AUGUST 06, 2003 ARCHIVE

Rain stays away long enough for enjoyable Haweater Weekend

by Neil Zacharjewicz
LITTLE CURRENT - "It didn't rain."
That was the most telling comment offered by Little Current Lions
Club President Steve Nunn with respect to the success of this year's
Haweater Weekend festivities, which took place under the lingering
threat of precipitation. Weather forecasts for the weekend were
calling for a 70-80 percent chance of precipitation, but the rain
held off until all of the weekend events had wrapped up on Sunday.
"It was perfect. The rain held off until the final boom of the
fireworks," Mr. Nunn said.
"Everything went really well," added Bruce Burnett, co-coordinator
for the Haweater Weekend festivities.
Mr. Burnett explained the ball tournament wrapped up on Sunday
without a hitch, and the waterslide put on by the Northeastern
Manitoulin and the Islands Fire Department went over really well. The
kids games put on by the Children's Aid Society drew over 100 kids,
and both the horse pull and the light horse show drew impressive
crowds.
Also enjoying a fantastic turn-out was the Friday night teen dance,
which drew close to 400 kids.
"That was one of the best turn-outs we have ever had," Mr. Burnett indicated.
"I thought the parade was good," Mr. Nunn pointed out. Many residents
who turned out to witness this year's parade indicated they had felt
it was one of the largest in a long time.
"All the people we have been talking to said these were the best
fireworks yet, despite the rain," Mr. Burnett said.
Mr. Nunn explained while the numbers were down overall for this
year's event, he said he understands a lot of other events have
experienced similar problems this year.
"We hope everybody had a good time. Everybody seemed to play safe," he said.
The idea of playing safe was also part of the message Mr. Nunn
delivered at the opening ceremonies for the 36th annual Haweater
Weekend on Friday evening.
"Party safe, but party. That's how we raise money," Mr. Nunn had
suggested at the ceremonies.
He also took the time to welcome back the founding father of Haweater
Weekend, Lion Doug Tracey, who now is a member of the Grand Valley
Lions Club. Mr. Tracey expressed his delight to know that the Little
Current Lions Club has continued the tradition of the Haweater
festival.
"I am glad to say that I was at the first one," he noted.
Mr. Tracey explained the Haweater festival first began as part of a
discussion he had with Jerry Bond. The pair had been talking about
hosting a horse show. Don Ridley also became involved, and after some
further discussion, the idea developed into an entire weekend of
activities. The group mulled over a number of potential names for the
weekend-long event, but it was Mr. Tracey who insisted it include
'haweater,' and the rest is history.
But the Haweater Weekend festivities are just part of Mr. Tracey's
legacy with the Little Current Lions Club. Mr. Tracey is also proud
to admit that he started the Haweater token.
"It's still going, and going strong," he said.
Algoma - Manitoulin Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Mike Brown
probably summed Haweater Weekend up best when he delivered his
message during the opening ceremonies.
"It's the civic holiday weekend. It's Little Current. It's Haweater
Weekend. It is the premier festival for this part of the world," Mr.
Brown suggested.
Mr. Brown lauded the Lions Clubs' Haweater Weekend efforts, which not
only helps to raise thousands of dollars which the Lions contribute
for the betterment of the community, but also because it is a benefit
for the business community and helps to maintain community spirit.
"You do a marvelous job," agreed Brent St. Denis, Member of
Parliament (MP) for Algoma - Manitoulin, in his address. He pointed
out the Lions take their personal, private time, and share it for the
benefit of the community, yet many people tend to forget how much
work the volunteers do behind the scenes.
"It is really what makes us so special," Mr. St. Denis said.
"I would like to thank the Lions," stated Ken Ferguson, mayor of
Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI). "It is a pleasure to
have them in our community, doing the good work that they do."
Mr. Ferguson said that, while it was a trying year across the
country, it was time to celebrate, and he encouraged everyone to
enjoy a safe weekend so that they could come back next year.
Lion Gary Elliott, master of ceremonies, encouraged everyone to "have
a Haw-some weekend."
Results were also turned in for a number of events over the weekend.
For the Haweater Tennis Tournament, Bob Waples and Sue Nielsen were
the winners of the Mixed Doubles division. In the Under 16 Singles
category, Brandyn Wilson was the winner. Amy Abotossaway was the
winner of the Women's Singles division, while Chris Benson won the
title in the Men's Singles category.
The Haweater Soap Box Derby, put on by Little Current Minor Hockey,
drew a full slate of young racers this year. In the Junior division,
Scarlett Noel claimed first, Thomas Hayden was second, and Patrick
Nead finished third. In the Intermediate division, Rebecca Haile was
the overall winner, with Marie Lee Wright placing second, and Brandon
Knobel finishing third. In the Senior division, Patrick Mappin was
the first to cross the finish line, ahead of Dylan Francis in second
place, and Clinton Burnett in third.
 

