The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 8, 1997 - B7

TERRACE STANDARD

DAVE TAYLOR

SKEENA ANGLER:
ROB BROWN

A Fragile faith

e had these planes when we were
kids. They were light and fast with
frail bodies of balsa, brittle, red
plastic wheels dangling at the end
of spindly wires, a plastic prop and an elastic

band hanging loosely from. wire hooks fore and.

aft, The brown rubber band was the engine
fueled by the energy of an index finger twirled
clockwise until the band was a series of knots
wound to the breaking point We looked for
heights, then with a whir, released our craft into
the wind. They flew well for the duration of
their short lives. The price for speed is frailty;
after a few rough landings came the inevitable
crash then another trip to the store to spend a
weekly allowance on a another flat package of
red plastic and balsa.

Helicopters make me think of those balsa
planes. Everything on them is thin and light —
aluminum, glass, metal, belting driven by a
small powerful motor — all of it under power-
ful stresses from inside and out, tight to the
point of snapping.

My first flight in a chopper was over the
Lakelse with Mike Lough and Mike Whelpley,
looking for radio-tagged steelhead. Since then
T’ve flown the Dala, the Kwinamass, the Dean
and the Babine. Every trip was spectacular and
made more exciting because it is limned with
danger and heightened by the knowledge that,
in a helicopter, the transition from a fine time to
the end of time is the time it takes to blink, and
that ihe distance from the exhilaration of the
peaks to the valley bottom is a short one.

Steve throws switches. The machine starts and

goes from a howl ta a whine, The rotors send
nervous ripples across Notch Lake. I pull some
zippers then sit atop gear to take some pictures.
Wide angle: 1 shoot the lake. Low clouds fold-
ing over the distant mountains, a few shafts of
light, but nothing suggesting a blue bird day.
Zoom in: after the tiny hum of the motor !
frame and shoot Steve, bent by the bubble and
partly obscured by reflections on the glass.
_ Steve has dark Innuit eyes. He is short but
powerful, and skilled enough to get barrels of
gas up and into the box of a pickup in seconds.
“It’s technique,’’ he says, smiling. There is ef-
fortless technique and a finicky attention to
detail to almost everything he does. After thirty
years in the air hovering over forest fires, flying
‘narrow valleys, airlifting miners and loggers,
and anyone else who can pay the price, he has
amassed a lot of knowledge.

The way things work and making them work
better fascinate him. While we're struggling
wilh our tarps, he builds a self bailing fy from
his. There are other examples of this love of
physics. ‘‘I like elegant solutions,’’ be tells us,

These are pretty good hands we're in, I think
as- we roar off over small lakes then bigger
lakes, to the Silver Salmon River and into the
valley of the Nakina. Steve appoints Michelle
navigator, helping her match up the map with
the landscapes rolling before us. ‘‘That’s that
glacier over there..and..yeah, that would be
that mountain...’’ There are no roads, the signs
are larger and more difficull to read but il’s like
we're following a road map through a big cily,

The Nakina is below, as steep and rugged and
harrow as any canyon I’ve seen: a silver ribbon
at the bottom of rock, red, gray and copper, all
reaching up to the us. We could almost reach
out and touch the sides, We’re up and over
through a back door of light at the back end of
dark swirling cloud then down the valley of the
Sheslay. The machine is higher. Everything
seems slower, less frantic, bul it's adeceit,

At the confluence of two rivers, one opaque
one clear, the tents of a hunting camp sit like
bight fungi. that's. just broken through the
ground, Soon we're moving down the Tallan
River to the Valley of the Stikine and Telegraph
Creek, which looks beautiful even from our
perch. From there we follow trails across the
dun coloured ground into Mi. Edziza Park. It’s
breathtaking; its stark; a desert of lava with long
dirty gray glaciers reaching oul like. giant
anemic hands under swirling gray clouds
obscuring the highest mountains. Cinder cones,
some black, some red, appear before us, Ochre
streams roll downhill Michelle reads the names
— Eve, Cocoa... Steve takes us down into one.
We circle and spill out over the other side, ‘No
good taking a picture. You just can’t capture
this on film,” he says. He’s right.

