Canada - Trent-Severn Waterway - July/August 2006
The magnificent Trent-Severn waterway is made up of approximately 240 miles of rivers, channels and lakes spanning Central Ontario, joining the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario (at the lower right hand corner of the map below) with Georgian Bay (on the far left side of the map). The red line traces our route along the waterway.
Unlike the Rideau, the Trent-Severn evolved into a complete waterway over a number of years and as a result of many disparate projects.
The first lock was established in 1833 with a small wooden lock at Bobcaygeon. This marked the beginning of 87 years of construction along the waterway. As sporadic construction of the locks occurred, communities along the waterway gained access to lucrative southern markets. The lock system construction received an extra boost in 1878, with the newly elected government of Sir John A. MacDonald promising completion of the lock system. Construction of the last portion of the canal was not completed until 1920, finally making it possible to travel from Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario.
When you enter the Trent-Severn at the city of Trenton, as we did, you are greeted by this wonderful sign as you pass under the bridge and into the canal.
We saw this Great Blue Heron resting on a rock in the waterway, also used as a base for a marker. We found a huge flock of Canadian Geese outside one of the locks. They looked quite happy to be home for the summer.
One of the locks that we went through on our way to the town of Campbelford was a huge double lock. The lock was new - being re-built 2 years ago to the tune of 7 Billion dollars. That's Billion, with a B. We had to ask twice to make sure we heard the lockmaster correctly. And they gave Lt. Colonial By a hard time for HIS expenditures!
Campbelford is home to the designer of the Canadian two dollar coin - affectionately called a 'Two-ney' by the locals. The one dollar coin is called a 'Looney' - named after the national bird, the loon. We wanted to ask where the home of the 'Looney' is - but were a bit afraid of the answer. The town park includes this huge replica of the 'Two-ney' coin. You can't really see it, but Jeremy is holding a Two-ney out for comparison.
Campbelford is also home to the lovely St. Mary's Catholic church.
The town of Peterborough, located approximately 90 miles along the waterway from Trenton, is the home of the world's tallest hydraulically operated lift lock, which was built in 1904. This is a sequence of pictures showing boats being raised from the lower level to the upper level of the lock. The last picture was taken from the top of the lock and shows the gate opening so that the boats can proceed forward along the waterway.
You basically drive your boat into a big 'tub' or chamber of water, they raise the gate to seal you in, and you are quickly lifted up 65 feet to the upper level of the canal. It only takes a couple of minutes for one chamber to rise to the top while the other lowers to the bottom. Once at the top, they lower the gate on the front of the lock and off you go.
The two chambers are mounted on ram pistons - each of which is fitted into a water-filled cylinder. The two cylinders are connected via a pipe fitted with a valve. When boats are entering the chambers, the valve is closed. Chamber A is made heavier than Chamber B by adding approximately 1 foot of extra water into the chamber (see the diagram below). The number or weight of the boats in each chamber is irrelevant since each boat displaces it's own weight in water. When they chambers are filled, the valve is opened and gravity pulls Chamber A down (since it is heavier than Chamber B). The piston for Chamber A pushes water through the pipe from cylinder A into cylinder B, which in turn pushes up piston B causing Chamber B to rise.
The first picture below is of Tardis waiting in line to enter the lock. The second was taken from the top of the lock.
This quilt was completed in 2004 in celebration of 100 years of operation for the lock.
Fountain in the lake by the town of Peterborough. The fountain is lit each night by a series of colored lights. They also put on a sound and light show in Peterborough every Wednesday and Saturday night. Unfortunately, we arrived on a Thursday.
Farther along the canal, we spent the evening tied up to a lock wall in Young's Point. It was really hot - so we went for a swim. Jeremy took these pictures of me in the water. He didn't believe I would go in since the water was pretty cold!
Leaving Young's Point, we entered the first of the lakes on the Trent-Severn waterway. These lakes are lovely, filled with many tiny granite islands, including these in an area of Stony Lake called 'Hells Gate' . We saw this lovely little white wooden church perched on one of the islands - accessible only by boat.
This is also 'rental houseboat central' on the Trent-Severn. The lock attendants are very good at helping first time boaters maneuver these beasts into the locks. We saw one lockmaster talk a novice and obviously very nervous houseboat driver through a docking at the blue line over his loud speaker. It was like he was driving the boat by remote control. The guy on the boat listened, did exactly what the lockmaster told him to do and successfully (and happily) got the boat docked. We also saw lots of houseboat beached up on islands in the area - as the one in the picture below.
We saw lots and lots of very nice houses and boathouses along the way - including this one. We were very impressed with the boathouse (and thought that was the house) until we noticed the big house on land behind it.
We saw this 'three-boat' house - kind of like a little house with a 3 car garage. As well as the very fancy blue one. Forget the house, I'm pretty sure I could comfortably live in these boathouses.
Bobcaygeon (pronounced Bob-cay-jun) Falls.
Fenelon Falls.
