Trent-Severn Canal
On July 24th we left the North Channel and started heading south to Toronto, Canada, to start exploring the Trent-Severn Canal and the beautiful Georgian Bay that we have heard so much about. The drive was lovely through the country side as we passed patches of purple flowers in the meadows and white and yellow daisies sprinkled along the road side. It feels remote as we drive above the North Chanel but then it becomes more populated as we drive south to reach Georgian Bay. The amount of rock up here is surprising. The rock looks extremely solid, dark, hard and heavy We read that this area has pre-Cambrian rock which is two and one-half billion years old. When they build a highway they blast it out of rock. Just like our home town of Valley Center, but the rock is different, there it’s decomposed granite, here it’s solid. You can see the drill tracks in the picture as vertical white lines. This is a small local road, imagine building a freeway.
In order to give more insight as to the remoteness of this area and to why there seems to be so much rock we give the following quote.
"As we have already observed, most of the Canadians live along the southern side of their country. Why is this? If you think climate is the answer, you have missed the most important reason. It is geology.
More than half the Dominion is covered by a strange rocky formation that has dominated the development of Canada almost from the very beginning. This Pre-Cambrian or Laurentian shield, as it is called, lies like a gigantic collar around Hudson Bay. It spreads out to the Atlantic, and comes right down to the St. Lawrence, across which it throws a spur to form the Thousand Islands. Westward it encloses Lake Superior, and from there it stretches northwest to the mouth of the Mackenzie River in the Arctic.
This rocky formation is made up of the stumps of ancient mountains that have been ground down by the action of glaciers in ages past. It is a wilderness of rocks, lakes, and evergreen trees. Long ago it blocked the advance of settlement. It has been of economic use for only three purposes—at first for the furs it produced, and more recently for its wealth of forest and mineral resources.
The Pre-Cambrian shield is to blame for crowding the population of eastern Canada in a narrow belt of territories along the south. It has also cut Canada in two, separating the East from the West by a huge, almost uninhabited area. There is no “Middle West” in the Dominion of Canada.”
As we drove south we checked out several marinas hoping to find a place to launch the boat to tour Georgian Bay, but it turned out we had to drive much further south than we had planned. Interestingly and quite by accident we drove through some exclusive areas on lakes for the rich and famous. We continued on to a KOA in Gravenhurst, which we discovered was a challenge to our navigation skills to find, but we did. When people stay at KOAs up here it is quite different than what we experienced as we crossed the United States. Many are sites that they rent all year, or at least for the entire summer These trailers are on blocks, enclosed with screen, there are places for their cars to park and the big standup bar-b-ques. There were two swimming pools, play yard for little ones, a golf course across the street, a large pond to fish and the park was packed. The following day we left the boat and drove the truck to explore further south. Our first stop was at Trent Severn Lock 42 and we watched the boats come in and out of the lock, which brought back many memories for us on the Erie Canal and Canal Du Midi in France. At that point we thought maybe we would do the Trent-Severn Canal first instead of Georgian Bay.
Orillia, the largest town we had been in for quite some time, was our next destination and the decision was made to start the Trent-Severn Canal from there. The marina was also the most pleasant we had been in for some time, or maybe modern is a better word to use, and it offered a deal we couldn’t refuse – if we stayed two nights the third one was free. Well you didn’t have to twist our arms. This was a city dock but their facilities were clean plus the people working there were quite helpful. Also there was a large laundromat, grocery store and the whole town within walking distance. Since this marina also included a good launch ramp, we knew there would have to be parking for trucks and trailers. We discovered that we could leave our truck and trailer here while we were on the Trent-Severn with no charge. The next three days were spent getting ready to be away from port for awhile: making sure we had clean clothes, food, water and fuel.
