Category: Trent-Severn

July 15, 2019 – And now for something completely different.

Your boat floats in all the other locks. But for this one, you drive onto a ‘rail cart’, and it takes you out and over a hill with a a road, and down the other side back into the water.

With you on it.

We docked the boat first, so we could get off and take a look at it up close.

We start the boat up and move to the ready line, and they give us directions over a loudspeaker to approach the cart. Once we are close, we can talk to the lock staff that are up on the cart, for final instructions. Once the boat is in place, we shut it down and just enjoy the ride.

Oh boy! Its slow and smooth, but definitely an E-Ticket ride…

Roll the footage-

The short leg from the Chute to the final lock at Port Severn seemed a bit anticlimactic, but even that lock had a little something in store, with stiff breeze at the top, and the fact that it is the smallest lock on the system. They squeezed us in with two smallish bowriders, and down we went.

Goodbye, Trent-Severn; we’re in the Georgian Bay!

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.

July 10-13, 2019

We got an early start on leaving Kirkfield Lift Lock, hoping to get through some more tight stretches without encountering oncoming traffic again. Fortunately, a very quiet morning, and no more encounters on the way to Lake Simcoe.

Finally, through the straight and narrow sections and out onto Lake Simcoe. A pretty big lake (19 miles long by 16 miles wide), we’d heard that on a windy day it could get pretty rough, but we had a beautiful sunny low-wind day for our crossing. At the north end of the lake, we passed through the ‘Narrows’ into Lake Couchiching, to the very protected municipal harbor, right near the heart of downtown, lots of park space and a public beach down the way, with a historic well preserved turn of the century bandstand, park benches, and and the best playground we have ever seen.

Many nice old houses in town – we had picked up a pamphlet at the marina took a walking tour to view many of them.

We ate the first night at a side walk table, checking out the scene.

The next day we took a big shopping trip on bikes out to the Canadian Tire (sort of a cross between a Lowe’s and a Target). Bought our own floaty seats like our friends introduced to us to, for hanging out in the water behind the boad, and some floating rope so we could stern tie the boat to rocks once we got out into the Georgian Bay, which is apparently a common practice.

When we got back, we discovered that five Canadian boats from the dock at Peterborough had come in, and docked right opposite us ! It was their annual two-week vacation for them together. A couple more Looper boats also rolled in, including our friends on Justified.

We had dinner on Justified with some other folks, with Chantale’s lemon bars for dessert, and then spent the evening playing the house dice game (variation of Farkle) and drinking Bushwackers.

We went to the Farmers Market the next morning, near their Opera House (!) of all places. Great market !! Ben’s strategy is to walk all the way through and around in order to scope out the wares, but if Chantale sees something she wants to get it right then. Shocking, I know.

Anyway. Ben’s procedure is followed and then a discussion of needed items ensues. Maple sugar candy in leaf form. Check

Peach and blueberry pie, and one butter tart with currants. Check

Tomatoes. Check

Hard dry sausages of varying styles from the Italian lady. Check

And the best snap peas ever-like candy-check!

We then hit the huge Mariposa Market bakery for breakfast and a few more goodies (an eclair that was out of this world), as we would be leaving the next day.

July 8-9, 2019 – These two stops were ones that we’d heard about for years, and are apparently a couple of the hottest tourist destinations along the Trent Severn waterway. But like Nags Head, Myrtle Beach, Cape May, Ocean City, just because they are popular, they aren’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea.

The canal leading from our anchorage to Bobcaygeon was really pretty, transiting some of the prettiest lakes and locks that we had seen – Burleigh Falls, Lovesick, Buckhorn. The first several miles took us through some tight spots between many small rocky islands; one even had a church, with a long dock for parishioners to arrive by boat!

As we approached Bobcaygeon, the canal narrowed, and the cottages were right at the waters edge, with docks and decks literally a few feet from our boat as we went past.

We needed to get a pumpout, so had to stop at a marina right across from the lock; as we took care of that business, some other boats that we knew stacked up at the lower lock walls, and with the ‘ice creamers’ also taking up space with short term dockage, we were left with nowhere to go. I went back in the marina office, and inquired about whether they would let us stay there – ‘sure, we will just slide you back a few feet’. So in the end, for about the same price as our friends who scored a lock wall with no services, we had a marina dock with ‘hydro’ (electric), bathroooms and showers, and fresh water to fill our tanks. Who laughs last?

