~B4 = The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 11, 2006 « °

were, waist eep in in the glassy tailout. .

‘Doug Webb. and: I were the first fishermen to.

er of the Copper: River with fly: rods. :

ands with thick Icelandic wool gloves and thanked -
God’ ‘for’ inventing , sheep - as we trudged through |

‘wading. on the outside of.ice shelves on’ days when
L, the outflow winds were so harsh the warmest place
“to stand was in the water.

. fisherman and that when we did he would be pack-
ing’ a Trapper Nelson and carrying a drift rod like

os and: convinced: Doug he should do! the Sami
jews The Jong. rods were. central to oiir pioneering.
2» Soon after-we learned to wield them with some
., authority we noticed that we could lift 20 to 30 me--
“-tres of flyline into the air.and send it out again with-

fea with-a single handed fly rod.
‘With no wet line whistling through the piiides,
“they: stayed ‘almost ice ‘free’ in Siberian climes,

* quiet, ‘stark geometric winter landscapes... ;
“Through the ‘80s.and ‘90s, the winters began t to

ib * soften. Fishermen are keen watchers of weather. - -

We. noticed the perturbations: how the snow. ap-

spring began earlier and more often; how the Skee-

- na often ran clear, lower and warmer in June where
‘before it had been predictably high and grey.
| Putting. our poles i in our backpacks’ along. with
‘our. waders : then skiing the old: skid trails.to the
- Kalin was ‘no: longer jhecessary on some years.
. then no, longer necessary most years.

--boggan Run.

’ As we made our way through sparse brown brush’
y told Karen about the many times I'd walked into.
the: Lakelse River atop a heavy. snow ‘pack years

- back, breaking through the sun-softened ‘crust and

‘was saved by Dave Crack, the conservation officer,
: who gave me a.lift on his snow machine.
There's plenty of evidence to suggest that those

the: hard, snowbound winters of yesteryear.
that the new year started with some —35.C weather

by: rain,
Reading those lines made me recall driving to’
Work’ through blizzards on January and February

- dio when the’ announcer reported it was -50 C in
’ Prince George and even colder. than that. in Van-
derhoof.

“We haven’t had a 30 below Halloween since

‘the reddening: the pine forests.

‘like a postage stamp-in comparison to the one log-
" gers are clearing right now. Prince George may be-
come a great agricultural area in the next 20 years,”
he speculated.

- We followed : a party ‘of fishermén who had been
fishing the Wall. They hada campfire, though there
‘was really no need.

moose carcass at the trail’s head and it was rotting.
“Did you do any good?” lasked.
“Oh yeah, we caught some bright steelhead and
some dollies,” he said, smiling. ‘
“Tt’s not often-you can do that on New Year’s.’
“Indeed,” I-said.

‘We started making those trips 23 ‘years ago, act.
ording te my. diaries, and they were nothing if not: :

‘We e. wore: Jong ‘underwear, wool pants. ‘under :
our rubber chest. ‘waders, pulled wool hats over our
eads (and. ‘often down over our ears) protected our

ep ‘Snow and gingerly dodged anchor. ice:when‘

»  Tt’s-not surprising that we seldom saw another

: we used to until I bought a 15 foot two-fisted flyrod

* out’shooting line through the guides, an impossible tT

"granting Webb’ and I the. ability to fish all: winter i in:

; ; peared later, how it crept down the monitions more _
"slowly, often rising before descending once more;
how. breakup that occured once, and then late in,

‘We left the New Years flyfishers’ to their casting ;
* and made our way across the cobble, then scaled |
‘the steep bank to the bench that overlooks the To-

- ago well into March and of the time I made my.way ~

sinking to my thighs with each exhausting step and ~ |

~ adventures are a thing of the past, gone along with
My friend John Irving writes from Prince George

: followed 1 by rise to +9 Cc the next day, accompanied .

~ days some 20 years-ago and getting some smug |}
comfort from the CBC regional weather on the ra-

. the kids were small,” John wrote before describing

“We need some cold ‘temperatures t to kill the -
pine beetle or the Bowron Lakes clearcut will look —

As we climbed the trail to the road, one of them |
thoughtfully walked back and told us that we should -
get hold of the dog because someone had dumped a —

' "aren: 1 and: Li ‘went: t for a ‘hike. 2 along’ the | ts |
° Copper: River on New Year’ 's Day. We: ;

‘If.it had been August this scene wouldn't have: i
warranted, a second, glance, but on ‘the first day of | a
the new. year: it was remarkable — ~ remarkable be-
ause: two. of. the: fishers were: women, none of the
. three were wearing gloves, one of them wasn’t even’
wearing a hat and all of. them were waving flyrods. fab

&

ws

CARE
RN TN :

SS]

cot "By MARGARET SPEIRS. a

A. FULL. HOUSE 6of'’ fans.. witnessed the River.
Kings’ heartbreaking’ loss to Kitimat’ in the final,
_ five seconds of the game Dec, (29, a sad end to fan’
7 appreciation night. ' ce

..-Terrace lost 7-6. : ;
“A blow to spectators and the squad, ‘who were

. up by two goals several times during the game but

outshot with only 27 to Kitimat’s 47.
River King Ivan Laschenko opened the scoring

at 15:18 in the first, to be followed a minute’ later.

by the team’s top scorer Darcy Allison.
_Kitimat’s Jeff Mildenberger notched. the De-
mons’ first to closé the first period.” ae

Mario Desjardins put Terrace ahead 3. lin the”

opening minute of the second period. ;

- Blaine Markwart netted one to pull Kitimat
closer and Jaime Payne tied it.

Desjardins scored his second in the first min-

-ute of the third to put Terrace out front 4-3. Then

Troy Kaye added another one.
‘Less than’30 seconds later, Kitimat scored.
. Laschenko scored his: second, and the River

Kings final goal, to g° up 6- 4 with just over five.

m inutes remaining. -
Forty-five seconds later, Ice Demon Dick Mar-

~ kowski moved his squad within | one. ‘David Boone
tied i it six-all with 1:32 remaining: So

=py ateh ese VORA LET

of the year Dec. 29.

ue

1

’ poke the puck, away from Trent Bossence, who
passed :ahead to Mildenberger whose shot on goal

missed but Boone slid the puck, into the empty net
-- as the clock ticked down. .. 7

River Kings’ emotions ran high afterward.
‘Andy McCleary slammed his stick on the edge
of the glass as he left the ice.

5° He defended Carlsen’s move on the puckci in the

a

dying seconds. *
“Burny did the right thing,” he said, adding he
didn’t think, Carlsen: did: it because: he: lacked faith
in his:defencemen. © i288 so:
“There weren’t a lat’ f people on the i ice to-
“night who wanted to play the puck.”
He said several of his teammates were “‘show-
boating” but did give credit to two. -
“Gary Kerbrat played an “awesome game.
Burny played awesome,” he said.
. But to lead by two goals with eight minutes left
“in the third and then lose is “stupid,” he said.

Carlsen declined to comment and coach Trevor

“An Ice Demon onslaught brought Burny Carlsen ;
» out of net nearly to the blue line in an attempt to

A DEJECTED River Kings lineup skates to the dressing’ room “following the team S 3 devastating, last-minute home i ice.loss to 5 Kitimat 7-6 after

Ee leading by at least, two goals several times s during tr the Dec. 29 game. cnt

: RIVER KINGS WEBSITE PHOTO ©
talk steelhead in the cold, low and slow. winter. wa- + :

five minutes where all the play showed up in ‘the | | :

end,” he. said, -adding’ that the. defensive: line was"
overplayed and tired by the end of the game.

. “We just need. to havea couple of defensive
lines just to go out there and do the job.” | *
- He believed the lack of practice over the Christ-
mas break before: the’ game. may have contributed»
to the loss.

O’Brien didn’ t share McCleary’ s opinion »
about Carlsen’s move on the puck.

“T think he got a little overanxious to get it (the
puck) out,” he said, adding the team did well of-

fensively. “It’s kind ofa shame for such a good t
‘~~ display of offense to sort of throw it away in'spots °

of the game. We win and lose as a team though.”
Suffering a defeat to Kitimat is an eye opener,
he said. .
“I wasn’t very happy to throw that i in front of a —
full crowd,” he said.
“It’s nice when a crowd shows u Up and pays for
tickets, it’s nice to put a show on.’
With a few more practices under their skates, —

the, team shouldn play better in its remaining -

Hendry was not available.

Last week, defenceman ‘Howie O° Brien ‘said -

there wasn’t much to say.

“We broke down defensively. We could’ve
‘had. more defensive lines out. in the last four or”

Thoughtful tot

THIS LITTLE girl appears to be praying for another goal and victory
during a break in play at the River Kings game against Kitimat in the
: Terrace Arena last month. She and her dad were two of the many fans
who. squeezed into the packed stands for the Kings’ final home game

MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO

game in Kitimat and double header here against
Houston later this month.

“Houston will be a good couple: of hard fought
games, we’ve Just got to get our ice time in, ” he
said. ;

Marathon |

runner'dashes -
to second spot
in Victoria

A LOCAL runner raced to a second place finish j in her age
group at the recent Victoria Marathon. ,

Susanne Simpson came second in the Female 50- to 54-
year-old category and 450th spot overall..She sped to a time |
of 3:38:53, which is a pace of 5:11 per kilometre, or 8:21 I per
mile, her best in quite a few years,

“I was quite happy with it,” she says.

Going into the event; she hoped to finish in 3:40 to 3:45.

‘ Simpson, who’s completed the race seven times, says »

marathon running. was her specialty when she ran more in -

her 30s. Her best time ever was 2:53 when she becameTop

; Canadian at the Vancouver Marathon in 1985.

The best part of running is finishing, but the fact that she

_ did better than expected in Victoria was a bonus, she says.

“T didn’t have a clue how I'd place in that category and
it gave me a renewed confidence that I can still be relatively

7 competitive. I’d kind of given up on it,” she Says. |

_ She says she suffered a lot of injuries over the years,

mainly stress fractures and a few back problems.

“One thing I’m also very pleased about, it’s the first time

’ T’ve ever done the second half faster than the first half,” she

‘says. “Usually Pd. go out as fast a as r could for as Tong as I
* could and then die.”

She’s been running for 27 years ‘and started ¢ as a way to |
get back in shape after her daughter was born, first with short
distances then’ working her way up. She solves the world’s
problems while running and the camaraderie i is what keeps
her involved in the sport.

“There’ sa really good sense of cheering each other’ on,”

‘she says.

Simpson ran the. Victoria Marathon ‘this time hoping to
qualify for the Boston Marathon, an easy feat. :

The qualifying time for her age group. was 4:05. ;

“I’ve always kind of wanted to do big prestigious ones

, (marathons) and be part of something that has such a history

to it,” she says of the Boston Marathon, adding she plans to
sightsee while there for the event.

She’s not sure how she’ll do, but mostly wants to run it
for the enjoyment of saying she did,

About 1,960 runners took part in the Victoria Marathon.
The 110th Boston Marathon runs April 17.

oo