Narrow, Shallow, Craggy and High! Going Down

We finished last week with three, longish days. Friday, we cruised almost 30 miles from Bobgaygeon to Fenelon Falls where we found the lock walls crammed with Loopers, holiday makers, and ice cream boats (folks who've come into town for, well. . . , the name speaks for itself). Without realizing it, we pirated the last space on the wall and the furthest from town from the folks who use what turned out to be an adjacent boat launch. Being Canadians, no one said anything and we enjoyed being adjacent to a pedestrian swing bridge which is open for boats in the summer and closed for walkers, bikers, and x-c skiers the other seasons of the year.

When we reached Lock 34, just below Fenelon Falls, the 120 foot long Kawartha Voyageur cruise ship was in the lock down bound against us. Being the first boat there for that lift, we tied up to the Blue Line to wait for the Voyageur to exit. Soon another boat joined us on the Blue LIne and two more in the channel just below. The skipper of the Voyageur announced that he would be leaving the lock headed down stream shortly. Boats 3 and 4 were clueless and just stayed in the middle of the channel. Needless to say, when a boat the size of the Voyageur came out of the lock and started downstream, there was some scrambling to get out of his way.

Between Bobcaygeon and Fenelon Falls, we had a mix of very slow going in narrow, shallow, silty, weedy channels and high speed runs on Sturgeon Lake. Much to the Admiral's dismay, coming off the lake, I made my first wrong turn on the Loop. It took us down an interesting channel towards the town of Lindsey. She realized it after about 5 miles and, thoroughly rebuked, I made a U-turn. We did, however, get to see more of the country side and always interesting bird life: an osprey nest on a high pole with two chicks, lots of Canada geese and cormorants with their broods, great blue heron, swans with multiple babies, and red-winged blackbirds.

Interestingly, because we were headed west and weaving north and south, we traveled in and out of the Canadian shield as we traversed its edge. That meant some of the waters we were in were studded with islands and granite rocks while others were flat bottomed without rocks or islands and laden with silt.

In Fenelon, I made another trip to Canadian Tire, this time by bike. I needed a pump to remove a wee bit of surplus gear fluid from our port pod. I found a pump but its hose seems to be too big to reach down to the level of the fluid in the pod. Sigh.

On Saturday, we reached the highest elevation on the Trent-Severn Waterway and Americas Great Loop on Balsam Lake at 840 feet above sea level. We traveled for miles through the Trent Canal--a one boat wide passage cut out of granite that was the final link conecting Port Severn to Trenton. The Trent Canal held your attention. Craggy granite lay on each side of our propeller pods and a deviation of a few feet in either direction could have spoiled our day, our week, our month. And we also encountered a

few logs, one of which the Admiral had to prod out of our way with the boat hook--a difficult task given its size and water laden nature.

Nonetheless, we finally emerged at the end of the world--well, anyway, in the 60 foot high, Lock 36 pan that would start our descent from the Loop's high point of 840 feet down to Lake Huron at 580 feet. It really did look like you could sail off the end and, I guess if the lock gates weren't there, you could!

We exited the Trent Canal onto Canal Lake through the High Arch Bridge--another narrow, stay focused, moment.

We capped our week on Sunday with what Tom Sawyer correctly called out--a continuation of our lock marathon--five locks going down a total of 62 feet to Lake Simcoe. Between waits at the locks, loading and unloading the relatively small locks with three or four other boats each time, and traveling nearly 22 miles, it took us almost five hours. There were some great birds, however: loads of eastern kingbirds, a northern cardinal, Canadian geese, osprey. Two kingfishers (my personal favorite) undulated back and forth across the river right in front of our bow--very close up and lots of fun to watch. I should also mention that, on Saturday at Rosedale's Lock 35, we observed another green heron--rare and lots of fun to see.

We find going down in locks just a bit more challenging than going up. Going down, the fenders sometimes stick to the wall and the boat slides down the fender leaving you unprotected if the fender pops out. We've learned to play whackamole but, like so many things on boats, it requires constant attention with me watching from the bow and the Admiral from the stern.

And, it was hot and humid with temps in the 90s and humidity high. Because the locks were close together, we weren't able to run the generator and air conditioning. Consequently, our t-shirts and other apparel were sticky and wet and our heads and faces dripped with sweat. And, if you don't believe me, ask Fido--a dog so hot he didn't even wake up as I walked around him finding the best angle for a pic!