Before the Skeena River nearly washed the wooden bridge away during the biggest flood of my childhood, Braun's Island Bridge was an all-wooden structure, with a pointed arch at the top.
The bridge led to a small island with only a few houses and farms, and there was little traffic. My brother and I used to play a game we called Pooh Sticks, after a scene in Winnie the Pooh.
This friendly competition was played like this. Each of us dropped an identifiable stick off one side of the bridge at the exact same moment. Then we ran across to the other to see whose stick would emerge first. That person was the winner.
It was a seasonal game for the time of spring flood in June. When the creek was low, the movement of the water was too sluggish, and too far down for us to easily see and identify our individual sticks.
By June, school was feeling pretty constrictive and flood season provided a welcome distraction. Each day we'd rush home, grab a peanut butter sandwich and run down to the creek to check the height of the muddy floodwater and what it was carrying.
High water was brief but exciting. From the bridge, we participated in this marvel of nature by watching the water carry our sticks.
The spring the flood weakened the footings and washed over the deck, the old bridge was taken down and replaced by a bailey bridge without a rail. We were older too; Pooh sticks was no more.
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