On
Sunday, July 29,
we started our trip on the Trent-Severn Canal and we were excited
because of our past experiences on canals. After we went through
the first narrows between two lakes, an area that was tightly lined
with buoys, then Lake Simcoe, we finally entered the canal which was
about fifty feet wide. While in the canal we motored six knots and
enjoyed the scenery of beautiful trees lining the canal,
farmlands, and even golf courses. There were six locks we would
go through that day along with two other boats. Because you are either
waiting to get into the locks or waiting for the locks to fill or drain
once you are in, you get to know the other boaters fairly well
since there is plenty of time to talk. As the water comes
in, when you are going up the canal, it looks like it is boiling as it
is let in from the bottom. It is always a new experience going
through a lock because for some reason it is always just a little
different than the last. Our last lock for that day was a
lift-lock which Boris was especially exited to go up. Lift locks
are nothing like the regular locks, this one is two large containers,
like bathtubs but rectangular, one is going up while the other one goes
down, driven by hydraulic pistons. You drive the boat in and tie
off to metal bars
and they
bring up the
end gates and secure it. Then it goes straight up and the other
starts coming down, like elevators. In the meantime, I got out of
the boat, walked across the street, up the stairs and perched myself so
I could take pictures of the boat coming up. The average lock
raises up about fifteen feet but the lift-lock rose straight up
forty-nine feet with an unobstructed view, so you definitely get the
sense of height. As we continued down the canal and came out into
Balsam Lake, and because it was late, we decided to anchor here for the
night. There were quite a few boats tucked up against the shore
and we discovered they were there because it was sand and the water was
only waist or knee high which allowed the entire family to be in the
water romping around and having a great time. Evening came and
most everyone left, except for four boats that were tied together and
tucked up against the trees. Interestingly enough, we were
anchored in only four feet of water. We anchored for two
nights and it was calm and peaceful both days. In the middle of
the second night I had gotten up, the full moon was shinning and it
looked as if someone had turned on a light. The moon reflected
off the still water and you could see the outline of the houses on the
shore. Beautiful, it was just beautiful.
The weather has been hot and humid but as long as
we are moving it wasn’t too bad. This day we went through four
lakes and three locks. This canal is quite different from our
previous canals experiences because here they used lakes to connect the
w
aterway
and there
is a lot of navigation on the lakes
because these lakes are narrow, shallow with many chunks of rocks
sticking up here and there, with small islands thrown in for good
measure. As we went through our last lock for the day Boris said
there was a good place to anchor behind Big Island. We motored
over there making a wide berth around the chunks of rocks sticking out
of the water and tucked into this tiny cove where two houseboats
were tied up off the trees. It was hot, we put our bathing suits
on and got wet to cool off. There was a little breeze that helped
and as the sun went behind the trees, it started cooling off. We
closed up the boat because of the few battles we have had with
mosquitoes when we tried to cool the boat down and left the door
open. We didn’t close the door soon enough and spent the first
hour in bed whacking the mosquitoes as they would buzz by.
This cove is calm and reflecting the color of the trees,
green. There are a few ripples in the water from late boaters on
the water going home. You can see lights going on in the houses
that are tucked long the shoreline across the lake. It is a
lovely way to have the evening greet you. The sky is turning gray
from the daytime blue that we saw all day and will be black with stars
sprinkling the sky before long.
God was sweet this morning and kept the cockpit of
the boat in the shade for us to enjoy this beautiful scenery with our
cup of coffee. It was a gorgeous morning with clear skies and
warm weather. The only problem with it being warm so early is
that you know that it will be hot and humid the rest of the
day. As we motor through these lakes we can see that there
is plenty of money up here in Canada as we look at the large, gorgeous
homes they are building along the waterfront, which are called
cottages. As Boris and I carefully navigate these waters, the
locals are quite comfortable with the waters and just zip by as we
travel at six knots, mainly trying to conserve gas. One of their
past times is to pull a boat, seadoo, pontoon, or any other water craft
up on the sandy side of the lake and beach it, step off and walk around
in the shallow water. So
me
take this time to
make it a family event to
scrub the boat and others gather together with a few other boats, sit
in their lawn chairs in the water and visit, and still others bring
their young children and they jump in and splash around, swim, put on
goggles to check to see what is under the water. A fairly large
turtle popped his head up next to our boat for a second and dove
again. But mainly they are here to cool off because it is hot and
it is summer. It is interesting to cruise in the summer through
other people’s playgrounds. We have enjoyed watching the high
pitch of activity in these waters as the people who live here know
their summer is limited and they take full advantage of the long, hot,
lazy days of summer. When we went to bed everyone had left and we
had the anchorage to ourselves. One good thing about being
anchored is that if there is any breeze at all, the bow of the boat
will be pointed in that direction which allows a breeze to come in
through the hatch in the V-berth where we sleep. We truly
appreciated the slight breeze because the week had been a scorcher.
