EP C1 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October19, 2005 ROB BROWN _ : oe - Drifting - doubt the rods will get much use, I tell Den- nis as I strap the:tubes ‘containing them to the | sides of the rafts. Supporting this surmise area | number of summer outings when the time be- ‘tween fish was long and the fact that Dennis’ truck is at the other end of the river, a dozen kilometres: downstream. On a river free of. impediments it shouldn’ t take more than several hours to cover that distance, but, because of its contours and the age of its forest, the — ' Lakelse has logjams crawling along: its corridor, - building up, blowing apart and reconfiguring. An indeterminate number of carries lie ahead of us. It’s almost noon. We may have no time to fish. The current-takes us over the Rock Garden, over : the spot where the counting fence once stood then - gently over the Flats where some kind of green- stemmed, white-flowered aquatic’ plant has taken root on the exposed islets of substrate. The water is - low but not overly so for summer flow. “Can you see any fish?” I call back to Dennis, -who has sunglasses on and is-looking | into the wa- ” _ ter. He says no. I didn’t think so. I saw.a few small ghostly whitefish twitching over a shoal in Herman’s just’ after we embarked, but nothing since then. The summer months on the Lakelse are an in-be- tween time when the catching is poor but the fishing is good if you have the time and like the challenge. The river quickens. In minutes we are by the is- land at Upper Coldwater. A large log lies atop it, a ‘|. memento of last winter’s unseasonable floods. In a few seconds we pass Hai Creek and bounce into Lower Coldwater where the green water from the creek mixes with the dark tannic waters of the Lakelse. Two boys carrying flyrods are standing under the alders. They’re perched’ awkwardly on rocks attempting to stay dry and attempting to avoid the drooping alders with their back casts. I ask them how fishing’s been. Not good, they reply, which doesn’t surprise me for the reasons mentioned and because it’s all but impossible to fish the Lakelse without wading and these boys are waderless and apparently unwilling to get wet. A long glassy tailout, a quick riffle, the Railway Run, Secret Creek, another'riffle and ’'m drifting over large fish, sockeye. What else can they,be? When Dennis is close enough, I tell him how. waves of sockeye used to pass through the river in June and July. They’re a remnant now; nobody can figure out why. _ We float under the train trestle watched by an osprey perched atop a hemlock. Dennis leans back as the sky splits open and sunlight washes over us. People who call Ireland the Emerald Isle should see this place, he says. At. the Lower Island Pool a boy is fastened by line and lure to an obdurate ‘snag. His face is red from the exertion of trying to free it. He grumbles no when I ask him if he’d hooked any fish. We pass his dad or guardian and move easily through a stretch of river that until last year had a. couple of jams. One of those snares nearly drowned Ed Chapplow and me years ago. I'm pleased to see - it’s gone. At the Mother of all Jams, we take out on riv- ; er right and struggle up a steep bank then portage through old growth. The carry takes about 10 min- utes. We have lunch. The sun lights.up the riffle in front of us. It’s taken an hour and 45 to get this far, I tell Dennis. We pass through the canyon. The river steepens at the clay banks. We pass White Creek and the To- tems’ Run, take five minutes to get around a small jam, ‘shoot through Gledhill’s to the Moose Run, » make another five minute carry, float for five min- utes before encountering a badly gnarled jam that forces us to drag our boats upstream, cross the river and plow into the brush. ; The boats are only 20 pounds but there is no - trail. The brush is so thick that when we drop our craft they rest on the pillow of foliage. To make matters. worse, we can’t see our feet: The going is tough and slow. At the end of it we’re drenched in sweat. At the end of the slog, I tell Dennis that I’m fairly certain the worst is over. ' “Bear!” says Dennis as we round the next bend. And there he is, a blond grizzly. A pair of eagles circle overhead. I tell Dennis it’s a bad. sign: He ~ yells. The bear stands up on two legs. Small griz- zlies are big. This is a mid-sized bear. _ We can’t row upstream, I say. When he disap- pears in the long grass, we slip by, eyes riveted to the spot of his leaving, praying there’s no log jam to be overcome nearby and thankful we didn’t meet that bear during our recent portage. It’s the last we see of him but not the last log jam we see. It takes us six hours to navigate the lower half of the river. But we do, celebrating the feat with stir fried chicken and wine. - TERRACE STANDARD. iM _ By MARGARET SPEIRS THE TERRACE BANTAM rep hockey team - blew away the competition to claim victory at the Icebreaker Minor Hockey tourney in Merritt over the Oct. 8 weekend. - Terrace defeated the. 100.Mile House bantam. _ Teps 5-2 in the championship