We have waited since 2001 to travel the entire Trent Severn Waterway from Trenton, Ontario on Lake Ontario to Severn, Ontario on Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. In 2001 Jan and I helped our son and daughter in law, Mike and Vicky, transport their newly purchased boat from Lake Simcoe to Chicago. The boat is a 1964 Pacemaker, 36' wood cabin cruiser with a fly bridge. It was a beautiful boat then and Mike has continually maintained and improved it since then. The boat is really in nicer condition than when he purchased it thirteen years ago and unlike most boats it is appreciating in value. Lake Simcoe is approximately in the middle of the Trent Severn Waterway. While there is quite a story of our boat trip in 2001 it is for another time and place.
We left Kingston and traveled the protected north shore of Lake Ontario to Trenton, passing through the area where we took the ferry to Picton. We arrived in Trenton and stayed one night before beginning the long awaited Trent Severn Waterway. Our first overnight stop on the Trent was in Frankfort, on the lock wall with hydro. Most of the locks on the Trent don't have hydro, so this was a treat. In previous blogs I explained that "hydro" is electricity. The following day we rode our bicycles about ten miles each way with Mark and Jane from Average Looper back to Trenton. The trail was not well maintained at all and in places we were riding through tall weeds. After arriving back in Trenton we treated ourselves to Kawartha ice cream cones and since we still had the wifi code all four of us were on our phones checking emails, etc, another treat.
Another fun stop was in Campbellford. We again rode our bicycles, this time to a suspension bridge over a beautiful area of the river. We climbed down into the riverbed and were impressed with the beauty of the area.
During this day we traveled through the locks with a Canadian couple and it was very tight for our two boats and them also. We agreed to stagger our departures so we didn't have the tight lock conditions again the next day. They were very agreeable and we ran into them a few more times on the Trent.
Campbellford is the hometown to the artist that designed the $2.00 Canadian coin aka "toonie". I think the Canadians have their currency figured out much better than we Americans do. They have eliminated their pennies. Cash transactions are rounded to the nearest nickle, checks and credit cards are still the exact amount. They have also eliminated their dollar bills, replacing them with one dollar coins which have a loon on them, hence the name loonies. The two dollar coin doesn't have a loon but is called a toonie for obvious reasons. Also their paper currency should be much harder to counterfeit.
Most days Mark makes a two to three minute video that he puts on face book. While we were in Peterborough his video was going through the down flow of the main fountain in their dinghy. Jan and I went through also but we chose one of the four smaller side fountains. On our dinghy ride we again saw our Canadian boat friends and they treated us to adult beverages. They were well received on a hot day.
The eastern part of the Trent is more flat and less scenic that the western part with the pink granite rocks. We were impressed with the beauty of the area even though we were not expecting the rural farmland scenery. We still enjoyed all the heritage locks and the canals, lakes and rivers we traveled through.
While we usually wanted to stay longer in most areas, this time we were excited to move further west for better scenery.
The Elizabeth K, Mike's boat in Belmont Harbor, Chicago.
Not very many 50 year old boats are in this beautiful condition.
It takes a lot of TLC to keep a wood boat looking like this.
This is the ferry we took to visit Pincton.
We saw these sailboats and they were actually sailing.
It is puzzling to us why so many sailboats never sail, almost always motoring.
Canadians love their flowers,abundant despite their short growing season.
There were so many houses with beautiful flower gardens.
This is the Trenton Marina.
This is it! We are finally here and doing this.
And away we go.
We have begun!
Approaching the first lock on the Trent Severn Waterway.
Here they are letting the water out of the lock so the boats in the lock
can exit and we can enter to be raised up to the next level.
Looking back in a lock after it has been filled.
All the locks are filled and emptied by gravity flow.
There are no pumps involved at all.
We are all the way up and the lock attendant is opening the door by hand.
Jan is preparing to release our lines for departure.
This is a dam that is allowing the water to be held back to
make the channel deep enough for navigation.
Average Looper is entering this lock.
Jan is preparing our lines.
In these locks we needed to use our own lines and string them through the cables on the lock walls.
We will exit from the doors ahead after the water is raised.
The water flowing over the front doors was unexpected.
When the waterway above the lock is full, the only place the water can go is into
the next lock downstream. It was really loud too!
The locks have several styles of gate cranks.
On this one the handle folds up to make access around it.
We found this log booth along the poorly maintained bike trail.
This was on the better maintained part of the trail. It got a lot worse!
The large "toonie".
The boat in the foreground belongs to our Canadian friends.
Our boats are across the canal.
We crossed the Rainey Falls suspension bridge.
It was a lot less adventuresome than we were expecting and was very stable.
Looking south from the suspension bridge.
Looking north from the suspension bridge.
This is cool!
I have no idea where the kayaks and paddle boat came from.
They had fishing lines in the water but we didn't see them catch anything.
Not everybody stayed behind the fence as the sign indicated.
Dueling cell phone cameras.
There are signs warning of rapid water flow if they open the dam.
What can you say besides beautiful ?
The suspension bridge is in the background.
The fountain in Peterborough.
Jan and Jane adopted this family of ducks.
I never tire of a beautiful sunset.
More of the Trent Severn Waterway next time.
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