Again it was a cool, calm morning when we got up but we knew that would soon change. This is now Thursday, August 2 and that day we went through six locks, one right after another in the morning and fortunately it went smoothly. The second to the last lock before Peterborough, the town where we planned to stay at a marina for a couple of nights, was another lift lock. This time I got to enjoy the ride down. As we were securing the boat to the metal rods, there was a couple on the boat next to us and we started chit chatting while we waited for the lift to go down. During this time the woman shared with us that in the 1970’s the front gate on the lift had actually opened up two different times while the lift lock was in motion, letting out all the water. Even though you have your boat tied off by ropes to rails, I am sure it was an exciting ride. No one fell off but I wish she had waited till we reached the bottom before she told that story. Our ride went quite smoothly, thank you very much. We pulled into Peterborough in the early afternoon and we were dismayed as to how hot and humid it was. I do not ever remember having my eyelids sweat before. I have heard that humidity is good for the skin, keeps it supple. In that case I should look ten years younger when we return home. The afternoon was spent visiting with other boaters who were walking up and down the dock trying to stay out of the sun, trying to get in the path of a breeze, and waiting for the thunderstorms they said were coming.
Early the next morning we heard the CRACK of thunder and after we were awakened we could see the almost continual lightening through the hatch in the V-berth. Hurriedly we closed up the boat because we knew the rain would come shortly. When we got up a couple of hours later it was already warm and humid. Not a good sign. We ran several errands and tried to get them done before noon and then sat in front of our twelve volt fan if we couldn’t find a breeze and shade.
Originally we planned to stay in
Peterborough for three nights, but we weren’t too impressed with the
town. Then again it could just be the oppressive heat we were
experiencing at the time, but we decided to leave on Saturday morning
even though we knew this was a three day holiday for everyone in
Canada. The waterways would be crazy with everyone out
there playing during their last holiday weekend of the summer, we bit
the bullet and left anyway, being anxious to start the trip back and
out into Georgian Bay. Just around the corner from Peterborough,
on the canal, we again came up on the lift-lock and we noticed that
several other boats were tied off
and
waiting
to go through. As we came up they told us they were having
trouble with this lock and were waiting for it to start working.
We heard that the day before it had been down for a few hours.
Before we left Peterborough marina Boris called the office and asked if
this lock was working and they said, “Yes.” At this time they
were having trouble with the cylinder leaking – it had dropped sixteen
feet overnight and I walked up to the side that was up and watched the
lock keepers going around this huge cylinder and tightening up each
little section. They finally got it running and after about
an hour they signaled for us to load up on the lift. Boris and I
thought we would take the next lift because there were what looked like
to us to many boats, but the attendant told us to squeeze our little
boat in with all the others. Thank heavens we did because after
they lifted us up, that lift lock was out of service for the next four
hours. There were basically just our little group of boats going
through the locks, since they also stopped downstream traffic, which
made it quite simple, instead of us having to wait for the hordes of
boats I thought would be traveling on the canal. After nine
locks we were tired and decided to stop and tie up to the cement walls
just outside of the locks, which you can do for a fee but there is no
water or electricity. This spot turned out not to be to
pleasant a place. Of course this is their holiday weekend, it is
Saturday night and after we squeezed into a spot, we were told that the
people who were here the night before had also camped in a tent and had
some of their items that they left on a picnic table stolen.
Needless to say we locked everything up and late in the night we could
hear young people talking as they walked by our boat which was not in
the main stream of traffic. Also the boats across the water were
partying and having a good time with their music and bar-b-queing.
Songs out of the ‘70s. We were on the up side of the lock which
means where the water is higher, and were told later that at that
particular lock you never tie up to the high (party) side, only the low
side. Again learning local knowledge we will never use
again. Early the following morning I heard young people walking
and talking quite a bit for being so early, as they came by our boat,
sometime before 6:00 a.m. After I got up and as I was walking
over the top of the gates of the lock, looking down so I wouldn’t lose
my balance and trip on the wooden planks, I noticed blood. Also,
as I reached the other side there was broken glass all over the
ground. I was puzzled until I looked up and saw that someone had
smashed the glass in the control booth that the lockmaster sits in to
open and close the locks. At this time we felt that maybe this
wasn’t the best place to have stopped for the night.
On Sunday, August 5, we went through six more locks and stopped at a town called Rosedale and tied up again at the lock. This lock was a fairly remote location, so people couldn’t easily drive there which made a world of difference. The area was lovely and the opposite of what we incurred the night before. The only people there were boaters and two families tenting together. We were glad we took the chance and stopped again because this was a totally different experience, one that gave us a beautiful location that was calm, quiet and serene.
