February 2008 Undercurrents

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1 A Science North Large Format Film Production premiering May 2008 From the creators of Jane Goodall s Wild Chimpanzees, Gold Fever and Bears comes Mysteries of the Great Lakes. Executive Producer: James Marchbank Producer/Director: David Lickley Line Producer/Editor: James Lahti Director of Photography: Reed Smoot Writer: Stephen Low For lease information: Brenda Tremblay ext. 212 tremblay@sciencenorth.ca February 2008 Undercurrents Magical Mysteries of the Great Lakes Tour By David Lickley, Director At this point in post production, things are moving at a frantic pace, and I m a bit like a pinball bouncing from one task to another. Today, I m in the air en route from Sudbury to Toronto for a music session at noon, an update on animation at 3, a train ride and a long cab ride to my editor s house, as well as a review of script and pictures with the writer and editor this evening. But instead of going into the minutia of posting a giant screen film, I thought that this time round I d be a tour guide for you. I hope that you ll be inspired by the film to venture out and see these Great Lakes for yourself. (I did something like that after seeing the film Sideways. There is, in fact, a whole network of maps and itineraries for that film that take you through the wine region north of Santa Barbara, California. We even saw Chris, the bartender who served up Pinot Noir to us just like he did in the film. Just to make the connection back to the Great Lakes, I ll end this edition at my favourite winery on the Great Lakes.) Keep in mind that you ll need a spirit of adventure, as not all of these places are on the beaten track. Some, in fact, are definitely off-road, but they can all be accessed. Here is where and when to go on your magical Mysteries of the Great Lakes tour. & present Saturday, May 3, 2008 Science North, Sudbury, Ontario sciencenorth.ca/gala Visit mysteriesofthegreatlakes.com in May for directions on how to get to all of these places.

2 Presqu ile Provincial Park Brighton, Ontario. (June) Not to be confused with the other one, this one is actually pronounced in accordance with its French roots (Eel, not Aisle). The park lies on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Ontario near Brighton and there are islands just Niagara Falls - Niagara Falls, Ontario or New York (anytime) It s hard to imagine a tour without the Falls, so we ll start there. If you ve got too much time on your hands, visit the Hall of Fame for the Criminally Insane, which I didn t, but I like the name. A better choice is the Maid of the Mist boat tour. We rode it 10 times in a row with the camera strapped to the front covered in plastic sheeting. I can recite the entire loudspeaker spiel by heart. You ll love it. But don t spend too much time here there are a lot of less-hyped places to see. offshore that are home to hundreds of thousands of breeding birds including egrets, herons, terns, cormorants, and gulls. You can t legally step out on the islands, even if the stench was no deterrent, but you can boat out to them and watch the spectacle from shore, assuming the swans that guard the harbour entrance don t attack you and sink your boat first. Presque Isle State Park - Erie, Pennsylvania (May) This tiny peninsula jutting out into Lake Erie has some of the best beaches anywhere on the Lakes. If you like beaches, come in the summer, but swimming in Erie in May is not for the faint of heart (literally). The reason to go to Presque Isle in May is for the birds. The park is a jumping-off point for millions of birds of all sizes and shapes that cross over Lake Erie on their way to nesting areas further north. There s even an electronic signboard that announces new sightings on an hour-to-hour basis. At the end of the birding day, you need to be at Sunset Beach where we filmed the most incredible sunsets I ve ever seen. Dinner should be at Petra, a Jordanian restaurant on West Lake Road. Cal makes these little puffed pastries with cheese called fatayers (or something like that) that ll make you want to marry him. Tobermory, Ontario (summer) The clear blue water and white islands of Tobermory make you think that you re in Greece. There are dozens of shipwrecks here, which you can dive to, or see from glass bottom boats, and some of them are featured in our film. But the greatest wonder here lies a hundred feet down at the bottom of Georgian Bay a waterfall as big as

3 Niagara Falls that flowed for 3,000 years or so. As you stand on the edge of the rugged escarpment here you can look out and imagine a time not so long ago after the glaciers receded and the Lakes water drained north over this new precipice - taking a completely different route to the sea than it does today. Once you ve had enough, you should take the Chi-Cheemaun ferry to Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater island in the world, and walk the magnificent beaches that border Lake Huron. You re now officially in Northern Ontario. Welcome. We ve been expecting you. Killarney/North Channel/ French River, Ontario (summer) We only used a few aerial shots from this unique stretch of Georgian Bay, but this is perhaps my favourite area anywhere on the Great Lakes. Killarney s been a family vacation destination of mine for nearly 30 years, the location of one of my first films, and the place where I met my wonderful wife, Heather, who was a naturalist at the park. It s a fantastic place to canoe or kayak, and has the best fish and chips in the world served out of an old school bus at the town dock. Look for us at the campground or at the jumping rocks. at Agawa Bay. No one is sure how old the pictographs are, but they date back at least to the mid 1800s, and could be much older. It s a miracle that they ve survived so long, exposed as they are to the waves and ice of Superior, not to mention the thousands of people who take the well-marked trail from the parking lot every summer. We were grounded for 4 days in the nearby town of Wawa due to fog, and ran out of things to do that didn t include fishing or golfing, which is perhaps not the best thing to do in the fog, but we were getting antsy. If you want an amazing experience, stay at Naturally Superior on Michipicoten Harbour, or better still, sign up for one of their spectacular guided kayaking trips along the coast you will find no better way to get away from it all anywhere on the Lakes. Tell David that I sent you, and that you want the room where the waves crash against the window. The Slate Islands - Terrace Bay, Ontario (summer or fall) Oh, give me a home where the caribou roam This wild and largely inaccessible group of islands surrounded by the water and waves of Superior is where we got the fabulous shots of bull caribou banging antlers in that ageold ritual called extreme dating. The Lake Superior Provincial Park. Wawa, Ontario (summer) This is one of the crown jewels in the provincial park system, a rugged stretch of Superior that is both wild and accessible which is unusual. We filmed a number of key scenic and aerial shots here, plus the sequence of pictographs on a cliff face

