July 14, 2019 – A fair bit of the conversation at Orillia among the Loopers was getting past the railroad swing bridge on the way to the Big Chute. Lot’s of rumors with regard to how long a wait we might have, and whether the bridge tender hated all boats, or just Loopers.
‘He’ll make you wait, just out of spite’,
‘I heard a boat was trapped there for two hours’
A group of us decided to make a run for it en masse, so at least when it did open, we could all get through before it closed again.
We wound up having to hold station in a very narrow rock lined channel for almost an hour and a half; but we could hear a couple trains go past, so it appeared that it was legit. Finally, it swung open, so off we go!
We had a few more tight areas to traverse, but they were of the more natural variety, not the straight hand-dug canals that we had contended with before.
Most of the other boats were pressing on to the Big Chute marine railway, but we pulled off into the Lost Channel, several miles up a river to a nice dead-end anchorage with pretty views just a few camps. Another Looper boat joined us later in the afternoon, and we were both treated to a twilight waterskiing demonstration.
In the morning, a pristine antique motor launch came motoring past, and stopped off at one of the nearby camps
A nice sendoff as we head for the final locks of the Trent Severn Waterway, and out into the Georgian Bay.