We crossed the bridge to walk around, did some shopping, and met our friends on the other side for drinks. We opted to peel off and go to dinner at an Italian place across the street. Unfortunately, their kitchen processes left something to be desired, and despite us asking several times about what was taking a simple pizza so long, they finally admitted they had lost the order. It was good when it finally came, but left us in a cranky mood.

So, Ben finally got to lead the way to the famous Kawartha Dairy store. Kawartha Dairy ice cream was something that we’d been hearing about in Looper lore for years; you knew if you saw a shop advertising that kind, that it’d be good. We even bought a few containers for the freezer, But here we were at the mecca itself, the dairy plant, with a walk-up window with a long line. Yum – best ice cream ever!

The next day we followed the crowd of boats through the lock, and onward to the next popular lock, Fenelon Falls. We’d been told that going down and standing next to the locks to assess ‘style points’ for boats’ locking prowess was the local sport there, but we were on our game. As we came up in the lock, sure enough, there was a crowd hanging over the fence talking to us, so we felt that we’d gotten the experience. Hopefully we could get a spot, to tie up and walk around to see what this place was all about.

Nope. The boat ahead of us had gotten the last spot. So much for that.

On we went, ultimately coming to the first of several passages through the original narrow Trent canals, that were hand-dug out the rock. We waited for another boat to come out, before heading in – clearly you don’t want to squeeze through with another boat. We made a ‘Securite’ call, to advise other oncoming traffic that we were entering the narrow ditch.

You have got to be kidding me! The water was so clear, you could see the jagged edges of the rock just waiting to gouge the side of your boat for a momentary lapse of attention. Out the other side, through the Rosedale Lock – with a park that was one of the prettiest we’d seen to date. Through a somewhat weedy lake to another, longer narrow canal; straight as an arrow, and just as tight. Again, we made a ‘Securite’ call. Silence. So we headed on into the canal. A few minutes in…

Crap! Oncoming boats. Sure would’ve been nice if they’d called a ‘Securite’. Or responded to my call that they were already in the ditch.

We found the widest spot we could (not very), and held station, waiting for them to pass. Whew! Exhale, keep going. Another lake, another long straight ditch – oh wait, this ditch has a bend in the middle. That you can’t see around. And that is only one boat wide!

Finally, we come out on top of a hill, to the Kirkfield Lift Lock. This is the highest point on the canal – it’s all downhill from here. This lock is like Peterborough, but all steel frame construction, rather than concrete.

This time, we drive into the pan that is already at the top, kind of like an infinity pool. It’s very windy, and it was a bit challenging to get tied up, but a few minutes later, we were motoring out the lock, where we had decided to spend the night. A nice, quiet spot, with just one other boat on the opposite wall.

While we relaxed after a very stressful day, we watched as a big snapping turtle crawled out of the woods, tumbled onto the top of the lock wall, and crawled past our boat into the water. And you wonder why Chantale wasn’t keen on me using the SUP that evening…

July 6-7, 2019 – We got up early, and walked around the lock grounds, to take a few pictures when there wasn’t any action. This is one of the older locks, that we would begin to see more of, that had hand cranked butterfly valves in the lock gates themselves, rather than remotely controlled deep in the lock wall structures as in most of the other more modern locks.

We then headed back across the bridge, for a walk through town with the plan to stop at the grocery store on the way back. Quite a nice little village, with a long waterfront trail leading down to a park at the other end that was having a Jazz music and arts & crafts festival. Unfortunately, even though we were not going to stay to watch any of the musical acts, the admission to even walk through the vendors was $8 apiece, so we kept on walking back through town, past a pretty old church.

We picked up a few provisions, including a container of Kawartha Dairy ice cream, the best there is, according to some. Hard to argue, and nice to have at the end of a hot day.

When we got back to the boat, the lock wall was now pretty full – it turns out that a handful of the regulars from the marina in Peterborough (!) had cruised together to Lakefield for the weekend. We got a couple suggestions for anchorages we might consider, and then left them to cast lots to inherit our prized spot on the wall.

The other locks and waterway of the day are somewhat now a blur, but we found a great anchorage at the junction between Clear and Stony Lakes – not the one suggested by our Peterborough dock-mates, but one we picked out between three rocky islands.

There were a few cottages along the shoreline, and we watched an old wooden canoe go by, as well as some waterskiers and fisherman. The water was deep and clear, and it felt great to jump in the water. We inflated the stand-up paddleboard that we’d purchased at the Annapolis boat show last fall, and had fun getting used to standing up and paddling around. We certainly look forward to getting a lot of use out of this in some anchorages along the way.