A small group of caribou huddled together on
the barren ground, looks up al us. Michelle
spots a pair of hikers navigating from In-
nukshuk to Innukshuk. In three hours we’re in
Meziadin, a three day journey by car. Minutes
from Ellsworth Camp the truck breaks down —
a broken hose. ‘*We pul a lot of faith in our ma-
chines,”’ I tell Webb as he haywires a hose.

Terrace

SPORTS.

638.7283

Bikers head south for
season-ending race

STEEP HILLS, pounding potholes and thick mud may
sound like a disaster for some, but for mountain bikers, it’s
all part of the fun.

So a little rain certainly didn’t prevent a record number
of them from tuming out to the last bike race of the season.

A total of 50 riders from the northwest took part in the
popular South Hirsch mountain bike race two‘ weekends
ago in Kitimat. And half of those riders were from Terrace.

“It was awesome,’’ says race organizer Les Dunlop. ‘It
was just pouring in the moming so we didn’t expect much
ofa turnout. We were amazed.”

Mountain bikers are a hardy bunch and the rain eventual-
ly let up, so conditions actually wercn’t too bad.

Racers had a choice of doing cither one 12 km loop, two
loops for 24 km or three loops and an extra bit for a total
of 40 kin.

Only 12 people took up the challenge of the longest race
~~and three did not finish.

“The last dit of the 40 km race is a tough uphill climb, ”
says Dunlop. ‘‘We thought it might be too much, but most
racers said it just added to the event.”’

The winner of that event was Andrew Horwood of
Kitimat, But 16-year-ald Jon Lambert of Terrace wasn’t
far bchind. He finished at 2:12:46, about two minutes back

‘Tt’s a really fun course. Pil be back af it next
year for sure’? —-Kyle Mason—

of the winner.

Another Terrace racer, 15-year-old Kyle Mason, really
rocked in the 24 km event. He breezed through the course,
twice, in-1:16:27 — more than three minutes ahead of the
second-place finisher,

‘t's a really fun-course,” says Mason. ‘‘It’s got every-
thing — a lot of climbing, but also a lot of downhills.”’

Mason, a Grade 11 Caledonia student, says his strength
is in the climbs.

“‘T usually gain on the climbs, then lose some ground on
the downhills,’” he says.

This is Mason’ 's second year in the sport. He’s been com-
peting in northwest. races all season, but this was his first
win. And it’s not likely to be his last.

“Tl be back at it next year for sure,’’ he says.

Other Terrace racers who did well include Mike
Christensen aud Peter Mege, who finished third and fifth
in the 24 km event. Ray Praught was fifth in the 12 km
race and Roger Fehr finished fourth in the 40 km.

Terrace’s Laurie Sager, 16, was the top female finisher in

the 12: km race at 1:01:26, she was followed a fellow -

racers rock Kitimat

LOCAL MOUNTAIN biker + Kyle Mason won his first race recently at the South
Hirsch event near Kitimat. It was the last northwest bike race of the season.

cal rider Gail Slieasby.

Aud 20-year-old Fay Campbell of Terrace was the first
woman over the line in the 24 km event. She finished at
1:44:32.

Les Dunlop says he would appreciate any feedback from
tiders on how the race wenl, and any suggestions for im-
provements, He can be reached at Rock‘n’Road Bicycle in

‘Tt was awesome. We
were amazed at the
turnout’? —-organizer
Les Dunlop—

Young Ca
has good

Kitimat,

Il squad
potential

4

Girls move into AA play category

THEY MAY be young, but Cal's girls’ val-
leyball squad could be a force this season.

“T’m pretty confident about the team,”’
says coach Jackie Thomsen. ‘‘They’re
progressing quite quickly,’’

With just three returning players on a
team of 11, the Cal squad is fairly in-
experienced, but Thomsen says they have
plenty of potential.

