from other AAA teams it’s going to be very difficult,” said Gook. But that’s a challenge for next season. In the meantime, Gook is incredibly impressed with the eight girls that represented Terrace and the northwest at this year’ 8 champlonships.