final. Captain: Chapen Leblond, Joey Cormano, Ben Reinbolt, Colton Dunsmore and Scott Simpson scored goals. The team ran over 100 Mile House in back-to- back games, meeting them in their final game of the round robin and then again in the champion- ship. “They had some big guys on their team,” said coach John Amos. Terrace finished in top spot in round robin play with a 3-1 record ahead of 100 Mile House, who also had a 3-1 record but finished second due to its loss to Terrace in their round robin meeting. In the round robin, Terrace played Winfield, North Okanagan, Merritt and 100 Mile House. Terrace beat the ‘Winfield | bantams 5-2. ’ THE INLAND Kenworth bantams won “the Merritt Icebreaker Minor Hockey t tournament 5 2 over F100 Mile House on the Thanksgiving week- end. The team also topped the round robin with a 3-1.record. .’ ; Bantams score tourney win Chapen Leblond scored two goals and had one | assist. Will Fisher scored one and assisted on one. Joey Cormano netted one. . Terrace slaughtered North Okanagan 9-4. Joey Cormano netted four goals, Chapen Leb- lond put in three goals, Ceasar Kenyon scored one and assisted on one, Scott Simpson scored one goal and Cory Hubbard and Taylor Mallett had - two assists each. Terrace couldn’t. get past host Merritt, who won 7-6. Chapen Leblond scored five goais. Joey Cor- mano. netted one > goal. Kevin Haworth had two assists. The first year players, up from the peewee squad, shone in their bantam debut. “They worked hard,” he said, adding they felt a little intimidated at the size of some Merritt play- - ers. ce , ’ Merritt, who lost to Winfield and North Okan- agan, decided they weren’t going to roll over to Terrace, Amos said. “Tt was a really good: gaine Merritt stuck to is) CONTRIBUTED PHOTO _ their ‘guns, ” he said. “We were in there close but just couldn’t tie it up atthe end.” Terrace destroyed 100 Mile House 9- \ to end. the round robin. . Joey Cormano put four past the netminder. Ceasar Kenyon; Ben Reinbolt, Will Fisher and _ Kyle Holtom each scored one. __ Kevin Haworth scored one and assisted ‘with | two goals. Alexa Grant, Chapen Leblond and: Taylor Mallett made two assists each. & The tournament offered the opportunity for - Terrace to see what other AA teams in the south- ern part of the province have to offer this season. He said one team he would have liked to see was South Okanagan, last year’s champions, who didn’t play this year due to a committment to at: tend another tourney. ’ Terrace won the Icebreaker tourney ‘three or. four years ago, and players received a shirt and _ towel on top of the trophy, making this year’s lack of awards rather surprising, Amos said, The bantams travel to Quesnel for a tourna- ment this weekend. River Kings control the Bears ror the Ice Demons this weekend. 638-7283 THE RIVER KINGS started their regular season by snapping up three points in a double header in 100 Mile-House Oct. 8 and 9. Terrace downed the Bears 6- 5 and then settled for a 5-5 tie in game two. , “When you take three out of four points in an Opposing town, especially one that far: away, there's never shame in that,” coach Trevor Hendry said. “It was fairly close. It shouldn’t have been that : close but we played not a bad game Saturday....whenever you win, ob- viously it’s a good game.” He thought the second game, despite ending i in a tie, saw every- one put in a good effort _ “| thought we would’ve won by _ quite a bit,” he said. “The. whole team played very well. I’m very happy with everybody’s play, es- pecially.the Sunday game.” Over the weekend, Darcey Al- _Hson banged in three goals and as- . sisted on two. Terry Zaporzan scored three and had one assist. » Mario Desjardins netted two and assisted with one. Richie Rogers and Davey Jones. each scored one and assisted on . one. Scott Mulder scored one. Gary’ Kerbrat had five assists, ‘Phil Morrison had three and Trevor Shannon assisted once. ‘The defence was strong “and the team didn’t tire in the third pe- riod like they did in their exhibi- - tion home games against Smithers, Hendry said. His only complaint about the game concerned the officiating, although he said the referee. may have just had an off day. “The ref was crappy,” he said, adding that he thought the referee's calls were inconsistent. _ Hendry believes the River Kings are ready to reign victorious over “We've made some good im- . provements this year and I’m look- ing forward to Kitimat,” he said, _ adding the two teams always have a great rivalry. “T think the rest of the league i is . slowly catching up with them.” He also looks forward to being cheered on-by fans who drive down to Tamitik arena. ©., “That’s the nice thing. We ve got a good fan base,’ "he said. The River Kings- travel: Kitimat this Saturday. They return 5 to host a double header against the Mackenzie Moose next weekend. Oct. 15. “7 Pedal power TANNER TUCKERMAN, 11, his bike for a few spins and jumps at the skateboard park next to the Terrace Arena MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO . right, took Ame ie mete wie iments eerie =