- . able... withered - winter: is. . too. comfortable, too, brown. Winter _needs’ to . be: the ‘season. of. short. days, ort, dark days, for: the ‘most: part, ‘days &. lit by. ‘anemic, light, . filtered, » reflected--and. flat. | ‘time: when: ‘the scarcely noticed, ‘suppressed sounds ground, * c arried there by the: enhanced acoustic. -s properties of the frozen landscape, sharpened by the “above, ithe. whistle’ of duck wings, the throaty con- . _versations ‘of ravens, the chatter of a riffle, the wind’ ; -tushing. through, the tops | of trees are examples.” ee 7 ~The comfort found ia: winter is rooted in its op- « . posite; it’s.the comfort felt. fishing all day in a two. . degree. river when the ‘air is colder: ‘than: ‘that and: keeping ‘your ‘body ‘temperature above Just, bear-: Winter comfort is a'vigorous and bracing: com-, : fort that. comes. from being prepared: dressing for. it having j jumper ‘cables and a stout rope or strong 7 | chain, a shovel, sand bags for ballast and aggressive tires on the. pickup. It’s comfort in knowing that’. _Men weren’t meant to ‘be abroad in cold winters, that, a’ mishap leading to immobility will kill you but you went out nonetheless and survived it. » - Driving the highway to Rupert in the cold, snow- filled Januarys, when ithe avalanche warning signs . BW full of tense, moments but it .: _ was’exhilarating = Once, during the years when the -men charged with clearing the Bear Pass had to use’ - long poles to probe for their machines after a heavy — snowfall, I was engulfed by blizzard: somewhere __ this side of Meziadin... -. Then thé edges of the. road disappeared. I had “to dim the’ lights'to see anything at all, and all I.” could see then was the dim red glow of tail lights in __the distance. I followed them for as long as it took . to-reach Kitwanga, and it took a long, long time, especially knowing that it could be a dangerously - tong time before anyone could help me. if I ‘T slipped” ‘pulled into the all-native service station . ‘at the junction. of Hwys 37 and.16 the bad:coffee ~ tasted. good. and. went well with’ ‘the comfort that. . comes witha feeling: of accomplishment. . : ‘ -There were hard times in hard winters when the weather was so harsh.that the slower parts of rivers: . froze solid and the woods around them were:effec- tively closed: We’ d dress wammly and hunker down . for days then one. morning we’d wake up and the . Outflow winds would have stopped howling and our * ‘Spirits would brighten at the | ‘Prospect of finally be- = : ing able.to get out again.. of During one of those respites, years ago now, I “ set. out for the Kalum. I took my float rod and a tub . ” of bait-Rick Shaw had cured and handed me with a * wink, not overly confident that I would find a place ° to fish, but knowing that if I did, this tackle was the — only way I'd catch something. I made my way on icy West Kalum Road as far. as I dared, parked at a wide spot and made my. way ‘ down a snowy skid trail to a frozen swamp, thank- _ ful to find the icy path afforded by the frozen beaver "ponds and the channels feeding and leaving it. — . The route to the river would be longer but better that way. - I followed the most promising channel across © _the.swamp, under old alders, There was less snow - on the icé thanks to the: sheltering trees. , Ata spot where there was none, I noticed some- thing under the ice and knelt down to examine it. To my. surprise, they ‘were small fish, caught, I ’ guessed, by a sudden drop in temperature and im- -. prisoned in the ice, something I hadn’ t seen before and haven’t seen since. ; I attempted to chip the one closest to the surface, out with my pliers, hoping to take it home, thaw it -out and identify it, but it was.too hard to do with - mitts on and too cold to do with them off. __ But for the riffles and the active water at the base of them, the Kalum was rock hard. Riffles are the haunts. of summer steelhead, fleet fish, full of pow- _ef, on the move and. not holding ‘anywhere for too “long. There was only one spot to fish. I took out a