“ROB BROWN

Trout Travels 11

hile the boy pushed his fruit and

W mush into his dirty face, Kenny

donned his cracked and patched

Miner waders, assembled his 10

foot, five weight trout rod (the one

. he’d assembled himself on a three piece J. Ken-

nedy Fisher carbon fibre blank over the Christ-

mas holidays) clamped a three and three quarter

inch Hardy Perfect onto its walnut reel seat, and

threaded the peach coloured floating line
through the rod’s guides.

These chores done, he sat down on a log
round left by the last camper and fastened about
12 inches of 7x Maxima to the leader, then dug
deep into his vest for the Wheatley flybox con-
taining his trout flies.

He popped the lid. The oxidizing aluminum
tin was bristling with flies, all B.C. favourites
carefully tied and mostly untried by him, but all
of them filled with potential since they’d been
built in strict adherence to recipes set out by
fishing legends like Bill Nation and Jack Shaw.

Kenny lit a cigarette. He pulled hard on it.
His heart beat rapidly, He blew a cloud of can-
cer vapour skyward, and feit better predisposed
to ponder which of the bugs might be the most
effective for use on trout lying in ambush in the
cold, clear, fast water.

He flicked one of Haig-Brown’s Silver
* Browns up and over in its clip. It hit the back of
the box with a snap. The silver tinsel winked at
him from under orange polar bear fur and mot-
tled brown cock pheasant... ey oo. i

~What‘a beautiful fly, he thought,”

What an extraordinary it thing it + was thi a’.

sharp eyed Englishman should be able to as-
semble such a clever imitation of a coho juve-
nile from bits of arctic bear, a thin strip of tin, a
few fibers from the same species of bird that
provided him sport in the fields of his native
‘land, and a rusty red feather from an Indian
crow.

There might have been salmon fry this far up
the system before the Washingtonians started
damming the Skagit for power, but Kenny knew
there were none now. He flicked a spring and

unsprung the lid of one of the tiny compartments
lon the other side of the box and pulled out a
Tom Thumb, a bit of deer hair twisted onto a
hook and held there by the tying thread in such
, a way that the thread — yellow in this case —-
formed the underbelly.

“Hey, we going or net?”

Kenny looked up at the boy. Bits of breakfast
clung to the kid’s already filthy face.

“Lead the way.”

. The boy scampered down a trail and crossed
_ a bridge spanning a creek that Kenny knew had
to be the Manning Park section of the Skagit.

The boy stopped and spun around.

“Here," he yelled back to Kenny so as to be

* heard over the rifle rattling steeply down stream

* below the confluence of two creek sized rivers.

i “This is a good spot. Bill caught two fish right
. here.”

. The pool looked very fishy. Kenny waded in

a few steps then sent the Tom Thumb out and

“set it down gently on the inside of the twisted

water where the two rivers converged. It bobbed

a few feet then disappeared in a promising swirl.

Kenny lifted his rod, It throbbed. A white, sil-

' ver, red, and gray blur appeared over the water

- sizzling and surrounded with spray and con-

’ gealed into a trout before disappearing in the
waler,

After a flurry of acrobatics the fish was spent.
Kenny firmly eased it to shore and slid it into
the shallows as if he were sliding the beach

\ under it. He slid,his hand down the line, grasped
the hook, and twisted it free. The trout, a fine
specimen in its prime sat stunned for a second
then bolted down a prism into deeper water.

“You nuts?” screamed the kid. “That was a
big fish, We coulda eaten it!"

Kenny pretended not to hear his young guide.
He worked downstream. The fish came willing-
ly, soon the deer hair fly was in shreds, Kenny
put up another then resumed working his way
down down river, crossing the clear stream at,
will.

The fish came at his fly ftom all angles; any
place thal suggested trout had one, sometimes
two. None of them were giants, but all of them
were brilliant, and beautiful, cqid and strong. He
angled downstream for two hours. The place had
a vertical bias. When Kenny stopped to light a
smoke or change a threadbare fly, his eyes were
drawn upwards through the shimmering mosaic
of the steep-walled valley to blue sky broken
with clouds as white as the fast rifles they’d
just left.

