_ B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 28, 2005

ts

‘MARGARET SPEIRS

|. | SKEENA ANGLER
oe ROB BROWN _

“D. Nv. Shaw

Coldwater.Creek. The right of way
was carpeted with yellowed leaves,
crisp and covered by frost..I’d taken
; this route many times by then. Rick had travelled it

‘Was more a road than a trail. ;
I asked him if he still hunted birds. .
ne “No,” .he said, “when you get closer to the end,
- it’s difficult to kill things.”
_ We turned onto a crumbling branch of the main
*. road.

loaned me his fishing diary the year before.
‘I'd read the meticulous record of those adven-

_ who transcribed ‘its entries so that Rick could share
them, and the fishing, with his dad. .

_ was colder than the day before.

. blue, The wind was out of the north; it had teeth.
We were teetering on the brink of winter.
“It may be too cold for flyfishing,” I ventured.
“If our guides ice up we can share this thing,” I
suggested as I picked up the casting rod. -
” I sensed Rick’s disappointment at this develop-
Pa ment. He’d caught so many fish on gear, and though
: he’d flyfished in the past with cane rods, most of his
’ fishing had been done with a casting rod. Now he
was eager to catch fish with a fly.
To that end he’d asked my opinion then procured

for steelhead and salmon, from a shop.in Vancou-
ver. That spring he’d taken the trout rod on an out-
ing we took to the upper Lakelse River.

. It was a warm April evening. The woods had
filled out and grown radiantly green. The silvery

_ Were on bugs.
’ We suited up and slid into the river.

of a small city lot.

The rises were sporadic at first. Caddis flies ap-
peared, carried on an upstream wind. As dusk ap-
proached, Mergansers hurtled. upstream toward the
lake. The hatch began in earnest. It was a complex

| along with clouds of small brown caddis.
The night hawks, whose intermittent high pitched

paths and stooped in loud dramatic arcs.
Bats emerged from the darkening woods and
_ flickered as they hunted. .
In the dying light I made my way upstream,

oblique light as 1 did. He.was playing a trout. Be-
fore I reached him he'd released it and was on to
another. :

They weren’t especially large trout, he told me
aS we made our way through the woeds with the

mine shaft more than a trail, but I could tell by his
enthusiasm that they’d been exceptional.

The steelhead fly rod was a success too. Rick
brought it along that summer when we floated the

. Copper from Blackie’s to the bridge.

The river meant a lot to Rick. It was a rugged
‘Stream that provided © ‘adventures immediately,
yielded fish grudgingly at first, then later gener-

usly. He’d found and:named many of its runs — the
Rum Hole, the Toboggan-Run, One Only.

He fooled a bright summer run doe with a sur-
face fly at the front end of Baxter’s Riffle that day.
Jt was the first steelhead he’d caught that. way. He
was delighted. .

As a result of losing-his mother when they were both
far too young, Rick was sent to Vernon Prep School
where he was tutored by the famous fly fishing pioneer,
Tommy Brayshaw. Tommy Brayshaw’s pupil with a fly

the occasion.
On that particular day with winter bearing down on
us, Rick’s new rod was not-likely to see much use. We

' sharp cries of gulls and eagles mixed with the sound of

The wind stung. Our hands ached.

~ Sharing the drift rod, we hooked steelhead, bright firm
ones, but the exhilaration was muted.

Rick is gone now, too soon, as it always is with a
good, sensitive man. But he left at an appropriate time of
year for a sportsman: a time when great powerful flocks
of geese knife through the cold skies, a time when the
salmon are returning to dig and die and ensure the the riv-
ers will be full of life and their valleys green and lustrous
the next spring, a time that contains the death of the year
and the rebirth of the next.

‘e rattled over the’ back road toward’

Many more times than I; he reriembered it when it

“Walt and I used to come this way. We had some |}.
fine fishing then,” said Rick, forgetting that he’d

_"tures, neatly written for the benefit of the typist -
* We got out of the truck. -The air. smelled of dis- ‘

tant fires and dead salmon. Rick remarked that it’

It was a lot colder. The sky’ was a deep vivid ©

two high end graphite rods, one for trout, the other _

fry had fled to the sea by this time so the cutthroat

_. While I ranged around flicking a lot of flies at.a _
- few rises, Rick was content to fish an area the size

event with at least two kinds, of mayflies lifting off”

calls we'd heard all evening, left their jittery flight |

watching Rick’s fading silhouette against the .

assistance of a flashlight on a path that resembled a

m7 Ready to ride

TERRACE STANDARD:

4

JOSH DECARIO, 7, was among more than 60 children between the ages ‘of six and 12 who participated in last weekend’s Sprockids
learn to mountain bike clinic hosted by Cycling B. c. and the Terrace Offroad Cycling Association.

SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

River Kings drown in

THE RIVER KINGS blasted onto the ice at
Tamitik arena in Kitimat for their first exhibition
game, starring new faces on the roster in their first
Central Interior Hockey League game.

The team suffered an 11-2 blowout at the hands
of the Ice Demons.

Kenny Johnson and Ivan Laschenko scored the
Kings’ goals.

“Both Kenny and Ivan had a good game,”
coach Trevor Hendry said.

The game provided'a chance for the new guys
to show off their talent in hopes of earning a per-
manent position on the roster for this season:

“Some made good opportunities of it, others
didn’t,” Hendry said.

“They did play well,” he said, adding the score
didn’t reflect the game.

After the first 30 minutes, Kitimat had scored
three times on Chris Fagan, who had a great game,
Hendry said.