Jeremy wearing his new Tilly hat. Well, not exactly new - he bought it in Victoria, BC a couple of years ago - but he's finally decided to start breaking it in.
Leaving the Kirkfield Lift Lock. This was the first down lock we'd had in a long time. Since we left the Hudson River, we've been steadily climbing up in locks (some going down - but mostly up) so that we were about 1000 feet above sea level by the time we'd reached this lock. I read somewhere that this is the highest point in the world that a boat can reach under it's own power. The Kirkfield started our decline back to sea level with a drop of 49 feet. This lock is of the same design as the one in Peterborough - with the added excitement of driving the boat into a pan of water suspended 49 feet in the air. This picture was taken from the bottom as we exited the lock.
Stone arch bridge built in 1906.
We saw this pontoon boat coming toward us at the lock late one afternoon. Kind of looked like a little car approaching with their headlights on.
Town Hall and Opera house in Orillia. We've seen this in a lot of small towns - where they combine the Town Hall with a theatre or opera house.
We were docked at a marina in Orillia when this parrot landed on the back of our boat. Randy, pictured below with the parrot on his head, suggested that I try to get him to jump onto my finger since he figured the parrot was probably someone's pet. He was really cute and seemed to like me. I was hoping to return him to his home, so we took him up to the office where they put him into a little box. Someone did come by later that evening to claim him - which made me feel better. I was thinking of adopting him - but I figured US Customs may not be amused by me bringing a stray parrot into the country. Besides, Jeremy thought I was completely nuts for even considering the idea of having a parrot on the boat. I don't know - he IS kind of cute... And don't pirates have parrots?? Seems like just the thing for a little boat....
We left Orillia on the Saturday of a holiday weekend - so we were not surprised to see a lot of boat traffic. We were a bit surprised, however by just how much we encountered at the next lock. We waited in line for about 1.5 hours just to get to the blue line - then another half hour or so to get into the lock once we got to the blue line. When I looked behind us, the line stretched back as far as I could see. Once our turn came to go into the lock, the lock master practically greased every boat as it came in to get us to fit. We were crammed in with 9 other boats - 10 in total. Three on one wall, four on the opposite wall, and three slotted in down the middle. Most were small (15-20' range) - but even so, we were in pretty tight.
The boat in front of us in the picture above is the same as the one in the picture below. 'Aquadesiac' is a Prowler owned by Jeff and Dawn who became our Canadian local guides for this area. They are a wonderful couple who showed us around and gave us tips on where to stay.
Dawn set me straight on how to deal with Canadian milk. You see, it's sold in bags here instead of plastic gallon containers. Each large bag contains 3 smaller bags totaling 4 liters. You should have seen me decanting these plastic bags of milk into other containers so we could use it. I confess I had a bit of a scramble with the first bag even finding something to decant it into. Then the fun of opening it and pouring it out without spilling too much. Dawn laughed when she saw me do it and said that I needed a plastic milk jug. 'A what?' said I. You just put the plastic bag of milk into the jug, snip off a corner of the bag and away you go. She very kindly bought me one the next morning and brought it over (shown in the second picture below). Don't know how I got along without it. (Thank you SO much, Dawn!) I think the Canadian customs office should issue then at the border.
The Swift Rapids lock is the highest single regular lock on the Trent Severn system. It dropped us down 47'.
Probably the neatest lock we went through (or would go through on this trip) is the Big Chute marine railway. This takes you and your boat, slung in a railway car up and over the top of the Big Chute falls for a drop down of 57' to the other side. We met up with a couple of American Tugs just before going through this lock - Mer Sea and Heart Tug. We snapped this series of pictures of Mer Sea going into and over the Big Chute. The railway car has a series of straps and is capable of taking one, two or three boats across - depending on the beam of the boats. In the case of Mer Sea, they loaded three small boats on the front and Mer Sea on the back.
This is a picture taken by our friends Randy (of parrot-head fame above) and Audrey on their American Tug 34 'Heart Tug' as they went over the top. They were lucky to be placed on the front of the railway car. The second picture is one I took as we went over behind our friends Jeff and Dawn in 'Aquadesiac'. Jeff let us get in front of them on the blue line with the hope that we might be placed in front - but the lockmaster decides who goes where on the railway car. I was just happy to get across. They had been having some problems over the couple of days we were there. There was a really bad lightening storm that put them out of commission for awhile just before we arrived. On top of that, on the day we were planning on going across, one of the cables chaffed through and caused quite a spectacular electric fire. We finally got across a couple of days later. Fortunately, no boats were damaged with the problems they had. The car just stopped - and when they got power restored, they lowered them back into the water.
This is a picture of Tardis and Heart Tug tied up at the lock wall dock in Port Severn - which is the end of the Trent-Severn and the gateway to the Georgian Bay. The second picture is of 'Heart Tug' with her proud owners Audrey and Randy. 'Heart Tug' is hull number 95 and a brand new baby. They've only had her for 6 weeks - but they've been traveling on her since they took delivery.
Tardis with her proud owners - Janet and Jeremy.
Updated August 9, 2006