For the first time, we were at a place where we stayed a second day just because we loved it, not because we had to, or it was part of the grand plan. Ahhhhh!

We invited our friends on Justified to come raft up with us, and we took the dinks exploring around some of the other nearby islands. One of them was apparently a popular spot to climb and jump off a small cliff – well, that just had to be tried.

July 5, 2019 – As we left the marina in Peterborough, we actually have to go through the Ashburnam lock right on the edge of the lake, before getting to the Lift Lock itself. We had noted that there were half a dozen boats tied up there the previous evening, so we gave them a chance to clear out in the morning, and headed over about 9:30. Well, apparently they weren’t all interested in going up early, and we had to thread our way into the lock between them. A smaller 40 foot boat came in behind us, and then….wait a second, they can’t be serious!!! The tour boat was coming into the lock, too???

Holy xxxx! The curve of their bow just barely cleared the dinghy on our stern by about two feet. Hang on tight! We had our hands full making sure that the lock fill didn’t toss us around, so not able to snap any pictures…

Once out of the lock, we got out of the tourboat’s way by tying up before the lock, to go see about the inside tour; we had been corresponding with the head of the waterway, and his PR guy about getting some inside pictures (with our 360 camera) of the lift lock, and we had gotten the OK. The crew from Justified rode up on their bikes as we arrived, and some lock staff came down to meet us.

Absolutely incredible! We got to go all the way in to see the pipes and mechanisms that operate the lock, and go under the pans and see the big hydraulic cylinders.

We took lots of 360 video footage, but unfortunately, the file sizes are so large, and the video editing surpasses the capability of the computer we have aboard, so we can’t really edit and share it yet.

We had a great time seeing the innards, but now it was time to take our boat for a ride. Going….UP!

Wow! What a ride! About a minute and a half – to go up 65 feet – here’s the video

We continued on, eventually staying on the other side of the Lakefield lock -near a nice shady spot with a picnic table. We met a very nice Canadian man with his grandchildren, and talked with him quite a while about advice for further up the canal. Interestingly, we would actually see him again a couple times along the way.

We walked across the bridge to town, and had lunch at a pub, and then back to the boat to celebrate a great day.

July 3-4, 2019 – We pulled into Peterborough Municipal Marina, and were met very efficiently by Ben (!) and a crew of dockhands to get us situated and welcomed to the area. Ben and his wife, in addition to working at the Marina, are the AGLCA Harbor Hosts for the area, and had a nice welcome packet made up with information about the area, and a few goodies.

As an extra bonus, he even gave me a ride to the Canadian Tire store (sort of a cross between a WalMart and Lowes) to get some oil so I would have it on hand when the engines came due . We have realized that going slow through the locks adds up a lot of engine hours, even though not a lot of miles, and that the engines will come due for an oil change before we get back to the US. They had a sale on 5-gallon buckets, so I got two – matching side tables for the salon chair!

There was a free concert in the large park immediately adjacent to the marina that night, but we walked up the main street to drop into a few pubs and restaurants first. As it turned out, the music was not so much to our liking, so we threaded our way back down our dock to the boat, through several groups of local boaters with their chairs out on the dock between their boats, just hanging out.

The next day, we took our bikes over to the lift lock to get a look at it first hand. Wow!

For some specs – (courtesy of Wikipedia): The lock has two identical bathtub-like ship caissons in which vessels ascend and descend. Both caissons are enclosed at each end by pivoting gates, and there are pivoting gates at the upper and lower reaches of the canal at the junctions with the caissons. The gates on the caissons fit into slots on the gates on the reaches, so that they open in unison. Each caisson sits on a 7.5 ft (2.3 m) diameter ram, the shafts for which are sunk into the ground, are filled with water, and are connected with a pipe that has a crossover control valve. The caissons are guided up and down on either side by rails affixed to concrete towers. The caissons are 140 ft long, 33 ft wide, and 7 ft deep and when filled with 228,093 imperial gallons of water weigh 1,700 short tons.

No external power is needed: the lift lock functions by gravity alone using the counterweight principle. One caisson always ascends and the other always descends during each locking cycle. The upper one is always heavier, by filling with 1 foot more water than the lower side.

We went through a visitor center, and then walked out to see the beast, from below, before walking up stairs alongside one of the support towers. Rob, the operator told us that since they weren’t too busy, we could walk over the catwalk to the center pylon.