4 islands are a part of Slate Islands Provincial Park, and they lie within the newlydesignated Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area. It s the largest sanctuary of its kind in the world, so don t look for a Starbucks or a Tim Hortons. You gotta bring your own tucker out here, cause the caribou are protected, and although I m told that the fishing is unbelievable, we didn t have much time to try. I can t guarantee that you ll see a caribou despite the fact that the Slates have the largest herd in the region, but you ll increase your chances if you go during the fall rut. Just be careful to get back to the mainland before the big storms hit and strand you there. It s the hardest place to get to of any of our stops on the lakes, but Doug Caldwell runs a charter boat from Terrace Bay, and he ll strap your kayaks on the roof. If you do manage to get there, you ll never forget it, or Doug. See if you can get the sleeping bag back that I left in the forward cabin of the boat. If you re cold, feel free to use it. Battle Island - Rossport, Ontario (summer) It ll take a boat a kayak at the least or some help from the locals, but if you have a spare day, go out to Battle Island to see a piece of history. The trees are covered with Spanish moss, sometimes called old man s beard, which is actually a lichen that sustains the woodland caribou on places like the Slates where they still exist. There are no caribou here, but there is a fantastic Lighthouse that watches over this dangerous stretch of Superior. The light is on a cliff top high above the lake, but during one legendary storm in the late 1970s, the waves were so huge that they blew out the windows which are nearly a hundred feet above the water. Bert was there that day and has been every year since. He was the last person to man a lighthouse on the Lakes, and spends each summer in the keeper s house. It s a trip back in time, and Bert is no youngster either. He has a soft spot for pie, so bring him a slice, and you ll get more than your pie s worth in stories. If you end up staying overnight in the nearby village of Rossport, I d suggest that you stay at the historic Rossport Inn, which is within spitting distance of the main rail line. Order the local Superior fish in the dining room, finish it off with a piece of hand-picked blueberry pie, and retire to your bed with a belly full of the north. When the light from that train hits your window at 3 in the morning, you ll think it s coming right through your room. And you don t have to pay extra for the ride. Ashland, Wisconsin (spring to fall) This small town on the south-west corner of Superior is where we filmed our Bald Eagle story. It s not far from Apostle Islands National Park, which in itself is beautiful, but the story we filmed takes place on the Bad River Reservation the home of the largest natural wild rice beds in the world. We didn t cover the rice story in the film as there is only so much screen time, and we opted to focus on the eagles. However, the rice is harvested in mid August and there is a pow wow shortly after. The Chequimagon Hotel on the water is spectacular and cheap, but the best part lies in the basement where the bar serves up local Wisconsin beers like Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel. Don t let the squirrel bite you or you might not get up for your boat cruise of the Apostles the next day. Sleeping Bear Dunes - Empire, Michigan (summer or fall) I have vivid memories of the scout we did of these amazing dunes years before we d raised enough money to make the film. My friend Rick and I put a small outboard on our canoe and did a fast run up the shoreline at dusk to see the dunes rising over a hundred feet straight out of Lake Michigan. It was May and the water was icy cold, and we had to make a run for it in the dark as a big storm came up out of nowhere on Lake Michigan complete with lightning and waves. The locals probably

5 thought that we were crazy, which in hindsight pretty much describes anyone who spends 6 years developing and making an IMAX film about the Great Lakes. To access the dunes, I d suggest driving over the Mackinac Bridge especially if the wind is up. It s worth every penny of the toll. Shawano, Wisconsin (late April) It s a bit out of seasonal step on the tour, but I ve left one of the least known wonders to the last. The climax of our film takes place in rural Wisconsin during the great migration of lake sturgeon left in North America. If you time it just right, you ll be among the thousands of people who line the banks of the river while the human star of our film, Ron Bruch, and his crew capture and tag the biggest freshwater fish you will ever see. I can t think of any natural event in the Great Lakes Basin that rivals seeing these prehistoric giants thrashing together by the thousands in the shallows as they spawn. Say hi to Ron and tell him you want his autograph. He is a gem. You can stay at the Best Western, which is run by a cult headed up by a physicist from India, but despite the slowest food service in the western world, they have $1 happy hour from 5 til 9 which makes you forget that your food hasn t shown up yet. Funding for provided by Long Dog Winery - Milford, Ontario The final stop on the tour is at the editing room where all the magic took place. It also happens to be a first class winery specializing in boutique Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. If you re lucky, one of the long dogs might even bless you with a slurpy kiss. You can see the room where we were cooped up for months on end staring at computer monitors while the winter raged. At the end of the day, sip a glass of wine and get your picture taken with James, the editor/vintner, and his wife and partner Victoria who makes the best food in the world not a word of a lie. So there your tour is complete. If you get to all of these spots, you ll be in an exclusive group of less than 10 people most of them members of our crew. If you get to even a few of them, you ll do better than most of the 40 million plus people who live on the Great Lakes. If you can t manage to do a physical tour, see the film in a giant screen theatre, and then take the DVD home, sit back in your living room, turn on the fan full blast, and pretend you re on the deck of a ship traveling through the greatest lake system in the world. At least you won t have to worry about the weather. Theatre Partners DCNR, Presque Isle State Park Ontario Science Centre Great Lakes Science Center Cincinnati Museum Center Port Sponsors Hamilton Port Authority Toronto Port Authority Quebec Port Authority Ports of Indiana Thunder Bay Port Authority sciencenorth.ca/greatlakes