The following morning we rose early so we could
push off the dock by 8:00 a.m. There were several lakes we needed
to go through and six more locks, five being at the end just before we
went into Lake Simcoe and back through the narrows to Orilla where we
planned to dock at the city marina for three days. These lakes
are shallow; six to twelve feet to maybe twenty-five feet and grass
grows abundantly throughout all these lakes. In fact, we have
talked with sail boaters and there are times they had to jump into the
water to get
the grass off
the prop, shaft, and
wing keel because the grass wraps around them and can slow the boat
down to two knots. The last five locks were close together, a
half to one mile in between them. Fortunately going through
all these locks went smoothly; as we drove up the lock doors were open
and the five boats were able to go right in and tie up. For Lock
41, note that the gates are run by hand, cranked open and shut by
capstans. Some are electrically operated, but not many. However all are
well maintained. These lock people work 12 hr. days for 7 mos., and
then have 5 mos. off. One we talked to went to Florida for the winter
and stayed with relatives. Another went to Yuma. Both places are warmer
than Canada during winter (or any other time of the year.) For several
locks, we were the penultimate boat in, the last boat in was a 40’
power boat, which if it hit us would have spelled disaster. They
didn’t, but we would
have preferred the
reverse entry sequence. Since the locksmasters telephoned ahead,
we didn’t have to wait for the water to fill up in the lock, bring
other boats up, open the lock doors, wait for the boats to leave the
lock before we could enter. Again, we were quite happy that we
could get through those locks as quickly as we did. The wind
kicked up on Simcoe lake and we had a bumpy ride across but we finally
made it to Orillia City docks and were thrilled to be tied up and be in
one spot for a few days and also some place we had actually been
before. Journey On is a lot smoother over heavy chop when it’s up on
plane, thank goodness. It’s heavily loaded, so going fast costs a lot
of gas, but this evening it was worth it.
After a few down days we were anxious to continue on the part of the Trent-Severn Canal that we had not seen yet because everyone we spoke to said this would be the prettiest part of the canal. There were just a few more locks to go through, one being the “Big Chute”, which Boris has been waiting to go on since we started on the this part of the trip.
But first we went through a lock that dropped forty-seven feet. As you are sit on your boat, with the lines from your boat wrapped around the rod that extends the depth of the lock, we slowly went down as the water drains out of the lock, the chamber that we are in has cement sides with metal door that clanged loudly when they closed. As we slowly descends the graffiti on the walls begins to appear. The lower we go the more graffiti we see. This was the only lock where people wrote in the scum on the side of the cement walls; yuk. I certainly wouldn’t have stuck my finger in that scum and etched out someone’s initials or a big happy face. As we reach the bottom and looked up, the lock seems to be much deeper than forty-seven feet. The second to the last lock was the “Big Chute”, the one Boris had been waiting to ride and everyone on the canal talks about. This is a marine railway, which hauls boats over land and back into the canal. As we drove up we didn’t have much time to anticipate what this would be like because the operator immediately said over the loud speaker, “The little boat, you come in first.” He was talking to us. This metal dry dock had lowered itself back into the water so it could let off the boats it had just brought over from the other side and then we drove on and they told us to go forward on the right side. Unlike the lift lock, this lock does not have side that come up on the ends. As we entered we threw them our lines and they tied them off. They adjusted a sling under our boat and moved the chute a little more out of the water to let the next larger boat in. Now I am sitting on the bow of the boat which is almost forward of the end of chute. Boris stood in the cabin to watch us go over the top and then down into the water below on rails. This chute is controlled by electric motors and once all the boats were secured we were lifted out of the water on the rails, over some rocks, across a street, down the rails on the other side and again gently lowered into the water. It happened so fast it was almost disappointing. There was a government dock right next to the Big Chute, which means one long wooden dock with cleats to tie off to, where we stayed that night. The best thing about that was that we were able to go up to the chute, watch it from all side, front, back, top, and bottom as other boaters went up and down the chute. Boris was in heaven.
The night at the government dock was pleasant. One reason was they shut down all the locks at 7:00 p.m. and do not start up until 8:30 a.m.. The scenery was beautiful with the huge rocks which were once rapids but now dry because the chute diverts the water to the other side and the water is used for a power plant. The people in back of us on the dock were retired teachers, and they gave a lot of information about local hydro power, cottages, fishing, etc. You can’t ask for much more; calm, quiet, and scenic. Around 8:30 a.m. we left to go through the last lock on the Trent-Severn, but to get there we maneuver our way through many small islands, closely following the buoys. This section truly felt like an obstacle course as we looked at the chart and then we would search for the buoy in the water with our binoculars. It is well marked but often we had to continue on till we could see around a small island before the buoys would appear and you would become anxious because you wondered if you were going in the right direction.
The last lock came into view and we were sorry to end this part of the trip. When we exited the lock we would then be in Georgian Bay.