Lisa Odjig hoop dancer

by Diana Smith
WIKWEMIKONG ---A billboard along the entranceway to the Wikwemikong
Unceded Reserve proudly announces that Wikwemikong is the home
community to Lisa Odjig two-time winner of the World Hoop Dance
championships (2000 and 2003).
Ms. Odjig's family took the opportunity to have their picture taken
with Lisa, the principles in her dancing career and contributors to
the sign's production. Ms. Odjig now lives just east of Calgary,
Alberta on the Siksika First Nation, but returns home each year to
participate in the Wikwemikong Pow Wow held during the August Civic
holiday weekend. On hand for the picture were her mother, Margaret
Jackson, her dad, Frank Fisher, her brother, Darryl Fisher, her
uncle, Gordie Odjig, who taught her to dance, elder Justine Enosse,
who made her first dance dress (pink), Annette Peltier, who designed
the sign and Bob Pearson, who produced it.
"I made her jog lots," her first teacher Uncle Gordie Odjig reported
about his pupil's training.
The dancer still trains hard for her event. She attended the photo
shoot last week after she and her brother, Darryl, rode their bikes
to 10 Mile Point and back.
Ms. Odjig, has been dancing for most of her life
but started competing in 1996. She competed for the first time in the
World Hoop Dance Championships in Phoenix, Arizona in 1997. She also
competed in the Worlds in 1998 and 1999, all three times winning
second place in the adult division. In 2000, she won her first World
Championship title.
"In 2001, I didn't compete because I was burnt out. I was also
working full time at my college studies. I needed a break. I went
back to the Worlds in 2002 and placed fourth. I kind of had itchy
feet again, where I wanted to do better. I know how much you have to
be prepared," commented Ms Odjig. "I was a lot more prepared this
year mentally, physically, and emotionally for the 2003 World
Championships. Mentally focusing, believing in yourself and staying
positive is important. I knew what I had to do before and knew what I
had to do this time to reach that goal. It's all in the mind, not
letting that negative stuff creep in. I have had problems with my
knees, even though I am aging like everyone else, I have accepted
what I can't do and have compensated in my dancing for that."
Physically, she jogs, bikes and swims, as well as participates in a
number of different sports. She listens to her body. After a half
hour of jogging, she reports her knees are finished, although her
adrenaline still indicates a desire to go on, she stops. The dancer
has a healthy diet. She eats a lot of fruit, vegetables and whole
wheat bread, and white meat only.
Hoop Dancing at the worlds is very competitive. This year they
started out with 17 adult dancers competing. There were only two
females in that group, which eventually is narrowed down to six
competitors for the finals.
"Male or female, you are judged on the same things and all the
finalists this year were all past World Champions."
Ms. Odjig is going to school full time in Alberta and is also doing
quite a bit of performing professionally with American Indian Dance
Theatre and through agency bookings. Recently, she performed three
times a day at the Calgary Stampede and then in evenings went to
Banff or Calgary for bookings.
"I like the performing arts and will continue on with that, but I
still have that little fire in me to compete and I will be at the
World Hoop Dance Championships in 2004.
 
Plane crashes on Cook's Dock Road
by Michael Erskine
SILVERWATER---A quiet end to the August long-weekend at the western
end of Manitoulin Island was shattered Monday, when a six-seater
Piper Malibu Turboprop aircraft was forced to crash-land on Cooks
Dock Road, some 20 kilometers west of Gore Bay.
"We had just sat down to lunch when we heard the noise," said Donna
Bell Smyth, of Silverwater. Going to investigate the noise, she
discovered a plane carrying Perry Wilson's family from the Gore Bay
airport back to their home in Alberta had crashed, practically in her
front yard.
"It was a miracle no one was seriously hurt, and that there was no
fire," she said. The smell of aviation fuel fumes filled the air for
hundreds of yards around the crash site.
The turboprop plane began having mechanical difficulties shortly
after taking off from the Gore Bay Airport at 1 pm on Monday, and the
pilot decided to attempt to return to the Gore Bay Airport. Realizing
he couldn't safely make it back to the airport, the pilot advised
Gore Bay traffic control that he was making an emergency landing.
Bill Sundercock, of Silverwater, was returning to his home from a
friend's funeral luncheon when he saw the plane circling in obvious
difficulty. He watched as it came crashing through a number of trees,
shearing off its wings and flipping over into a ditch.
He and his son, and his son's friends from the London area raced to
the scene and pulled the accident victims from the wreckage.
"Bill Sundercock was a hero all right," said Art Addison, Fire Chief
of Robinson Township. "There was aviation fuel leaking from the
cracked wings, and the power was still on." A single spark and there
could have been a killing conflagration.
Chief Addison and 12 of his crew were quickly on-site, and they
sprayed foam over all of the fuel.
"We had to use the Jaws of Life," said Chief Addison. "The master
switch was still on and we had to cut the negative lead to ensure
there would be no sparks."
The fire team worked through the afternoon helping to secure the site
and keeping a close eye on the potentially lethal fuel. The wreckage
was being moved to the Gore Bay Airport to await inspection by
Federal Transportation Safety Board investigators on Tuesday.
Ministry of the Environment officials have been called in to deal
with the ramifications of the aviation fuel spill.
"The people were laying on the ground," said Ms. Smyth. "Waiting for
the ambulances to come."
Although the air ambulance was dispatched to the scene, injuries were
not serious enough to warrant evacuation to Sudbury, and the family
of five were taken by land ambulances to the Manitoulin Health
Centre's Mindemoya site with non-life threatening injuries.
Debris from the wings were strewn across Cook's Dock Road, but little
else was evident from the road, although a large number of people
gathered to see what was happening.
The Piper Malibu is a turboprop six-seater aircraft with a
pressurized cabin. A 2001 version of the plane is listed on the
Internet valued at $1,250,000 (US). It is powered by a single 500
horsepower engine.
 