The kid followed him scampering through the;

streamside brush iike a niacaque.

To be continued...

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN

‘TERRACE STANDARD.

couver courtesy of Hawkair ~ and

Are you tough enough?

AN EXCITING, new series of
events dares athletes to take part
in a variety of sports from moun-
tain biking to skateboarding and
rock climbing to running through-
out the summer.

The Terrace Standard Adven-
ture Challenge 2002 brings toge-
ther people passionate about aut-
door activities in this area in a
fun battle to determine who is the
best all-round athlete.

Athletes who participate in
more than one of the five planned
events accumulate points us they
compete in one of three divisions:
men’s, women’s and and -an
Under-16 category.

“| think some people think
they are ‘stuck’ here, but there
are a lot of people who are here
for the lifestyle and a big part of
that is the recreational opportuni-
ties,” says Mike Christensen, an
avid cyclist and owner of McBike
bike shop,

Making peopie aware of those
opportunities is why Christensen
along with Bob Park of All Sea-
sons Source for Sports, Tara Valk
and Rui Salema from Ruins
Board Shop, Shane and Suki
Spencer of Azad Adventures and
members of the Skeena Valley
Runners Club are each hosting
Adventure Challenge events.

“I think it’s exciting to give
Northern athletes a chance to
showcase their talents," says
Ruins Board Shop co-owner Tara
Valk.

Park agrees with her.

“I think the cross-section gives
everybody a variety of things to
do,” Park said. “It promotes out-
door health and it gets people to-

. > W
gether. PE VEE rhea tate bees

Spencer, an avid climber and

mountaineer likes the idea’of the

Adventure Challenge because it
dares people to try sports they
may not have attempted before.

“It would have to be a really
well-rounded athlete to compete
in all those events,” Spencer
says. “And it will hopefully at-
tract people from other areas to
come here and experience every-
thing we have in Terrace in out-
door recreation,”

Athletes are not required to
participate in all five events, but
have a better chance of winning
prizes ~ including gear from parti-
cipating shops and flights to Van-

JUST BACK from nationals, Terrace's David, Evan, Christina and Oscar Fark-
vam and their Taekwon-do instructor David Burk ail earned medals.

Representing Canada

By JOANNA WONG

gree black belt and former

building up points if they take part
in as many events as possible.

Here is a run-down of the
events taking place.

@ Downhill mountain biking

The Adventure Challenge kicks
off with the second annual All
Seasons Downhill mountain bik-
ing race at Shames Mountain July
ai.

Cyclists tackle a gnarly root
bound, rock-infested technical
downhill course,

Over 50 cyclists took part in
the race last year including a rider
for Norco bikes who called the
course one of the finest on the
B.C, downhill circuit.

“We've got one of the best
areas in the province for bike ri-
ding and you hear that from other
people who come into town and
just say ‘wow’,” said Park.

@ Running

The long-running King of the
Mountain race is set to go July 28,

Last year 17 people came out
and organizers from the Skeena
Valley Runners Club are hoping
more will participate this year.

This is the 24th year this race
has run and organizers are hoping
to revive its popularity.

The popular 8.5 kilometre
course weaves its way over rocks
and roots along the stunning Ter-
race Mountain trail.

B® Rock climbing

The rock climbing community
in Terrace has been growing stea-
dily for several years and this
competition is the first of its kind
in Terrace,

Organized by Shane Spencer of
Azad Adventures the climbing

competition focuses on both Speed
vo ANE EF CUMY. ined | :

The event, takes, place Aug, 3
at the Chist Creek climbing area
just south of Terrace off of Hwy37,

The rocky crag provides the
perfect venue for both climbers
and spectators.

“T think something we have a
lot of in Terrace is climbing and it
needs some exposure,” Spencer
said.

B BMX riding and skate-
boarding

Sunday, Aug. 4 BMX riders
and skateboarders test their mettle
at the Terrace skateboard park,

This is the third year for this
competition and organizers say
they are excited to incorporate the

DOWNHILL mountain biking is just one of several events on the
bill for the Terrace Standard Adventure Challenge 2002 which
runs throughout the summer, FILE PHOTO.

event under the banner of the Ad-
venture Challenge.

