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SPORTS MENU C2

SKEENA ANGLER.
__ROB BROWN

Blast from past

HIS WILL be the first spring in

many when I haven’t spent every

available day prowling the banks of

the lower Lakelse River. This un-
fortunate slate of affairs is due to after effects of
what geomorphologists call the Mink Creek
Earthflow, a phenomenon that began some ten
thousand years ago, and hopefully won't take
another ten thousand to stabilize.

Geomorphs call the gently rolling terrain in
the Thunderbird area 3: rounding Mink and Al-
wyn Creeks glaciomarine. If I understand it
properly, this term is used to designate an area
where sea water rushed into the huge depression
left there after the massive ice masses beat a
glacial retreat,

The retreat of the ice was not a smoothly
flowing process, When the temperatures stabi-
lized, glaciers slowed and calved, According to
a fascinating pamphlet by geomorphologists Jim
Schwab and Marten Geerisma, the snout of a
calving glacier was situated near to Beam Sta-
tion Road where its sediment-filled meltwaters
formed a sandur, an outwash plain of gravel and
sand now used by planes, when they’re not
delayed in Vancouver or unable to land. A short
distance away from Sandur International lay a
ford where clay and silt were under suspension,

You can’t keep a good chunk of land down.
With the eventual disappearance of the glaciers,
snouts and all, the bottom of the fjord, with the
weight of the ice no longer on its shoulders,
rose like an elevator traveling from an un-
derground parking lot to a penthouse. In the
Lakelse Valley this distance was approximately

200° rhetres “THE” Moot” was sediiicataty,' and

porous, bound together by salt, as you would
expect, coming from a marine environment and
all. ,

At this point fresh water went to work, leach-
ing the salt, and with it the strength, from the al-
ready. fragile floor, At the molecular Jevel the
marine clays lost their structural integrity. So
there they sat, layered and vulnerable until little
Mink Creek, swollen with fall rain, gnawed
down to a particularly vulnerable layer that
promptly liquefied triggering a collapse of
majestic proportions. According to the scientists
“a complex sequence of flowing and sliding be-
gin along genily dipping failure planes [where]
the headscarp rapidly retrogressed away from
the initiation point, filling and damming Mink
Creck with landslide debris.’? In other words,
all hell broke loose. It’s a good thing nobody,
hunter, hiker or forest worker, was on site, be-
cause the upheaval, all twenty-three hectares of
it, was over in minutes.

Since the day the earth Nowed, Mink Creek
has been carrying clay laden water down to the
Lakelse, fouling the bottom end of the river.
The good news for the fish is clay sediment
docs not setile out until it reaches salt water,
thus the bugs and eggs will be spared suffoca-
tion. For anglers, however, there is nothing
worse than clay, (save, perhaps, acid rain). The
gray crap just hangs around decreasing visibility
and making fishing hopeless, which, I suppose,
is another bonus for the fish.

Man, do] feel as if we anglers have been dealt
dirt. We've had to struggle against over fishing,
declining, slocks due to habitat loss, increased
competition from our peers — now this. With
the great forces that began in the Ice Age lined
Up against us, we just don’t have a chance.

Because of the turbidity, the fishers who
normally spread along the entire length of the
tiver are now confined to the five or so miles
from downstream of Herman Point to the Clay
Pool located a mile below the canyon, The

Steelhead fishers — the ethical ones, at least —

are relegated to the mile of water stretching

' from the canyon to Mink Creck, since an angler

fishing above thal stretch is just as likely to

- hook a tuna as he is to catch a bright steelhead.

Sadly, the scientists are not optimistic when it
comes to doing something to fix the Mink
Creck problem. Large scale engineering solu-
tions require big machinery, and operating big
machinery in shaky glaciomarine landscapes
may get the earth flowing again. It seems some-
thing needs to be done, though, As the
scientists point out, the land next to Mink Creek
is still sensitive. The creek may continue to
chew through it, triggering another carthflow in

. the process, The creek could possibly be

diverted, piped around the clay, thereby avert-

dng further incisive actions on its part. If this

can be done, il will have to be done forever, and

~ who will pay for the maintenance?

I suppose [ should be grateful that I still have

"a Storchouse of pleasant memories of the lower

river, recollections with a low and clear river
running through them. The river doesn’t owe
me anything, but I’m sorry new devotees to. the
sport aren’t likely to get a chance at to enjoy the
fishery for sometime. —- :

S

PEAKS GYMNASTS in the
Renfrew Invitational showed
again why they have become a
respected force on the Lower
Mainland.

