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B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 12, 2006

_ROB BROWN
Photo op

-of a steelhead with -his new digital

“T know just the place where we can do it.”

I did too. It was the same spot, or a spot close to, :
- ‘that ‘spot, where he had caught steelhead in mid air-

ike w was 1s eager to capture s some pictures =

camera. “Td like get one of a fish tak- _
ing'a dry fly off the surface,” he said.

‘with the aid of his Canon SLR: and a motor wind:

-on one ‘of those special days filled with impressions
* that’ stay impressed into your memory until it fades

out.

. We. were excited that day. We had hazy j images
of the landscape thanks to Gene Llewellyn’s sharéd —
recollections of the time he'd swapped goods with |
_ahelicopter pilot for a flight there.

“With Gene, we’d vicariously. hiked and fished .

_ pristine pools filled with steelhead and linked like a ~

glorious silver chain that extended for miles through

the dark green forest. *

’“One afternoon,” Gene had said, his eyes spar-
‘ding, his face lit up, “we caught so many steelhead,

_ we had to take'a nap.”

. The road builders had made it as far as the wil-

' The cut, blocks beside the road were new. The’
height of the stumps said they'd been logged in
‘the winter. Old conked hemlocks, splintered and
smashed lay on.a floor of shriveled moss.:

- Its proximity to the wild te of the forests at

the more e vivid, oe

eer aes

Where the: road: ended, - -we climbed into our .

waders, grabbed our rods and vests, then walked to
where: the narrowness of the valley and its inclina-
tion told us the river was close. . .

I chased Miké through cool shadows down to the
valley floor. The sound of river against rocks filled
the woods. We threaded our way through field of
fading yellowed devil’s club and buddy waded the

pealing pool upstream. . 0

‘As skilful a. raconteur as he was, Gene hadn’t .

done the place justice. It was grand. It was mag-
nificent. As we made our way-upstream, the val-

ley afforded glimpses of sharp peaks, white against .
. polarized skies.

The river was fast and clear, slowing intermit-

Mike directed me to the head of the first pool.

ing through the surface and rising into the still air.

Steelhead began rising too. Mike hunkered down .
. ona large rock at the back end of the pool and cap-
tured the fish and the fishing.

Now here we were, 20 years later, taking the

‘same route to Gene’s Shangri-La of yore, driving
. on a road worn ragged from heavy use, abuse then

disuse. A lot of water had flowed under the bridge
since then, some of it troubled — more turbulent for

“Mike than for me — he’d lost Pop and Lynn, we d

both lost Gene.
“If we can find a place on one of those.rock walls

where I can set up the camera below you, so that

‘it’s pointing almost straight down,” said Mike, “I

should be able to get a shot of the moment when it

_ opens its mouth to take the fly.”

With the technological sorcery offered by a
digital camera, taking such a thin slice of time was
definitely possible, even probable, more probable,

the chosen spot at the right time. The spatial and
temporal complexities of the accomplishment were
its heavy end, and it leaned on me.

We parked. the Jeep and took a less precipitous
route through the woods this time: just far enough
‘from a creek to avoid its alder thicket. The. woods

_ were cool and comforting, just as we remembered

them. We stopped twice to rest, something we nev-
er did two decades earlier.

derness of Gene’s glorious: memories. We turned
. left the Kleanza haul road and followed the freshly
a cut spur down the valley of No Gold Creek:

_fiver to avoid the rock wall between us and the ap- —

tently to glide through the places’ where it had ”
" shaped and polished : the rock walls. of pellucid

1. pools.
. As I began working out line, mayflies began push- 7

: probably, than the chance of raising a steelhead at |

Mike urged me to fish as he readied his camera’

- gear. While he did, I landed two steelhead and lost

a third small aggressive summer fish, perfect for the
project but the pool afforded no platform.
The one above did. |
_ We crawled along its wall. Mike situated him-
self perfectly. I moved further upstream and sent a

_bushy fly out with a double spey. .

We watched it arc over the tail water. Nothing.
Again, nothing. Again and again — still zero.

“Not today,” observed Mike with no disappoint--

ment in his voice.

After breaking down, we made our way through.

yellowed devil’s club then up the benches, our feet
sinking in the thick moss..

As we drove the serpentine road to town at twi-
light, 1 thought about the time, long ago, when we

went fishing to catch fish.

oo

Local girl only

By MARGARET SPEIRS

A TEEN will be the only girl

from the area to compete in
‘National Aboriginal.

the —
Hockey Championships in |
- Quebec later this month.
“ Sarah Ridler, 17, who
- plays midget house hockey
and midget B hockey and

women’s hockey here, went ©
_ to Prince George for a tal-

ent identification camp, fol-
‘lowed by an invite to Wil-
‘liams Lake for the provincial
‘selection camp... -:

on Team BC, which also in-
cludes three Yukon players.
-“T can’t wait,” she said.
“I'll be a new experience.
T’ve never been that far.”
“Her parents and family
are very proud of her,” said

_ her dad Ron. a

Ridler, who plays’ for-

_ ward, left or ‘right wing,
~’ started playing at five-years-

old with the boys.
She enjoys hockey for

_the challenge it brings and
_for the love of the game.

She began playing after
watching her older brother, .
Travis, and deciding hockey -
‘was for her, said her’ dad
Ron.
She has’ played every po-

_ sition, including goalie, but .
enjoys playing. forward for

the plays she can do and
scoring... ..
At first the challenge of

_ the game involved: dealing

with boys who would see
her as just a girl but she’s
one of the boys now.

We ‘joke around but:

- when we play, we play,” she

says.
“They accept me as part

for what I do.”

“They know, can handle :

what they dish out and I can
dish back.”

The game can get ‘very

physical, she says.