Grace Lake

by Jim Moodie
WILLISVILLE---Amazing Grace. The adjective really does befit Grace
Lake, an island-stippled, blue-green beauty cupped in the rugged
white mountains of La Cloche.
In the estimation of John Butler, who lives in nearby Willisville and
visits the lake often, "Grace Lake is equal to the most beautiful
lake in British Columbia--it's the Lake Louise of the East."
High praise, indeed. But Mr. Butler is far from the only person to
feel this way about Grace Lake.
Little Current canoeist and outfitter Chris Taggart, who paddled
clear across Canada in 1997 and has seen plenty of pristine lakes in
his travels, ranks Grace Lake near the top.
"It's definitely one of the nicest lakes there is," he says. "One of
the top three in Ontario, for sure, maybe for all of Canada."
Mr. Taggart is also partial to B.C.'s aptly-named Sublime Lake, as
well as to a couple of other lakes in the La Cloche mountains, but he
seems to have a particular fondness for Grace Lake.
He camped here often in his earliest days as a canoe tripper, and it
was here, too, on one of the lake's many rocky peaks, that he chose
to scatter the ashes of his dog Chester, a purebred Chesapeake bay
retriever.
"The ashes flow down the hill, so I think of him as still running
through the trees," says Mr. Taggart.
Grace Lake isn't the only stunning lake in the region, but it's
unique, says the canoeist, because "it's a bowl lake surrounded by
white quartzite, and because of the clarity of the water and its
pristine campsites."
As well, it contains, for its size, an unreal abundance of islands.
Just a couple of kilometres in length, and maybe a half-kilometre at
its widest, the lake features 10 islands, none of them big, but all
distinct and rocky, topped with a few wind-sculpted pines.
It's like a miniature Lake Temagami, or maybe more like a lake in a
fairy tale or fantasy story, a lake where a Tolkien or an A.A. Milne
would feel at home.
Or an A.Y. Jackson or A.J. Casson.
Both of these Group of Seven painters frequented Grace Lake to sketch
and paint, but the Group member who frequented it the most, whose
name will be forever connected with it, is Franklin Carmichael.
The artist was so besotted with Grace Lake and environs that, in
1935, he built a log cottage on Frood Lake's Cranberry Bay, between
the village of Willisville and the portage leading to Grace Lake.
Many of his paintings were done at Grace Lake, and there is an
excellent, oft-reproduced photograph of him sketching from the
highest summit on the lake.
The cottage in Cranberry Bay still exists--it is now used by Mr.
Carmichael's daughter and grandchildren--and a familiarity with the
artist's life and work (well captured in the book "Light and Shadow")
adds to the experience of visiting Grace Lake. Many people, including
yours truly, have trekked to the same summit--a 360-foot dome of rock
on the south shore of the lake--atop which Mr. Carmichael was
memorably photographed.
As Mr. Taggart says, "Part of the reason I like going there is
because it's a place I see in art galleries."
Not long ago, one could also see Grace Lake depicted on the cover of
the Sudbury-Manitoulin phone book, notes Mr. Taggart. The photograph
showed a canoe on a shoreline, with mist rising off the water, and
wasn't immediately recognizable as Grace Lake--unless you had been
there, and camped at the same spot. Which Mr. Taggart had.
Many others have, too. While not the most easily accessed lake--a
somewhat taxing, 1.5 kilometre portage is required to reach it--the
lake is a popular destination, particularly in the summer months.
There are only three campsites on the lake, and a summer day will
generally find at least two, if not all three, sporting tents.
Since the lake is part of Killarney Provincial Park, a permit is
required for overnight camping, which can be acquired through Widgawa
Lodge, located off Highway 6 on the West River leading into Charlton
and Frood Lakes.
The closest jumping off point for Grace Lake, however, is the village
of Willisville, and if you don't feel like paddling and camping,
boats may be rented from Charlton Lake and Bearskin Lodges for day
trips to the lake.
The portage, while long, is well maintained, and surprisingly not too
steep. It follows a river valley, a notch in the mountains, so the
gradient is quite reasonable. Still, some sweat must be expended to
reach Grace Lake--and that, of course, is all part of the experience.
As Mr. Taggart puts it: "Sometimes when a bit of effort is required,
it makes it all the more special when you get there."
