wreere . It was late spring. The Lakelse River steelhead had moved into the tributaries and into the fine gravelled tallouts of the deeper pools to spawn. Trout and char fad moved in: after the larger fishes, hovering behind them, inhaling, the errant . eggs. I planned to drift: my. fraudulent: roe imitation — a single turn of pink hackle in front of a small compact orb of | fluorescent orange wool to some of those trout, The creeks ‘on the south side © of the river: were high: with | Snowmelt, In some places the — water was over the rad. [ plow- ed through it. Rooster tails shot up beside by rusty but trusty: Datsun. The trip to the fishing hole is always faster, more careless and | less contemplative than the trip ° out. If I'd been thinking less of — thie “great fishing: “exploits awaiting the; Fwould’ve marked the place a short distance before “the ‘White Creek. bridge where (there? had: never been a beaver pond adjacent: ‘to, the road and “where now there “was one level “with it: ; . From the high bank I counted | Six steelhead: “there ‘were ‘pro- “Sbably” twice | as; many® inthe. ' deeper,” darker’ water and that: “many again in the faster riffles below: The river was high, con- fining: me to’ the one side and _ Keeping: me close to:the shore. Still, 1 managed enough gdod casts. to‘bring a number of nice. trout to-the net. ; Catching a trout on egg imita- tions in the fall when the river’s full of salmon, and the trout are: ‘full of ‘salmon, spawn, can be ‘ridiculously: easy. Not so in the: “clear pools of spring, when only “the steelhead are about. Then The Skeena _ Angler by Rob Brown only. a freely drifted imitation, © cast upstream and fished back . without drag, will do the trick. I was doing my best to do this — watching the tip of my line for the slightest hesitation, the sign to strike'— when | was jolted from. my conceritration by a loud hello, | 1 turned to see Eckert Otters- tein, an avid outdoorsman with whom ‘I'd: shared) some memorable fishing trips: Eckert had moved to Vernon a year earlier. and was back for a visit. and reminisced. «-. River. as: if -he.wer ‘bestowitig® “You know [-: this,” said | ‘Bekert, hand. in’ ‘the directio benediction upot We took the, “path nder:th old trees, past'a. field of devil’s club down the path to the truck, As I put away my rod, three: young fellows came walking up the road, , “Can you guys ‘help get us lies omhe fi only ereek Grossing the road rblin “anywhere near was ‘White and it... “dom Soe told’-the "boys to: hop ‘i in and. rattled: back, along Lakélse © “Main to their truck: They were _ ergtuek ina creek. alright — a. ve newly formed one where. ‘the tier ings plugged an. old. waders, * ‘could hear ominous rumblings, . slike boulders rolling & somewhere . “was ‘ bridged: :. off: quick. I waded in‘once again and un- did the cable,”then: scrambled fromthe water-as' the: subterrae. wean thunder got loud d ‘spewed forward in: tantly laying ‘down a. gravel ped aGrra' ‘Hew. creek and the three-quarter’ ton ; Ford was thrown fifty. feet: into. \ “the brush -as if it’ - weighed nothing at all. | . 3 ; “Geez,” moaned. one of the : boys. ‘My old man’s gonna kill me. ” ra Because a6 “jumped”. “into.” the” water ,-” to: connect. Eckert’ s- winch cable,: As [- fastened it, I. JEFF NAGEL 638-7283 TERRACE STANDARD Nat'l champion tops triathlon TERRACE — I! record- breaking was the sport, then the Skeena Valley Triathlon was surely the event. Marks were busted in nearly every category at Terrace’s fifth annual swim-bike-run July 24. Victoria's Eric Myllymaki led . the way with his stunning -in- dividual time of 1:49:58, blasting more than 10 minutes *hours and'39‘seconds. “THe! 19-yeat“ald “triathlete” last year’s Canadian junior na-_. champion and. junior © at New ‘tional bronze medalist Zealand’s Commonwealth © Games:— ‘said he found the -. course: challenging,. although he's usually: used to a longer “ swim.- The short course race coti-— sisted of a one-kilometre swim, a 40-kilometre © cycle - and, a 10-kilometre run.. ; ‘“The scary thing is he’s siill only 19,” ‘triathlon organizer Dale Greenwood ‘said. of Myllymaki. ‘*Who knows where this kid is going to go from here.””