Leaving Lake Ontario, we headed to the Trent Severn Waterway. The Trent Severn Waterway is a canal system maintained by Parks Canada and connects Lake Ontario at Trenton Ca to Lake Huron's Georgian Bay at Severn Ca. The overall length of the system is 240 miles (386 kms) and features 44 locks, including the first and second highest lift locks in the world, 2 flight locks and one marine railway. It took 87 years to complete, from 1833 to 1920.
By all accounts, this is reputed to be the best of the best of the Parks Canada canal system. Our excitement overflowed with expectation as we left the wonderful and cozy Trent Port Marina for this next leg. As you will see, it did not disappoint.
Hard to read the sign on the bridge but it says "Gateway to the Trent Severn Waterway.
This one is easier to read.
And there was this cute comedic map seen throughout. Not much of a navigation aid, but cute none the less.
I could bore all readers by going place by place, lock wall by lock wall, marina by marina and great food by great food as we traveled through. In truth, it was all kind of the same .... one simply fantastic/amazing/stunning experience after an other. Over and over again Terri and I said to each other: "OMG, this is so amazing". Think lush green waterways. Think either clear or emerald green waters. Think quaint cottages on islands. Just beautiful.
Somehow, we managed to separate ourselves from all the other boaters/loopers and most of the trip so far has had us solo in the locks and most lock walls at night. This created a surreal trip where we ventured in peace and solitude.
(No Bob, those are stains on the lock wall, not art of a woman's boobs!)
And they let me work the locks again. Maybe I have found my retirement job!!!! (Yea, but who wants a job when retired???).
We found the towns to be unbelievably encouraging of Loopers. We arrived at a great place called Campbelford and waiting at the town wall was this! (The sign, not Terri and Yudee.)
Yea, they got the name slightly wrong but they certainly tried hard. AND ... believe it or not ... a member of the town Chamber of Commerce came out an apologized to me for the mistake. (It is TOO, not TWO). Whatever, we loved the town!
One really cool thing that happened here was a restaurant called the Dockside Bistro. They not only allowed dogs but they encouraged it with a separate menu just for dogs. So Terri made a reservation for 3!!! Yudee put on his very best bandanna (and his only bandanna) and off we went. He actually ate his hotdog covered in peanut butter with a fork (come on, he is not an animal!) one bite at a time and devoured his "pupachino" for desert. He felt like such a big doggie.
The town is known for its bakery and chocolate outlet. They did not disappoint!
Finally we made it to one of the Trent Servern's most famous (not the most, that would be Big Chute) locks ... The Peterborough Lift Lock. Powered by gravity, the Peterborough Lift Lock towers almost 20 m (65 ft) above the Trent Canal, enabling lifts in two counter-balanced, bathtub-like chambers over an elevation that once would have required several locks to conquer.
This thing was huge and really really cool.
Then, it was just back to boring old beautiful cruising.....
And again, the towns were just fantastic.
And did I mention that we caught back up to the Never Home crew at Orillia Ca. Yea yea yea, we are back out to another fantastic dinner with far to many adult beverages. Really fun.
And Terri has resorted to her hippy ways of her youth.
Orillia is about 80% of the way through the Trent Severn. The Big Chute Railway is still in front of us. That will be on the next post. Until then, thanks for reading this far.
April 26 Haircuts On The Boat The admiral gets a little over zealous when it comes to cutting my hair. I wonder why? Maybe we have been on the boat a little to long ..... The Albemarle Loop The InterCoastal Waterway (ICW) between Norfolk and Key West brings prosperity to the towns that line it. As boat travels up and down the coast, owners stop and spend. Studies differ on the exact number, but indications are that a new dollar to an area will circulate 6+ times. Therefore, a $100 expenditure from an outside source has the economic impact of ~$600. For example; If you hire a boat mechanic, he spends that money at the farmers market for food. The farmer spends the money on help to harvest the crop ... and on and on. Lots of boaters on the ICW bring lots of spending that brings prosperity. Towns not on the ICW do not benefit from boat traffic that is moving just miles away. The North Carolina Albemarle Sound communities, they came up w...
June 26 CANADA!!! We made it to Canada! Yea! As a parting gift to the good old USA I took a dive into Lake Champlain. Whereas it was not as cold as my dive with Billy on Puget Sound, it was still far colder than this southern boy could handle. My total time in the water was ~30 seconds. This was the beginning of the skinny water. The Richelieu. It is extremely narrow compared to the wide open waters of Lake Champlain. We took this from the border just above Rouses Point to St-Jean sur Richelieu. As part of the Parks Canada pass for lockage, we also purchased a season pass for using the lock walls for mooring. This allows us to stay at no additional cost right in the heart of most towns where there is a lock. St-Jean sur Richelieu was just such a place. It was like stepping into downtown France. In this part of Canada, French is the primary language and the French culture is strong in the stores, restaura...
July 26 First, a smile to start off this posting. The Thousand Islands both failed to meet my expectations and far exceeded them. I guess this is to say that my expectations were all wrong. So what did I expect then? I thought I would be in a rural aquatic area accessible only by boat and largely untouched by man. What I found was just the opposite. Whereas there were at least a thousand islands (I believe Terri read somewhere that there are actually 1800), most of them were completely built out with some homes occupying 90+% of the available land. Homes were big and small. And yes they were islands so boats were the primary form of access, but there were large towns and small cities all around so amenities were never far off. Clayton NY In the last post I mentioned we were stopping in Clayton. This turned out to be a wonderful town with great food and a cool wooden boat museum. The area's history is one of wealth and at the turn of the 1900s th...
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Daisy puppy wants to know how YouDee pees and 💩 on the Shorebilly Too??
ReplyDeleteI chuckled at you being 80' up in a huge bathtub saying, "it's a little intimidating" knowing your love of heights.
ReplyDeleteFun to watch the Peterborough Lift from the boaters perspective rather than on the shore!
ReplyDelete