Six Terrace gymnasts took
part in the Vancouver compe-
tition, coming away with two
overall golds and no finish
lower than fifth.

Erin Sandhals ran up a per-
fect string of performances in
Divisional A Tyro, winning
every individual event to lock
up the overall gold,

A fifth in the vault was as
low a placing as Annie
Wittkowski gat in Divisional
A Argo competition. Runner-
up spois on both the bars and
floor plus a victory on the
beam gave her the points
needed to come away with
Peaks’ second overall win.

Teammate Chesley Schul-
meister made it two Peaks on
the Argo podium as she earned
overall bronze on the strength
of a win on the floor, vaulting
third and two fourths.

Sandhals solid gold ingym _

In Divisional B Midget ac-
tion, Loren Elgert was a model
of consistency with three sec-
ond place finishes and a third
on the beam for overall
bronze. In the same division,
fellow Peak Ashiey Blake won
the beam and was second on
the floor but a disappointing
bars session dropped her to
fifth overall.

Divisional B Argo Annedelle
Kurtz was in a-tight battle all
the way. So close was the
compctition between the top

MALCOLM BAXTER 638-7283

- and a third on the floor.

SECTION C

contenders that she had to
settle for overall bronze
despite victories on bars and
beams, a second on the vault

The results showed how far
the Peaks club has come from
the days when it went down to
Lower Mainland competitions
Without any great expectations
of success.

The turn around speaks well
of the work put in by coaches
Kris Fairless, Maria Mateus
and Trina Mateus.

a Inthe
hunt

CLEARING THE
second element of the
double, "am
Gavronsky and CJ —a

16 hands chestnut
quarterhorse --- take on
the Hunter Derby
course at last
weekend’s Spring
Horse Show. Earlier in
the day, the duo had

. scored a victoryina |
basic 3A dressage test.

_ For results of the two-
day show, see next
week's Standard.

First long course outin

FOUR WEEKS of hard train-
ing paid dividends for
Bluebacks at the Edmonton
Keyano International swim
meel,

Eleven of the 13 swimmers
made at least consolation
finals, four brought home
medals and coach Mike Car-
lyle was well pleased with the
number of personal best times
in what was their first long
course meet of the year. °

Garth Coxford earned the
club’s sole individual medal, a
silver in the 200m Fly.

Tristan Brown was also on
form, finaling in every event
and finishing with a pair of

fourths, fifths, sevenths and
eighths.

Brown also picked up a sil-
ver when he and clubmates
Kyle Nartz and Dylan ‘Evans
teamed up with Prince
Rupert’s Arend Stamhuis to
silver in the Boys 11-12 years
freestyle. The quartet also
finaled in the medley relay,
finishing fifth.

Audrey Erb and Randee
Annstrong just missed medal-
ing in the Girls 11-12 years
freestyle, the Points North
team having to settle for
fourth. The squad also finaled
in the medley.

In her solo events, Erb made

two finals and three consola-
tions while Evans swam to a
final and three consolations,

Rounding out the Bluebacks
performance’ were Kevin
Andolfatto and Seth Downs
(two consolations apiece) and
Julie Vanderlee, Chris Kerman
and Nartz who made one each,

Carlyle was pleased to see
the number of second swims
made by the Bluebacks, noting
the extra race in the SOm pool
was valuable experience. It’s
the only time they’ll race in a
full size pool before the
provincials.

To make consolations, swim-
mers had to clock a time

g promising

which put them in the top 16
at the meet.
And, with teams from Al-
berta, Saskatchewan, Ontario,
the United States, Hungary
and England taking part, ‘that
certainly wasn’t easy,’’ he

added, _

Carlyle was particularly sur-
prised at how well the swim-
mers performed in the opening
distance events considering
they had just come off an 18
hour bus ride to get to Ed-
monton.

Noting there had been five
personal bests in those events,
he added, “‘It was a great way
to start.”’

w Areal ae
Sport

WELL KNOWN for his. |
performances asa. i) >
Special Olymplan, Brian’ —
Smith recently chalked —

Up another award when

the Wednesday Night

Mixed dart league

selected him as Its Most
Sportsmanlike Player for

the '94-'95 season. John =
Groot (left) madethe 9

presentation atthe =: ~
league's wind up ©
banquet, eS