B8 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 28, 2000 A ANGLER. ROB BROWN Finding the right key t was early in May. The scrolls on the fiddle head ferns were straightening up. The woods were beginning to ret thick. The Skeena was still low, but not as low as the week before. {i's been awhile since I’ve come at the tiver from this angle, I told Art, We bounced slowly along the decom- missioned logging road. The alders scraped the bottom and the sides of the truck. Inside the canopy Pawsome teced from side to side yipping frantically with the brush of cach limb. The track dipped steeply to where a culvert hung precariously. I'll hold, I said with more assurance than the spot warranted. Art agreed, We clambered back up into the truck. ] held my breath as we slid carefully through the gulch with a few centimeters to spare and let it out as the front wheels chewed the soft gravel and pulled us up the hill. The remains of a road took off south. 1 think this is the one we used to take to the river, I said, turning on to it and crawling along until the alders con- vineed me to park. Some of the larger trees had been girdled. Coho fishermen, 1 told Art, they'll come back this fall. By then the trees will be dead and ready to be used for fire- wood. We made our way along the road for a few feet then slipped into the bush, and made our way down a sfeep embankment, grabbing trees for support. The last time I’d been here was with Finlay and Ed Chapplow. Finlay was in his cighties, and operating on one and a half lungs. Ed’s legs were starting to give out on him. Neither of them had been on that part of the Lakelse before, so [ led choosing for making them;suffen, 0, 2 seseuw f Grol isidar dh mare sensible route and, save for the last two hundred yards of thick brush punctuated by a log jam—almost suc- ceeded. We mate our way upstream, taking a side channel to avoid a log jam. There’s somebody ahead, said Art as we reached the end of the channel. There was. I couldn’t believe it. We'd seen no cars on the way in. The grueling hike from the Clay Banks is a dis- tance of three, possibly four, brutal, swampy, brush filled, miles. The young man was as surprised to see us too. I recognized him from the tackle shop and from a time last spring when [’d encountered him briefly just above the Upper Cold Water Pool. I’m Terry, he said, with a broad smile, saving me the embarrassment of having to ask. Fishermen have their sport in common, asa result conversations start easily. We started swapping experiences and comparing notes about the river this year. Wait, | said, where’s your car? Terry hesitated, At the end of the road, he said, The road up there, [ said pointing at the crest of the distant hill where Art and ] had begun our descent. Yeah, said Terry beginning to see the reason for this line of interrogation. I’ve blocked you in, I said. You leaving soon? I was just on my way out, he replied, { proaned inwardly at the idea of having to bush whack back to the truck, Wait. | have an extra key. | plunged my hand down into my waders and fished in my pockets, finally extracting my wallet. The guy 1 bought the trick from gave me an extra key, I suid, opening the wallel, Yeah, this is it and here’s the one to the door. ] handed him the two keys. Just move the truck and toss them in one of the plastic tubs in the box I told him. We exchanged good byes and went separate ways. It was a good hike to the Sundance Pool. It took Ant and I the bes! part of an hour. Art was after steelhead with his two handed rod. 1 had: my troul rod, but | was willing to entertain all biters, We fished through the pool twice. We both caught a few dolly varden. If there were any steelhead Art would have found them with his Black Practitioner. [suggested we move on. We fished the Moose Run down to Gledhill’s where Terry emerged from the bush. You gave me the wrong key, he said matter-of-factly, The door key worked, but the other one didn’t. I felt badly. There was little I could say, so I said sorry, Hey, no problem, Terry said. I’d be happy just to fish back with you guys. We did that. Art found a steelhead, a big male. Terry and J caught a few trout. He told me about his adventures on the Kalum with the floating line and shared what he knew of this part of the Lakelse, which, f thought was a pretty nice thing to do considering I'd made him late and made him walk about five miles more than he'd bargained for, way back. of an inefficient, brush choked route that mackeme feel guilty, . “day, Juné-17 to the waves ‘and cheers of