‘We've got some very strong rookies,”’
she says. ‘It’s nice to be able to look down
the bench and feel confident in every player
there,”

‘Ut's nice ta be able to look down
the bench and feel confident in
every player there’’

—coach Jackie Thomsen-—

So far the girls have played a zone play-
day in Smithers where they finished sec-
ond, And last weekend, they played a
tournament in Kitimat,

This year the girls are competing in the
high school AA category. Normally Cal
competes in the AAA calegory, but Thom-

‘sen applied for the change because there

aren’t any other AAA teams to play in this
are. Oe tah

The categories are based on school enroll-
ment. Bigger schools have more playcrs to
choose from, so they have a better chance
of fielding a strong tcam.

The move to AA means the girls aren’t
guaranteed a spot in the Provincial Finals

— something that suits Thomsen just fine.

“Te will be more competitive for us for.
sure,’’ she says, pointing out that al the last
provincials, the AA teams were just: as
strong as the AAA teams. ‘But it makes
you feel like you earned the right to be
there.”’

Heading up the squad this year is team
captain Ashley Whitford along with rookie
caplain Heather Kelly. Thomsen says both
arc playing very well.

Volicyball has the shortest season of the
school sports, making it perhaps the most
intense. The girls practice four times a
week, plus they do fund-raising pretty
much weckly to raise cash for ofien lengthy
road trips. They've aiready done three car
washes this year and they're slarting to
work on raking leaves and baking pies to
sell.

The next tournament in Terrace will be a _
zone play-day Oct. 25 at Cal,

Scores from this past weekend’s tourney
in Kitimat weren’t available at press time,
but cbeck for results in an upcoming Stan-
dard.

Boys take two
in Hazelton

THEY STILL have a long ways to go, but the Cal
boys’ volleyball team came back winners from tourna-
ment in Hazelton Sept. 27,

Cal faced their toughest opposition in the first match,
against a large, tough Mount Elizabeth squad from
Kitimat.

Our guys managed to hang together to keep the
scores respectable, but MESS still beat them two-
straight. They won the first match 15-10 and the sec-
ond 15-11.

“We have a long ways to go if we want to beat
Kitimat,’” says coach Mark Neid. *‘But now I know
what we nced to work on — mostly little things.”

In their second match, the boys were up against Bulk-

‘Jay Foster, one of our shortest players,

played really well. I was umpressed.””
—Cal coach Mark Neid—

ley Valley. Cal took the first game 15-11, then got real
sloppy ia the second and lost 15-3,

They bounced back in the third, however, to take the
win 15-11.

In their final match, Cal faced the host team,
Hazelton, Cal won that series, splitting the games with
a 15-10 win, a 15-12 loss and finally a 15-13 win.

Neid says that for. their first tournament, he was
happy with the team’s play.

“Some guys really surprised me,’’ he says. “Jay
Foster, one of our shortest players, played really well. I
was impressed.’”

Cal started their season a week fater than other teams
in the zone, so now they're practicing four times each

week to catch up.

Local water skier nominated for award

have done

THE ODDS are, if you
water ski here, you know
him,

He’s Mark Poppleton,
founder of the Terrace
Water Skiing Club. And this
year, he was nominated for

the prestigious ~ Curtis
McDonnell ‘Memorial
Trophy,

The trophy, presented by
the BC. Water Ski Associa-
lion, is given to those who

extraordinary
work in contributing to the
spart,

Poppleton was nominated,
along with wakeboarder
Mike McComb, And while
Poppleton didn’t win, “his
very nomination is an_in-
dication ‘that otbers have
really taken notice of his
commitment to the sport in
the northwest.

‘Mark. © has

done a

tremendous amount of work
to develop water skiing in
the area,’” says northern in-
terior BCWSA rep Reg
Foot. ‘He is almost single-

handedly responsible for the —

growth of the sport in Ter-
race.!
Under Poppleton’s leader-

ship, local membership ‘in
the: BCWSA ‘rose froni_ 1:

member to 60 and continues
toclimb.

But Foot says Poppleton’s
best work is in his organiza-
tlonal abilities,

‘The amazing thing is his
abilily to put together and
coordinate events like train-
ing clinics and the club it-
self,’ says‘ Foot. ‘And
more is. planned for next
year: Mark has really put
Terrace on the map in terms

Sof waler skiing.”

Mark Poppleton