? The big surprise of the men's race was Prince Ruperi’s Mike - PORT COQUITLAM's Gree Timewell breaks ut of the cool waters of | * Lakelse. Lake atthe Water Lily Bay pic * swimmer out of the water, but managed to, oa and fun. to take. second in men's open Flegel, who blasted out of nowhere to surprise the Lower Mainland triathletes. Flegel stuck to’ Myllymaki “like glue through the swim and the bike, and entered the final 10km: run just 17 seconds behind the leader. . But he lost. ground there, dropping. nearly a minute to . Myilymaki; and more than two ‘off the old course record of two - minutes: to Port “Coquitlam’s SKEENA VALLEY | TRIATHLON » Greg Timewell, who poured on the juice to pass Flegel on the final hill of the run and capture second. “Flegel’s third-place final time of 1:51:07 was still nine and a half minutes under the old course record and just 1:07 behind Myllymaki. “That’s an improvement for me,'” the 25-year-old Rupert racer said, noting Myllymaki beat him by more than three tainutes at a race in Kelowna last year. ‘‘I-was pretty happy. I stayed right with him on the swim. But he came out of the transition better than J did,’’ “It’s a tough course — the toughest triathlon course I've ever done,”’, he said. ‘‘Climbing that airport hill is just brutal.”” Vancouver's Steve McMur- do, Prince George's! Angus McDonald and Collingwood, Ontario’s Jeff Thompson alsa finished under the- two-hour mark. ; Terrace’s Colin Parr was the fastest local finalist, finishing 13th in a time of 2:07:26. Not far behind Myllymaki and company, and ahead of most of. the men’s field, - was Vancouver’s Carolyn Hubbard- Brougam, whose record-setting time. of 2:03:29 carved nearly nine minutes off the previous women’s mark. Her time. was good enough: for: tenth place overall among the. individual triathletes. ; Hubbard-Brougam | was near- ly seven minutes aliead. of her closest female. rivals. — Tracy. Mitchell, of Vancouver, who finished at 2:10:12, and Cori ‘Lyons, also of “Vancouver, -at. 2:12:12, Terrace’s Diana Wood crus: ed to fourth-behind Lyons, with: “|. atime of 2:22:26, » The junior men's: race saw > Kitimat's Peter Godor race ta a 2:10:31 finish; three: minutes ahead of Prince Rupert's’ Joseph Nelson, | and ‘about’ -18- - minutes up on third-place David: Anthony, also of Kitimat. Other - individual Schlegel (2:52:56), -and Victor. =e. Whitaker (3:05:52). ‘site. He was the fourth ck up time in the cycle Ime of 1:50:37, | Terrace’ trio Doug “Macken: zie, Mike Christensen and Paul “]. Clark battled to-a narrow two- ° * minute record-setting” victory: ; aver a Prince George team in: the seesaw men’s team race. Swimmer Mackenzie finished .| the one-kilometre water course : . triathlon’ finishers from ‘Terrace included: lan Humphrey (2:23:56), Kurt “ ‘in a-time of 13:18,-which put» them in second place, about two minutes back.of John-McCaf- fery’s Prince George team. But cycler Christensen’s 1:05:14 ride. pulled back nearly four minutes in the-40-kilometre bike race to give ‘wheelchait: riderClark ‘a two-minute five-second. advan- tage ta play with, | Despite a 30-second penalty for the ‘extra. speed of a wheelchair, Clark cruised to a - 37:39 finish, giving them. a °1:55:1 L-overall time, just ahead .. of the -McCaffery team’s 1:57:18 (1 1:27/1:09:00/37:51). :.“*]t was back and forth, back and forth, back and forth all the way," Clark said of the final’ . race to the finish line, . _ “We all did well enough we came out on top,” Christensen said of his team, which was” [> thrown together and entered at. «|. «+ the last minute. , cont'd B12 TERRACE — It was a coming of age for the. ‘Skeena Valley Triathlon. Not only did organizers manage to break the 200 threshold in number of participants at this year's July 14 race, but they also ‘Managed to: attract some big names. Eric Myllymaki —~ ‘stood out as well, The morthwest’s triathlon also attracted the . likes of Port Coquitlam’s Greg Thmevwell, Mead couver’s Steve McMurdo and Collingwood On tarto’s Jeff Thompson. In fact, the top three: ‘women and most of the top ten mest we from FASTEST WOMAN in the race, Vancouver's Carolyn Hubbard-Brougam, cruises by on her way to tak- ‘ing nine‘minutes off the old triathlon record. Her time for cycling the 40 kilometres — 1:03:23 — was the fastest of any competitor in the triathlon, male or femate. Below, triathlete Terry Ramin removes bike heimet in preparation for the 10-kilometre run. — | Race gains respect last year's Canadian _— ‘Junior national champion from Victoria — was the headilner and race winner, but other names southern 5.C, or out-of-province,. -7 It's che first thme the race has got recogalon, and drawn significant numbers. of the Lower . 1 Maluland’s top triathletes. - This year’s total of 231 participants shattered. Inst year's mark of 172, And that could. be just: * the beginning. > ‘Triathlon organizer Dale Greenwoail says the. Skeena Valley Tristhion has put in a bidfor A .mext year’s provincial championships... " "That would mean 500 to 800 participants it. “the bid ja successful, he sald, «| > Greenwood sald a plan for better: cond. con. trol and parking will haye.to be worked: : the trthles gets next yeas provinclals. ot :