rae ed a ea EIR CON TA PEP a aR, CM a NS TT ER A Eh GTR PRE oT ETN BR SE” Ie Prana ag a ae ok enn Ooh MP eaten AN ne ASE cana, INSIDE . SPORTS MENU. C2 SKEENA ANGLER ROB BROWN The deluge HILE THE two new Zealanders double-haul energetically from the far bank, Lambroughton has a drink with Adam, Felix’ modem counterpart. New Wave fishermen with neoprene waders, long-billed ball caps, the latest in pile and high tech rain gear, they talk techno talk: Teeny Five Hundreds, Teeny Three Hundreds, the latest high modulus rods, how to get more and bigger fish. Van Egan stands in the background, a ‘fisherman of the Old Wave, rain slicker, . wading staff, fifteen foot rod, tweed hat, listening with a bemused look on his face. As quickly as they came, they are gone. The ceiling drops lower. The rain falls all night beating a tattoo on the tarp. We get up fre- quently to collect buckets of waicr. Even the deer mice which have been seurry- ing over our fcet and gear for the last eight _ days have fled, Two days of deluge and the river has cov- ered our water gauge. Pete Soverel and party float by, fleeing the rising river. We hear later that the pilot of the sched flight needed four tries to get them out, and that those who have made it to Hagensborg are being bused to the _ Caribou because Wilderness Air can’1 land. The mountains are shrouded in niist. We ~ wonder if Skelly’s chopper can make it. The - rain is incessant. The wiad howls. Storm after Storm swirls down, up, and around the valley. The fishing is over for us, but not for the. camou-clad Rambos t£ Mountain Equipment - Gang who can still be scen bouncing about in the Victoria Run, casting and casting and cast- “ing and dodging logs bumping dangerously .. dawn the muddy Dean. Cor ee ers Even the deer mice which have been scurrying over our feet and gear for the fast eight days have fled, -“T remember the time, years back, when Harold Baker’s party was forced to break down the camp and pack it a mile inland when the river rose six feet in one night,” Pete says gravely, as J watch the waters lapping against the bank and Art attempts to retrieve the water gauge. Pete and Art make the hike to salt where . Mrs. Hill, the widow of packer Tony Hill — he was swallowed up by a raging Dean River two scasons ago — serves them up tea and muffins, While they dine then go Icoking for salty chum salmon, Van and I talk, tie up leaders, watch new waterfalls spring to life, and mark the disappearance and reappearance of the lowest-lying mountains until Pete and Art retumm, sopping wet “Mike Ramsey will call Skelly on his radio tomorrow, and sce if he can fly,” says Art, The night of Day 11: the last drops of scotch are drunk. ] wonder how long these coastal storms cat last, We all think about the work of taking down the tent and the heavily bound tarp then finding out that the air machines can’t fly. Sleep is fitful for everyone but Art, who has car plugs, In the moming there is a hole, The ceiling lifts. The mountains are visible again. We hur- riedly break camp. Mike shows up and says Skelly will be here by ten. At ten exactly we hear the hum of a helicopter. Skelly overflies the canyon. Van and { view the cataracts, We touch down, transfer to the sched flight, and after the bag- gage is loaded fly out over the ocean then up _ over the mountains and into Hagensborg, Wilderness Air lands. There will be no bus trip to Anaheim Lake. We’re into the clouds, J watch the pilot and co-pilot adjust some of the many dials on the control panel, finish off The: Shipping News just before we hit the tarmac at “Vancouver, Taylor and Straight are there to greet us. Lee grabs a piece of luggage and shoulders the camp rifle. - “*¥ou look pretty fotmidable with that rifle slung over your shoulder," I tell him. - 441m formidable without It,”’ says Lees - from-behind, THE TRUE test is about to come for Terrace Schools cross-country ‘team members, says coach Joe Murphy. - But when the squad heads to "3 Smithers this weekend for Satur- day’s zone race, they won't be looking for a trip to the provin- cials, he adds, Murphy explained the idea this season had been ‘just to get {the sport) off the ground again.’ That, the relative youth of the Terrace runners and the expense of the trip south meant the CROSS COUNTRY runners at the Terrace meet shrugged off chilly weather and light drizzle as they raced the Ferry Island course, To ensure thelr distances were absolutely accurate, coach Joe: Murphy found a volunteer to ride his odometer-equippad mountain blke around the course. sums up the senior boys soccer zone playoffs coming up this Sat urday. Caledonia, Kitimat and Smithers tangled here in an Oct. 15 tourncy which only underlined how closely matched they were, Caledonia opened with a come- 5-4 win over Smithers only to drop their next, 6-4 to Kitimat. But Smithers denied Kitimat the - chance to win the round robin by defeating them 5-3 to leave all three teams with a 1-1 record. However, Cal got one clear message from the day's play: . they have to solve Kitimat if they are too emerge as: northwest tit- ‘Jists. - “Tt was the second meeting of the Short season for the two teams ‘and second victory for Kitimat. “Barlier, ‘on their home ground, : - Kitimat had doubled Cal 6-3. “But, with the teams due to meet again in Smithers last weekend, Cal‘ coach Art Erasmus forecast, “We'll turn that around,” must .be hoping for the sanie when it comes to Caledonia, : After losing in.a shoot out in . Charles Hays of Prince Rupert Soccer zones are wide open ANYBODY’S: that pretty well. their first meeting, Charles Hays narrowly went down to Cal again last Tuesday, 2-1 this time, and on their home ground. That last match gave Cal a taste of playing on Hays’ Astro-Turf surface, experience that could prove vital in the zones. “Tt's very fast and bounces true,’ Erasmus said of the Rupert surface, ‘‘and the ball rolls forever,”’ As a result, players used to playing on grass ficlds have to make some significant adjust- ments, most notably pulling back on the power of their kicks. You just have to tap the ball,”’ Erasmus said, adding if a player kicks with the sort of power needed to send a long through ball on grass, ‘‘it’s gone.” Another thing players have to remember is the ball bounces much higher off that surface than they are used to, The overall effect is to produce much faster paced games, he added, noting the surface doesn’t change much even in the rain. Erasmus said the reaction of the Cal players to. the surface was mixed, some liking it, others hiav- ing sc some fealty adjusting. _ SECTION C - MALCOLM BAXTER 638-7283 Runners to face final test provincials had never been part of the plan. However, if all goes well, next year could be different. In the meantime, Terrace min- ners continue to put in strong per- formances. At their own meet held last Thursday, Morgan Evans con- tirued his winning ways in the grade 8 division, posting a 21:08 time for the Skm Ferry Island COUTSE, Justin Keitch also kept up his form in the grade 11-12 boys, completing the 7.5km course run by the older athictes in 28:15 for the victory, Steve Critchley took fourth, just three seconds behind the third placed runner, and Rob Freciman clocked exactly 30 minutes in crossing sixth. Brent Stokkeland posted a solid 35:25 in the grade 9-10 boys category but had to sctile for fifth ina tough field. “Murphy also highlighted the performances of Mike Davies, “making his cross country debut, _ and Monigue Charbonneau both “of whom also ran into strong ficlds. More than 30 runners from across the northwest tackled a course Murphy described as slip- pery and cold, drizzly weather. Five days earlier conditions had been even more demanding when Terrace faced Prince Rupert nin- ners in the coast city. That course included an ex- tremely wet section plus a rocky and slippery downhill stretch which demanded runners slow down markedly. However, Terrace entries hand- led both the course and thelr op- position, winning three of the four divisions they were in, vl Evans again took his division, holding off. teammate. Murray MacCarihy by 28 seconds over the 5.1km route. Keitch, Critchley and Freeman finished one-two-three in senior boys over a truncated 6.8km course, Stokkeland took the vic- tory in junior boys and Charbon- neau was Tunner-up among senior girls. Foot note RUNNERS AT the schools cross country zones have been cau- tioned to Keep their cyes open for more than just their opponents, The package sent out to partici- pating schools has attached to the front a fate note: ‘‘Bears may be: around so make lots of noise,’’ _ Times may be a little slower than usual if participants have to keep looking back over their. shoulders as they run the course. +. : Net result JUNIOR GIRLS volleyball teams from across the northwest were in town last Saturday as Thornhill played host to a 10- team toumey. Above action’ ‘from: the Smithers-Stewart match up in which: the easterners rebounded for the win. i