I can concur, having lugged a canoe into Grace Lake recently myself.
The day I went in, it was humid and buggy, and my sweat washed away
the Muskol as fast as I could apply it. It was also foggy, so that
when myself and my paddling partner reached the shores of Grace Lake,
the experience was anticlimactic: the famous peaks were all shrouded
in mist.
The pay-off came the next day, when I peeked out of the tent to see
the white quartzite hills sharply etched in the sun, and the lake
itself glowing an unearthly turquoise. Any spot that is spoken about
in such reverent terms and hushed tones can easily be a let-down, but
Grace Lake lives up to the hyperbole.
It's physically beautiful, almost painfully perfect to behold, but
beyond that, it's incredibly quiet. There are no motor boats. The
hills block out sounds from afar. Other campers are few, and
respectful: we didn't hear a sound from our neighbours down the lake.
Like us, they were probably speechless from the spectacle, loathe to
break the perfect stillness.
I believe Grace Lake has always been a quiet, perfect spot, even in
the days before it came under the protection of Killarney Provincial
Park.
But not totally unpopulated. Inez Aelicks (nee Hollman) of Little
Current, now 70 years old, grew up on a remote farm on Howry Creek,
not far from Grace Lake. And she says there was a logging camp in
there at one time.
"I remember seeing the foundations of an old camp, which may have
been my grandfather's, because he was a timberman. There were some
old apple trees where the camp had been, too, but the last time I
went there with my sister the bears had knocked the apple trees down."
Growing up in the La Cloche backcountry, Mrs. Aelicks was never
afraid of bears. "They were part of the family--we lived with them,"
she says. She also shot a few for meat. "A nice young one was good to
eat," she recalls.
Mrs. Aelicks also "trapped for beaver, muskrat and mink," as did her
brother Angus. Indeed, her brother stayed on at the family property,
working as a trapper, until just last winter, when, at the age of 75,
he was found dead under a couple of feet of snow.
"People said he shouldn't have been in there at his age, but that was
his life," says Mrs. Aelicks. "You couldn't take him out of the bush."
Angus Hollman was probably the last of a breed. The people who
frequent the Grace Lake area now tend to be canoe trippers and
cottagers, as opposed to trappers and loggers.
But there are those who remember these rugged characters. Retired
Little Current physician Jack Bailey, for instance, vividly recalls a
house call he paid to the Hollman property in the winter of 1948.
It was quite an eye opener for a young southern Ontarian fresh out of
med school. "I had to walk down the lake on the ice, because it
wasn't thick enough yet for horses and a sleigh," Dr. Bailey recalls.
He carried a long stick with him, fearing he might fall through.
After three miles of walking, he reached the Hollman homestead, and
attended to Mrs. Aelick's grandfather in the small cabin in which the
old man lived.
"For a young doctor, not having lived in the North but looking
forward to the experience, it was a very challenging and fulfilling
time," Dr. Bailey recalls. "I felt useful, and if there had been more
comforts, it wouldn't have been the same."
John Mastin, the grandson of Franklin Carmichael, who has his own
cottage now on Cranberry Bay near the portage to Grace Lake, also
recalls the Hollman family. "They used to come around in a wooden
boat and deliver vegetables to all the cottagers," he says.
Mr. Mastin has no memory of his grandfather, as the artist died in
1945, at the young age of 55. But in the summer months he inhabits
the same shores that were so beloved by his grandfather, and finds
daily reminders of his work when he gazes out at the La Cloche hills
and compares these scenes to the ones rendered in paint.
'Grace Lake,' a watercolour Mr. Carmichael painted in 1934, is among
the most affecting and accomplished of his works. The view is from
the east shore (not the domed peak), looking back across the lake's
full, island-speckled expanse, with Cranberry Bay in the background,
a narrow passage striped in shadow.
The painting is somewhat stylized and impressionistic, and might lead
someone to conclude that it's not representative at all--the lake
looks so lustrous, the islands so impossibly neat and numerous, the
hills so bold and big and swirled in such striking shades of light
and dark--but, once you've been to Grace Lake, you realize that the
painter didn't exaggerate.