onlookers in. Using the blueprint of that memory, I attempted: to take: a" I'm gonna get some keys cut, I told An aS WE made our 638-7283 DONALD SEVART cleans the windshield of his 1929 Bentley . Speed six. He and partner Helmut Karbe of Germany are curr- Roadsters roll Cavalcade distracted by B.C. wildlife, scenery BY JEFF NAGEL A STREAM of vintage roadsters racing around the globe .entered B.C. Satur-. tiny villages like Iskut and New Aiyansh. Forty cars, cach with two drivers, are now in the Canadian leg of the Around The World in 80 Days Motor Challenge. After leaving London, England on May |, cruss- ing Europe and Asia, being air-lifted to Alaska and dodging bears and moose in the Yukon, they're now in B.C. On June 17, the eccen- tric and wealthy collection of drivers —- who include the prince of Malaysia and the grandson of Pablo Pi- casso — covered a gruel- ling 863 kilometres from Watson Lake in the Yukon to Terrace. Residents along Hwy 37 | used to secing not much more than pickup trucks ' and Ajaska-bound Ameri- can RVs on the scenic. Stewart-Cassiar Highway were stunned by the sight of the Bentleys, Citruens and Aston Martins, The road rally veered off the highway at Cran- berry Junction to take a logging road through the ° new Nisga'a treaty lands and the eerie lava beds of the Nass Valley. Terry Maxon, the U.S, driver of a 1929 Speed Six Bentley, said a couple of the potholes on the north- em B.C. roads were of the “axle-shatlering, rim-bend- ing variety”. But on the whole, they’d seen worse, particu- larly in China, and in Turkmenistan, south of Russia where mobs stoned the roadsters. “It wasn't too bad,” he said of Hwy 37. “We've been through so many worse ones.” An Italian husband and. wife team actually lost. control of their Lancia coupe on a gravel road and rolled down an embank- ° ment. No one was injured. Some cars and drivers — have been forced to drop: - out of the race. Maxon, who started out in a 1913-Rolls Royce Sil- “been counting animals.” ‘Maxon cleaned the Ben- | ently in tenth position among the 14 vintagent competitors. Se- vart specializes in restoring Ihe bodies of vintage cars. through town HITTING THE ROAD: Michael Sofaer prepares to leave Terrace in style with his 1940 Chevrolet 102 Coupe. Sofaer’, from Great Britain, is chasing four cars in the Around the World in 80 Days Rally. Onlookers waved as, |. i Dutch driver Domenicus |. Meeus, who was knighted ° by Queen Beatrice, roared’ out of town in his mud- spattered Jaguar XK 140 ’ Coupe. * In the Smithers area, where the vintage racers spent most of Monday, the reception wasn't entirely cordial. Police received complaints about the cars’ Hong Kong police officer .speeding across bridges, and driver of a 1960 Rover » and failing to drive on 80 Saloon, said the biggest *) their own side of the road. challenge of the North Smithers RCMP Staff American leg so far was Sergeant Marty Cheliak Alaska’s Top of the World had to stop fishing off a Highway, where the road- -local bridge with his sters hit blizzard condi- | children, when the road-' tions. Sters approached without “We had snow on the. slowing down. ; ground and black ice on The drivers headed the road,” he said, adding ; east from Smithers along it was a big change from’ Hwy 16 last Tuesday the heat of the Gobi desert. morning, stopping that A small contingent of . night in Prince George. thrilled: local auto enthu- | From there they turned siasts in Terrace gathered south through the B.C, in- al a gas station Sunday terior, often travelling on morning and watched as} back roads. They arrived in Kamloops Wednesday and and . - Banff on Thursday. The rally heads across | the: continent to New York ver Ghost, has switched © cats and taken on a new - co-driver after his original . purtner got sick in [stanbul. The biggest hazard, he said, has been the risk of driving off the read from ‘gawking at the scenery and wildlife. “The mountains are so beautiful. And we've all David Hughes, a retired ‘tley’s windscreen Claude Picasso refueled :, -his 1964 Mercedes 230 SL Pagoda. City,- where they ll be “H's just amazing,” flown to Casablanca in marvelled Ken Beddie, an North Africa, office inanager in Terrace. From there they’l! cross “That ‘six-litre Bentley over to Spain and make - is conservatively worth’ ~ the final run back to Lon- more than a quarter, of a don on July 18 where they million pounds.” started 80 days earlier. ’ DOUG MCKAY pauses to admire Claude Picasso's 1964 Mercedes Pagoda. Claude, an avid racer is the grandson of famous artist Pablo Picasso.