Right next to our dock in the marina was a tourboat operation that took people up, and then back down, the lift lock, we got a chance to see them come through, along with a much 45-passenger riverboat cruise ship that takes people on a 5-day cruise between The Big Chute and Peterborough. That boat took nearly the entire pan of the lock.

Rob was incredibly helpful, in showing us and explaining the operation of the lock, and we got a great closeup view of the operation from the operating tower.

Having gotten a pretty good idea of what to expect when we came through the lock the next day, we hopped back on the bikes and rode back down the hill to our marina.

Our friends on Justified had arrived, and anchored out in the small lake adjacent to the marina. They invited us out to their boat for a swim and a 4th of July picnic, so we dropped the dinghy and motored on out. We all hopped in the water, and floated around behind their boat for over an hour, before starting the grill. Great meal and chance to catch up with friends. They planned to go over to tour the lock themselves in the morning, so it looked like we might have a photo crew on hand for when we went up.

As we left, we zipped the dinghy through the mist falling from a giant fountain in the middle of the lake. Well, I aimed for what I thought would be just mist, but it wound up being a little heavier than that – whoops! At night, the fountain is lit with color-changing lights – here’s a view of it from the city’s website. Our marina is in the lower part of the photo.

July 2, 2019 – Finally, with the big Canada Day weekend behind us, we departed Campbellford. We were worried that a lot of the other boats would have the same plan, and we might get bogged down at the next lock, which was only a short distance from the town. So, we left early, about 7:30, to wait in first position at the lock; as it turned out, another boat with a slight mechanical issue arrived shortly afterward, and we agreed to let them go first into the lock, to minimize that any maneuvering problem could occur before we came into the chamber.

Everything went smoothly, although eventually they had to hang back when one of their engines kept quitting on them. We continued on alone, and had intended to anchor overnight in a tight little creek off the main channel.

Tight all right! It was a hard left turn, past some fallen-down trees, and back into a crooked little channel that looked like a sure route to disaster. But it opened up, and after some deliberation at the helm, we found a spot to our liking, and dropped the hook. Although the water was clear, and weed-free, the banks and surrounding areas were a bit too….swampy looking for Chantale’s liking, and so going for a quick dip was a pleasure that only Ben enjoyed tonight.

The next morning, we found that the anchor light had attracted hundreds of bugs to come land on the boat and die, so we would have a washing job when we next got to a hose spigot. The next morning we would travel the rest of the way to Peterborough, a relatively large town that is right before the famous Peterborough Lift Lock.

July 1, 2019 – On two separate occasions, we’d stopped into an establishment in downtown Campbellford, across the bridge from our boat, and sampled the wares that were made some miles out of town at an old Church. So, on Canada Day, we first walked through the park to see some of the Canada Day festivities (primarily kid-oriented) .

Then, we unfolded the bikes and set out on an 8 km ride, mostly uphill, to the tiny crossroad hamlet of Petherick Corners, outside Campbellford.

And the angels sang, as we crested the hill and arrived at the Churchkey Brewery.

We got a terrific tour from one of the brewmasters, did a tasting of eight different beers they had on tap, and chose one to enjoy outside, before enjoying the long downhill ride back to town.

Later, a couple boats that we knew were come coming through the lock, so Ben hopped back on his bike and rode down to get some shots of them coming through; we had locked through alone, but they were a bit more cramped.

June 30-July 1, 2019 – Not sure just how crazy the waterways might get leading into Canada Day, we had decided to stay put in Cambellford, one of three small towns in the Trent Hills area. The town had outfitted both sides of the canal here, along concrete walls, with power pedestals, and their Chamber of Commerce very efficiently runs the money-collecting associated with overnight dockage. Before we had even tied up, the attendant was there with an information packet and the portable credit card machine.

The opposite wall from us (over a short bridge) had more boats, probably because it was closer to the bath-house, and adjacent to a nice park. But we were a stones throw from the LCBO (although we didn’t need to visit it).

We made it to some of the sights here, including a pedestrian suspension bridge over the falls that were bypassed by the lock; we saw it as we transited, and later walked back through a Provincial Park to cross it.

On our way back from the falls, we stopped at the big double (flight lock) lock that we had come through the previous day. It was interesting to see it from a different perspective.

All the locals told us that we should be sure to visit the chocolate factory (World’s Finest), and Dooher’s Bakery, voted as Canada’s Sweetest Bakery; we hit both of those, but skipped the Empire cheese factory, as it was a farther walk on a hot day, and we were pretty well stocked for cheese.

We had a good time chatting up the locals, and meeting the various Loopers that came and went during our 4 day stay.