ball of bait, wrapped in a nylon stocking and cinched at the top with a bit of wire ‘and sent it upstream. The Silex whirred. I spun the drum. with my index finger to’ gather line and watched the: balsa float bounce downstream then disappear part way through its drift and felt the strong pull of a big ~ fish. ‘Tt was the first of many, all grey, white and sil- ver, all new arrivals of what proved to be the largest catch I'll probably ever make. The next day winter shut the door again. I felt like I’d been let in on a big secret, fortunate to have’ heen afforded that small window. disquieting, ; Winter should bea time of muted contrasts and an - drowned out.when more people are out'and: about . - going. places and. doing things, . move to: the fore-.” . solitude: the shrill cry ofa dipper below or an eagle : fi B 6UTERRACE STANDARD se ing. . | Ready, set, swim = DELLA ORREY, 14, left; and Jone Wolfe, 12, prepare to slice through the water in the regional swim meets hosted by the Terrace ce Blue- backs Swim Club‘Jan. 14. Orrey warmed up for'the 50-metre freestyle, 200-metre backstroke and. 100-metre breaststroke and Wolfe _ readied for the 50- metre freestyle, 100- ‘metre breaststroke and the 200- ‘metre freestyle. MARGARET: SPEIRS PHOTO : THE RIVER Kings served up | fresh fish for their weekend supper in Smithers with their 6-4 win Jan. 8, showing a full recovery from their loss at home to Kitimat in their previous game. The whole team. Pulled together to start the new year on a positive note. RIVER KINGS WEBSITE PHOTO . Js feast on fis [Rive THE RIVER Kings skewered the Steelheads in their first away game of the new year. - Terrace lead off the scoring,’ and. although Smithers tied it up later in the first, the Kings re- gained the lead and held onto it throughout the rest of game, returning home 6-4 victors. Trevor Shannon netted the Kings’ first goal, ~ Mario Desjardins shot two into the twine, Terry Zaporzan and Troy Butler put one each. past the ‘ posts and Gary Kerbrat closed out the scoring. Forward Andy McCleary said the team really came together after their last-minute home ice. loss to Kitimat last month. “We were pretty dominant in the game espe- cially after what happened with Kitimat,” he said. “It was a much better game with all the lines fir- He said coach Trevor Hendry ran the lines more consistently in this game. He and fourth line buddy Nate McNamara re- ' Burny just stuffed them.” ceived a lot of icé time, first with Ryan Muldoe and in the third with Mario Desjardins. “That was fun for us,” he said. First-string goalie Burny Carlsen had a great game. “He played well. He had no problem making the stops he needed to make,” McCleary said. “If they (Steelheads) did get the opportunity, The River Kings’ 6-2 lead reflected how the "game really went, as a couple of Smithers’-goals — came from ‘“‘Jucky bounces” that landed « on Steel- heads’ sticks, he said. -’Steelheads fans voiced their excitement until Desjardins quieted them. . “Mario got a couple of beautiful top comer one-timers and shut the crowd down really good,” McCleary said. “It was the kind of thing we need- ed: a nice, big confident win.’ The River. Kings will be ready for the Ice De- mons in their next game this weekend. “Kitimat is always exciting. I think everybody gets really nervous but it should be really good,” he said. “I think we’re coming into a lot of “confi- dence. We’ ve got the body smarts and speed, it’s just'a matter of executing them.” The Ice Demons can count on the Kings’ fourth . line to run them into the boards, he said With. three games remaining in. the River Kings’ regular season, it’s just a matter of seeing | where the team ends up in the top four. “As long as we can get one win in our next three games, we’re guaranteed not to fall less than second (place) I think,” he said. He believes the playoffs will see Terrace duke it out with Houston and Smithers duel Kitimat. “‘If-we can finish first in the standings, that'd be good,” he said. The River Kings look to chill the Ice Demons in Kitimat this Saturday.