Ridler broke her collar- :

‘bone after a check didn’t go
right during a game in Kiti-

_mat last year.

“But that’s just another.
reason she likes the game:
-for its physical nature. and‘.

agility required. =

‘It was more like an in-
: spiring moment. than any-
She’s one of the 20 girls

thing,” she says.

Terrace was. losing to
Kitimat and the rest of her
team saw her throw the hard: -
check, Which Tevved them —

up.
“They had huge smiles

‘ on their faces,” she said.

- She healed from ‘her in-

jury in. six weeks but didn’t |
_play for 10 -weeks under, &
.doctor’s orders to: let her

bones mend completely.

_ She followed up by win- ©
‘ning a bronze medal with the °
women’s team at the North- -
“em Winter Games.

The injury hasn’t slowed
her down or made her re-
think her checking either.

Until the’ ‘Championship,
Sarah will continue dryland

training like, stretching to. _
prepare and practising her .
Slap: shot. .

Ridler won’t. be able to
throw any body checks as
it’s not allowed in women’s
hockey but the game will be
just as fast paced, she said.

a YOu can ride off the puck.
in the corners,” she. said,. ex-

plaining that means to angle
other players off the puck.
“Girls can be just as in-

4
o

1

een eager to score in east —

area player to qualify for national hockey championship _

638-7283

0

SARAH RIDLER will play i in the National Aboriginal Hockey Championship in.
Kanawald, Quebec later this month.

MARGARET. SPEIRS PHOTO 7

Ridler’ s been busy’ col-
lecting sponsors to help
pay her. flight to Vancou-
ver and from Vancouver

aoe . on wo

of the team and respect me tense.”

e

Junior team takes fifth, bantam bowler third

THE JUNIOR boys bowling team placed fifth ;
at provicials and individual bowler Kiyle Iveson

placed third.

Coach Mark: Niveiros said the team stuggled a

little bit in its third game.

“Overall it was a really’ good experience. for

them,” he said.

The team of Taylor Baker, Jeremy Lopushin-
sky, Eric Iveson, Travis Van Koughnett and Blake:

Smith played Surrey, Castlegar and Nanaimo.

. During the fourth game agianst Port Co-
. quitlam, the boys hit some bad luck, knocking
out headpins, the middle pin, that threw them off
} their game, said Viveiros.

Ringette girls strike silver at provincials _

THE MCTERRACE Ring Wraiths
won silver at provincials after finishing
the round robin undefeated.

The team started off with an 11-3-
thrashing of Fraser Valley, then’ went

on to an 8-3 slamming of Richmond,
which coach Allan Hampton said was

. a very physical. game with some poor .
. sportsmanship displayed by Richmond

that led on-ice officials to disallow the

- traditional after-game handshake be- .

tween the teams. : r
In Game 3, Terrace battled to a 7

“1 as coach could not. be
more proud of our. players,
staff and parents as they
had great integrity on and

off the ice in. victory and |

more importantly in defeat
as weil, ad .

7 tie with Quesnel, its northern league

rival.
The fourth game was forfeited wen

Enderby’s | goalie was unable to play -
_ where the team took home the bronze
over some of the top teams in western

‘due to an injury.

The team slipped past Kelowna 4-
3 in the semi-final to advance to the
final.

Terrace battled Richmond to a 6-6
tie with two minutes remaining and
called a timeout.

Back on the ice, Terrace missed a

yo.

in, .

team with 266 in the second game.
and 906 in the fourth.
medals there,” he said.

some of the same People next year. |

goal and the game ended with Rich-
mond winning 7-6.

Rory Bird scored four goals in. the
final game and David Tooms netted
two.

and while disappointed in the mo-

ment, it was truly a game that could:

have gone either way with both teams
having gone all out for the ‘victory,”
said Hampton.

“Tas coach could not be more proud
of our players, staff and parents as they

had great integrity on and off the ice in »

victory and more importantly j in defeat

“as well.

_ “We will see our opposition on the
ice next season and they should worry _
because I would expect us to be just as .
- competitive next season.” :
In the middle of the weekend team -

captain, or “kaptain with a ‘K’ for kill-
”, Alexa Grant was invited to attend
Ringette Western Championships as a
member of the Junior Division Team
BC.
Grant stayed behind in . Vernon after
Provincials and-flew out to Winnipeg

Canada.
“From all accounts she had an

awesome time and contributed to the
team both defensively and with one ~

goal throughout the tournament, said
Hampton. .

They put up a good battle against a team from
. Vancouver Island, but it was a hard house to play

Jeremy Lopushinsky had the best score for the

In the first game, the team bowled 831, then
‘ scored 968 in its second game, 790 in n the third

__ “If they would’ve kept going in the same di-
rection they probably would’ve been i in with the

* “Tt was a really good learning experience for.
them,” he said, adding their. opponents will be.

“Terrace comes home with silver

‘back. here. .

Ridler suits ‘up with
Team BC in Kanawaki,
Quebec, 10 km outside

place.

said Viveiros.

Four of the five boys will return to the team
‘next year. Taylor Baker will be a senior next

Oo.

year.

year.

x

ern Championship.

Iveson struggled some, being a little ner-
vous for the-first‘three: games and landing in last

Then he he declared he'd go out for the last a

two games and bowl for his grandma and he post- -
ed some great scores to climb into third place, .

’ Kiyle Iveson moves up to the j junior ‘evel next

Viveiros said it was a learning experience for
him too in his first year as coach.

ALEXA GRANT won silver with the McTerrace
Ring Wraiths, then went on to score bronze with
the junior division Team BC at the Ringette West-

of Montreal,..for the’ Na-, =
tional Aboriginal Hockey
Championship April 30 to
May 6.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED