Once again into the breach

June 28, 2019 – Stretching 240 miles across central Ontario, the Trent-Severn Waterway is a series of rivers, lakes and canals that connects the Bay of Quinte (off Lake Ontario) to the Georgian Bay, of Lake Huron. We will transit 37 conventional locks, two flight locks (sequentially connected locks), two hydraulic lift locks, and a marine railway.

The first stretch of this canal, like the Erie, is one lock after another; the first six locks raise us 118 feet, over just 5 miles. These locks are much smaller than those on the Erie Canal, and we found them much easier to handle, even though we had to shut down the motors and both handle lines that we wrapped around cables mounted to the sides of the locks. They seemed to raise pretty slowly, and the sun was baking us as we stood there on the side decks waiting to get to the top and back underway.

The lock staff was very friendly, and made it a point to chat us up about where we were from, and where we were headed for the day. They were helpful in answering questions, and in suggesting things to do and see as we went onward. This was a big contrast from the ‘all-business’ attitude of the NY canal staff.

Many (but not all) of the locks are manually operated. Here, the swing bridge was first opened, then the two operators each walked the turnstiles around and around and around to crank open the big doors to the lock so we could exit.

At one point, we exited a canal section back into the river, through a very narrow slot, definitely one boat wide. No more than a few feet on each side.

As we went on, we began to get into ‘cottage country’, where there were camps and homes along the waterfront. This particular stretch was well-decorated in advance of Canada Day (July 1), but oddly, we didn’t see a single person. All at work still, I guess.

Strangely, we seemed to be the only boat on the water. Eventually, we saw a pontoon boat, a few fishing boats, and some kayaks, but almost every lock was open and waiting for us when we got there, and at every one we locked alone.

In the end, we pushed on 30 miles, through 11 locks that took us up 234 feet, all the way to Campbellford. We had worried all the way along whether we’d get there and find a spot to moor, but we pulled in and and got a spot on the wall run by the town, with a power hookup. There were quite a few other boats already there, and we were glad to see that we weren’t closed out. We’ll hold here for the rest of the holiday weekend, and sample some of the local color.