SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN

_.SKEENA ANGLER.
ROB BROWN

Freeze Frames

he truck pulled into the space re-

maining in the pull out. Its tires crun-

ched over the gravel on the icy road

then bit into ice crystals covering the
shoulder, The doors opened in unison. Fishermen
spilled out. I looked up from behind the seat of
my truck, holding the object of my search, my
binoculars, in hand.

The driver was shod in Hodgman wading
boots. The undone suspenders of his mouse
brown neoprene waders hung from his shoulders
framing the words “River Rat”, which were
cursively scrawled across his chest. He had a
black moustache and a goatee. He had on an or-
ange ball cap worn back to front, in rapster
manner, making him look like a biker and base-
ball catcher hybrid.

“You gain’ out?” he asked,

T told him no and why,

“The river’s dirtier and colder than it was last
week, Everything’s going against you on a day
like this. And standing in the water is uncom-
fortable.” _

“We were just on the Kalum,” said the
driver.” And it wasn’t too bad. Didn’t get no
fish, though."

“You fishing the fly?”

“Oh yeah,” he replied.

I wished these boys luck and started out on
the road to what remains of Baxter’s Riffle,
thinking about how Finlay, Webb and I used to

The _sky was gray, the, distances,, covered in
gauze. I broke through the crust with every step,
but sank only a few inches. I followed a pair of
hominid tracks to the road fork at the power
lines, where I looked up at the lattice and won-
dered why the wires had no sizzle like they usu-
ally do when the air is full of water. The man
tracks continued toward the river. For a while
the dog and J were the first, since the last snow-
fail, to leave tracks on this road branch.

Fifty yards in, Pawsome stopped prancing
and started vacuuming the graund with her nose,
sniffing wolf tracks, which emerged from the al-
ders and continued along the same route we
were on.

There appeared to be two sets of prints. Both
pairs pointed north, to where wolves hunt in
packs, The tracks I’ve seen lining the banks of
the rivers here have been solitary. In a quarter
century of winter steelheading I'd encountered
no pack tracks until a spring afternoon two years
ago, when I witnessed three wolves chase a bull
moose into the Skeena River below Winsman’s
Bar, Until then I'd seen only two lone wolves.
So, this could be a prowling pair.

The tracks were straight, suggesting determi-
nation in the animais that set them down. We
traced them to a wide spot in the road that, from
the distance, seemed to be covered with a large
carpet. It was a carpet all tight — a shagpy mg of
brown moose hair littered with bones: a skull,
long, shattered hoof-tipped limbs, and a rib cage
poking out of the snow like the frame of a rot-
ting galleon on a‘sandy. beach. There was still a
bit of flesh on the skull, of what, until recently,
had been a very large moose.

Tracks were all over the carpet and in the
snow around it. Among the cloven, deep-set
spoor of moose and the paw prints of the wolves
there were the incisions of eagles, ravens and
crows. Where moose blood had stained it, the
snow had a pink cast,

The remains. painted a clear picture. Wolves
can smell death before it happens. This pair
must have picked up the scent of the ailing bull
and began their pursuit at a walk, breaking into
a trot, and, finally, a run as they neared the
river, I imagined them racing over the snow,
overtaking the lathered bull yards from water,

The fight would have been long and, for the
moose, painful, with the wolves circling and
prowling menacingly, avoiding the punishing
front hooves of their quarry; wearing him down
to a crouch when, in an agonizingly slow coup
de gras, they'd tear out his throat.

We picked up the wolf tacks once more, fol-<
lowing them down to the river and over the
snow toward the remains of the Old Bridge.
There was only one pair now. We stayed with
them until they stopped forever at a spot where
their maker, a dead wolf, lay frozen in the
snow, eyeless and disemboweled, but otherwise
intact, staring up us through empty sockets, his
jaw open and frozen in a last defiant snarl. Here
were some missing details. Before it fell the big
bull must have caught this wolf with a blow
from a hard hoof, causing intemal hemorrhaging
that killed the creature a half mile fater,

1 felt privileged to have the saga laid out for
me in frozen frames, I thought about how all liv-
ing creatures are runtting- out of ¢ time ail the
time,

be the entire winter fly fishery,.on the Zymoetz, ..).

Family ties define Terrace
All-Native hoop teams

THE SAYING may go “a
family that prays together
stays together’, but for the
Terrace all-native basket-
ball teams, the Spirit Ri-
dets and the Predators,
their matto could well be
“a family that plays toge-
ther stays together”.

Both teams will be
playing at the 42nd annual
All Native Basketball
Tournament Feb 5-10 in
Prince Rupert.

Predator coach Lorne
Campbell has been play-
ing basketball since he
was a toddler.

“T started throwing the
ball around’ when I was
three years old,” said
Campbeli.

So, when Lorne had
chiidien it was just natural
that they play ball too.

“I guess it’s in your
blood,” he said.

His three daughters and
a niece play for the Spirit
Riders and his two sons
and a nephew play for the
Predators.

His eldest daughter, Pa-
mela, 31, is the Spirit Ri-
ders captain. She plays
centre and forward.

Amanda, 29 is the sec-
ond eldest Campbell child
and she has just returned
to the game after a five-
year hiatus,

- Yvonne, 27, Lorne’s

youngest..daughter .— and.
the team’s ‘secret weapon:

— has been playing basket-
ball most of her life.