Then Paul Gillis took his chance in net and had
a rough time. >

“It wasn't his fault but most of the goals were
scored on him,”

Hendry said, adding the fault lay

partly with the defence.

Overall, Hendry sees a fantastic opportunity
for the team to improve over their third place
standing last year.

“Pm looking forward to this year,” he said.

“It’s going to be a good year with the new ad-
ditions we have.

-“Tt’s a much better team than last year, but the

team last year did very well. I don’t want to take

anything away from [them]. They played wonder-

fully, all four lines.”

‘Hendry firmly believes the River Kings will
not just finish higher than third in the standings
but could knock Kitimat off its first place pedes-
tal.

“T think we have the team to do it this year as
long as everybody" s committed,” he said.

Last year’s second highest scorer, Darcey Al-

_ lison, who netted 11 goals and had 22 assists for a

total of 33 points, returns this year.
Hendry has heard Smithers and Houston have

‘also made improvements that should be “‘interest--

ing to see.”
One main change the River Kings need to

— Ultimate

comes close
to top 10

MARGARET SPEIRS

work on is their focus to keep their butts out of
the penalty box.

“Well I mean just a bit more disciplined as far
as not taking as many stupid ass penalties as last
year,” he said.

“Last year was a good learning year and

hopefully we learned from the few mistakes we -

made.”

As for the team’s knack for fighting — Terrace -

finished in second spot in the league for most
penalties with 691 penalty minutes — Hendry said
they'll have to see if they can keep their gloves —
onmore.

Troy Kaye landed in second place for penalty
minutes last season with a whopping 115 minutes
in the box but will have.to tone it down this year.

~ “He'll have no choice. We have too good of
a team. If the guys are jacking around and tak-

_ ing a lot of penalties, they’ll be sitting out on .

the bench,” Hendry said, adding regular fighter

Laschenko will have to watch his behaviour too.

The River Kings host the Williams Lake Stam-

_.peders in two regular season home openers Oct.

15 and 16.

Half marathon sprints
into 25th competition

Athletes of all ages from around the
northwest expected to race this year

By _ run in the 10 kmi race.

Quite a few spectators

caught steelhead; I snapped a picture to commemorate

41 crunched down the steep side hill carefully. Below us the’ -

rushing water and windwhistle through waterfowl wings.

By MARGARET SPEIRS

TERRACE ULTIMATE players placed third in their —

group at the Ultimate High Fest tournament in Vernon
Sept. 16-18.

“We had a great time,”
Klein, adding the team won two and lost two on the
first day, placing it in third spot in the B-pool.

“They were very close games with better quality ,

teams,” Klein said, of the co-ed, team competition.

The squad narrowly lost one game 9-8 and another
11-10.

Terrace lost both matches the following day but
Klein believes they finished in 11th spot overall. —

“We were pleased with our performance,” he said.

Klein believes the level of competition has height-
ened from previous tournaments as more people be-
come involved in the sport. ‘

“There were a lot of younger people there,” he said,
“Like a lot of other sports you see people taller and
faster and more agile [who] tend to do better.”

Terrace’s toughest game proved to be against the
home team, a Vernon squad that Kiein says should
have been in the A-pool.

“Their guys were 6°3”, 6°4” and their girls were
6°0”, 6°1",” he said. “That was the only game we felt
before going into it we didn’t have a chance.”

Vernon spanked Terrace 13-4.

The team breaks for the winter and starts a new sea-
son next May.

said team captain Richard «

‘RUNNERS lace up your

sneakers for the last long
race of the season this
weekend. a

The 25th annual All Sea-
sons Half Marathon runs
down the roads near North-
west Community College
Oct. 2. ;

_ Organizers are hoping
-for 180 athletes to compete

in the 5S km, 10 km and half
marathon distances.

Participants come from
Houston, Hazelton, Prince
Rupert, Kitimat and the
Nass Valley.

“We've had such.a va- _

riety but we’ve had people
coming from 25 years as
well,” says Bob Park, All
Seasons owner, who spon-
sors the race.

He says a group of
Kitimat women train all year
for the 10 km.

Local senior athletes Bob
Goodvin and Maxine Small-
wood are expected to run
once again and many youth

The. half marathon starts
at 10 a.m. followed by the

start of the 5 km and 10 km

races at noon.

“The §. km
race can be very
competitive in the
under-19 division,”

— Gail Sheasby

The’ staggered start al-
lows the field’ of runners

to cross the finish line at -

about the same time, so all
athletes can attend the fol-
lowing awards ceremony,
says Skeena Valley Runners
Club member and Organizer
Gail Sheasby.

She expects a good turn-
out including some school-
aged running clubs from
Smithers and Hazelton.

“The 5 km race can be
very competitive in the un-
der-19 division,” she says.

‘out the course.

come out, including those
who stand in their driveways
to cheer on the runners,
Sheasby says.

- Sheasby advises athletes
to register early to énsure -
they receive a t-Shirt with
their entry.

Organizers would like to
have all the racers’ names
in the computer a couple of
days early so they’re ready
to go on race, day.

In addition, race day reg-
istrants must pay a $3 pen-
alty fee.

Sheasby says water sta-
tions will be spread through-

Refreshments for the ath-
letes will be available after
the race. Anyone interested

in volunteering is welcome,

Sheasby says. ;
Interested runners’ can’
contact Sheasby for more

“info at 635-3434. Out of

town entrants can fax their
entries to All Seasons
Source for Sports at (250)
635-3515.

638-7283

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