The competilion sees bikers
and skateboarders use the Terrace
skateboard park to its fullest.

Valk says skateboarding is one

of the most difficult sports to mas-

ter, but she’s encouraging newco-

‘ers to give it a shot,

“It is a very, very difficult sport
and it would be a challenge —- as
the Adventure Challenge should
be - for a person to pick up the
Sport and try a few tricks before
August.”

B Endurance bike riding

The final event of the chal-
lenge kicks off at 4 p.m. Sept. | as
McBike's Eight Hours of Onion
Lake gets under way.

This eight-hour endurance bik- |

ing race sees bikers making the
circuit through the Onion Lake
cross country ski trails either solo
as part of a four-member team.

Taekwon-do

peddled hard

academy,

Christensen says popular endur-
ance lests such as this event are
not so much a race as a challenge
just to finish.

“The fact that it's a race is
secondary pretty much —for..
everyone,” Christensen said. “It’s”:
like a big bike party.”

The Adventure Challenge is
designed to encourage people to
try out new sports they may never
have attempted before.

It’s also a way for participants °
and spectators to access the stun-
ning outdoor recreational areas in -
the Terrace area.

For information call the Ter-
race Standard at 638-7283 or e-
mail your questions to
adventurechallenge2002 @hotmail.
com. Rules, regulations and a
breakdown of how points are tal-
lied will be posted at www.terra-
cestandard.com June 5 — click on
the “sports” link,

Road warriors
battle for glory
of top spot

By JOANNA WONG :
TERRACE’S Vincent Drouin TR 3s
to another
breathless victory in the Kiti-
mat River Challenge.

Following through on the
momentum from his heart
stopping one second victory
aver Smithers’ Mike Jordan
last year, Drouin nabbed the
Junior and overall category for
the second year running.

After over hour and half of
cycling, Drouin won the 60km
road race from Terrace to Kiti-
mat by nearly a full minute.
While last year’s race was
plagued with bone-chilling
rain, this year’s perfect weath-
er conditions allawed riders to

Vincent Drouin ©

DAVID BURK says he
thrives under pressure.

A good thing, seeing as
the Tertace Taekwon-do
instructor just earned a
spot on the International
Taekwon-do Federation’s
(ITF) Canadian National
Team.

“Now you realize you
have a lot to live up to,”
said Burk. “It's very
humbling.”

To prepare to represent
Canada at the ITF world
championships next year,
Burk will be training hard
under his instructor Mi-
chael Barker, a fifth de-

three-time national cham-
pion.

“He has plans of putting
me through what he has
called a very painful and
vigorous year,” said Burk.

Tryouts for the national
team were held in Edmon-
ton the day after the May
18 ITF Nationals, which
Burk attended with five of
his students.

“The heart and the
drive that they showed is
amazing,” said Burk
proudly.

The Farkvam family,
who train together in Ter-
tace at Burk‘s Northern

came out with top perfor-
mances in both sparring
and patterns - sets of pre-
arranged moves designed
to train the body and mind
to respond in difficult de-
fensive situations.

‘Dad David Farkvam
took a gold in patterns and
silver in sparring, Oscar, 5,
nabbed a bronze in pat-
terns, Evan, 10, won gold
in patterns and silver in
spatring while Christina,
14, took bronze in an ad-
vanced fighting category.

Instructor Burk won

‘bronze In sparring and sec-

ond i in patterns.

finish with record times,

Terrace swept the Senior men’s category, wilh An-
drew Horwood taking first, followed a heartbeat later by

“Terrace swept the Senior men’s ca-
tegory, with Andrew Horwood taking
first, followed a heartbeat later by Mike
Christensen and Dan Johnson,”

Mike Christensen and Dan Johnson. In the women’s ca-
tegory, accomplished ironwoman Mary Stewart over-
whelmed Hazelton’s Tina Haskins’ early lead and came
through with first place.

Other strong performances were seen by Nipper Kel-
tle, the Veteran Men’s winner, newcomers Karl Severa,

. Bruce Dudas, Dave Cater, and Masters winner Ron

Lowe. -