Each team in the All
Native basketball tourna-
ment is entitled one ringer,
a player not residing in the
home town, and this is
how Yvonne ‘is able to
play. She tives and works
in Vancouver.

The All-Native will be
the first time the three
Campbell sisters will play
together on the same
team, said Pamela.

“] just love the way my
sisters play,” she said.
“This will probably be
emotional for us.”

Pamela is considered
the rebounder out of the

three and Yvonne is known.

for her three-point shots.

_ Christmas

TERRACE STANDARD

But Pamela says that

she likes how her sisters

pass the ball the best.

“I call them ‘Amanda .
Passes” of
- Passes’
look at you, they just pass .

“Yvonne
. They won’t even

the ball,” said Pamela.
Their synergy shows on

the court. They have had

an extremely successful
year thus far, despite a
. disappointing fourth place

December’s
Classic in
Prince Rupert.

The Campbell girls’
cousin, Carol Stevens,

finish at

also plays for the Spirit

Riders.

Stevens has been play-

ing basketball for 25 years
and says that family poli-
tics stay off the court and
game issues don’t leave
the gymnasium.
“Everylhing said on the

- court stays on the court,”

she said. “We're a team
and we stick to our
teamwork,”

The family ties on the
Spirit Riders team don’t
stop with the Campbells.

Sisters Cheryl Parkes
and Rachelle Poole also
play on the team. Cheryl
was named most valuable
player at the All-Native
qualifier in November.

The Spirit Riders star-
ted out with only six play-
e7s this time last.year, ...

Team member Toni Ny-
siok thinks the team has a
good chance at the All-
Native now that they’ve
doubled the number of
players.

“We played with only

six at the 2000 Easter
Classic’ and placed
second,” she said. “We

now have a 12-player
roster.”
Meanwhile, the Preda-

tors have had no shortage:

of basketball enthusiasts
looking for a spot on the
team.

The current team was

put together in November,

but even after the final

roster was established
Campbell was bombarded.

by more boys wanting lo
play.

i Skating for first
SABRENA HARVEY placed first in the Pra-Sil-

ver ladies event at the Carlboots and Blades
skating competition in Williams Lake Jan, 21.

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 31, 2001 - BS

__ 638-7283

THE PREDATORS are set to take on Hartley Bay in their tirst match at the All-
Native Basketball Tournament this weekend. Game time is 6:30 p.m. Feb. 5.

He estimates that next
year up to 60 boys will try
out for the team.

While the current team
has had mixed success this
year, Campbell is con-
vinced that it contains the
seeds for a powerful team
in the future.

Of the twelve players
all but two are 18 or under.
That means that most of
the players still have an-
other four or five years to
play on the intermediate
team together,

.The team includes
Campbell’ 5 sons, Lorne Jr.
and Conrad as well as
their cousin, Esmond
Watts. -

In fact, most of the
players on this team are
related to each other
somehow. ;

Jimmy, Leon, Manny,
and Eddie Henry, Chuck

Dudoward and Jordan‘

Bryant are all cousins.
But coach Campbell

says all of the boys play ©

like one family unit, whe-
ther related by blood or
not.

“They are all like next
of kin, they pet along well
no matter where they
come from,” he said.

“We want that relation-
ship to get stronger from
here on in.”

All-Native
tourney set
to start

TERRACE and the Nass
Valley will have very
strong representation at
this year’s 42nd annual All
Native Basketball Tourna-
ment in Prince Rupert Feb
5-10,

This is the first year in
the tournament’s history
that Terrace has sent a
women’s team, the Spirit
Riders, and an intermedi-
ate boys team, the Preda-
tors.

Thete are also women’s
teams from Gitwinksihlkw,
New Aiyansh, Hazelton
and Kincolith taking part,

In the men’s master’s
division, area teams in-
clude Kincolith, Gitwink-
sihlkw, and New Aiyansh,

Teams from Terrace
and the Nass Valley in the
intermediate boys division
include the Terrace Preda-
tots and teams from New
Aiyansh and Gitwink-
sihlkw.

The Terrace Spirit Ri-
ders take on Kitkatla Mon-
day at 8 a.m. in the Prince

Rupett Ice Arena. The °

winner plays Prince Rupert
Intertribal at 9:30 p.m.

The Predators play their
first match against Hartley
Bay on Monday at the Jim
Ciccone Civic Center at

” 6:30 pam.

‘ SHOOTING for two points in a practice game two

.gularly at Skeena Jr. Secondary school since the

A821

weeks ago. The Predators have been practicing re-

team was formed in November of last year.

5 s
Men’s Recreational
Hockey League
Oldiimers Division:
Jan 13 SAD Blues 4
Canadian Tira 1
dan. 14 Canadian Tire 6
Subway 2
Timbermen ; Bo
Northern Matar Inn Oakies 5
Jan. 17 Timbermen Boo
Canadian Tire a. !
Northern Motor Inn Oakles { a ot
Subway reas eee
Jan. 20 Subway mo 4 ae
SAD Blues BS
Timbermen Oe ge
Canadian Tire -. age
Flacreational Division:
Jan. 13 - Back Eddy Ba:
All Saasons ren: here
Jan. 18 Nuyene Blasting Caps (iB
: Coast lnn of the Wast 0
Back Eddy 7
Chapter Ona ; 3:
Jan. 18 All Seasons te
Back Eddy ae
Jan, 21 All Seasons 7
Coast Inn of the West 2
Chapter One r
Back Eddy 5