Story of Our Summer Cruise 2013

 

July 17 - Orillia to Kirkfield (Lock 36)

Today's Route

We had an early date today with coffee and "Sticky Buns" from Wilkes before departing Orillia.

Our journey today was long, hot, and tiring. It began with a cruise at a leisurely pace across about 12 miles of the northeast corner of Lake Simcoe in perfect weather. We had been advised to be sure of the weather as, although relatively small, the lake is also shallow and can kick up tremendous waves in strong winds. Many boaters underestimate the Lake to their regret, particularly the smaller, lighter boats!

From the end of the Lake on we spent much of our time in canals with little exposure to the breezes passing over the tops of the trees. To reach Kirkfield, we had to transit six locks and it took us most of the afternoon before we arrived at Kirkfield. We were fortunate compared to some other boaters we talked to as it took them considerably longer.

Waiting on the "Blue Line" to Enter One of the Many Locks Today

Many Bridges to Open

Canal Lake, after all the heat of the day. was not one of our favorite places with a very narrow buoyed channel and thick weeds that clogged the prop and rudder every couple of hundred yards. The Lake is known for its deadheads and we had been cautioned to go slow and well behind any other boats that might stir them up from their resting place on the bottom. This did not prevent us from hitting a deadhead with a loud "thump" under our keel. It did not seem to cause any problem but, when we get to a good area, we will anchor anchor I can check the bottom out.

Going Through the "Hole"

Fortunately, we just made the last lift of the day at Kirkfield Lock and tied up at the top all by ourselves. The top was definitely the better choice this evening as we had a strong westerly wing right behind us - a 90 deg. F wind but at least air movement and few bugs. The generator ran until bedtime to cool us down!

The Kirkfield Lock is one of the 2 hydraulic locks in the Trent-Severn and in North America. I believe there are only 6 or 7 others in the world. The Lock has been modernized in recent times but the original Lock, built in the early 1900s, was one of the engineering masterpieces of its time in Canada.

It operates on a very simple principle. Two "bathtubs" filled with water sit on top of immense hydraulic cylinders which are inter-connected by a large pipe with a valve in the middle. With the valve open, the two tubs counterbalance each other. By adding a small amount of water to one tub it slowly drops since it is heavier, pushing the other tub up.

To raise a boat up, they adjust the volume of water in the tubs so one lowers, a gate is opened, and the boat enters. The gate is shut and sealed and a small amount of water is let into the tub on the high side to make it heavier than the other tub. The tub and the boat rise to the top, the gate is opened and, voila, in less than 2 minutes a boat has been raised 49 feet with no turbulence.

All locks should be like this!!!

July 18- Kirkfield (Lock 36) to Fenelon Falls (Lock 34)

Our Route Today

We stuck around at Kirkfield Lock to get a view of a couple of boats actually going up as it is difficult to get a good perspective when you are in the Lock itself.

While I have been showing our daily progress on a chart and how many hours or miles we have traveled, the map below shows our overall route from home to Kingston, Ontario in red and and our progress to date. Dean has been keeping track of his mileage from Mackinac City so adding about another 250 miles, we have travelled around 750 miles to date and have about 240 miles to go to Kingston. We are pleased with our progress so far.

Our Overall Progress To Date

Our route today was a mixture of canals and open water on Balsam and Mitchell Lakes. The canals vary between open farmland and tree lined. It was a relief to reach the couple of stretches of open water as the wind picked up and at least made it feel cooler as it was in the high 80s again. Canal travel is OK but can get very tight when passing boats coming in the other direction.

Meeting our First Houseboat

We removed quite a few twigs and leaves from our upper deck when we arrived in Fenelon Falls! Mitchell Lake is very shallow even within the buoyed channel and fairly weed clogged. Several times we had to stop and rev the engine in reverse to clear weed that had built up on the prop and rudder but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. Since Fenelon, the buoy system has changed and we are no longer "returning" and have to keep the greens to starboard or our right. Also, as we have reached the highest elevation, we drop in the lock to the next section and it appears to be a little less turbulent in the lock.

A Typical Canal Section

After our marathon locking day yesterday, it was a relief to just have one small lock with a drop of only four feet at Rosedale (Lock 32).

The Rosedale Lock (Note the flower boxes on the lock gates) Many of the lock masters have "green thumbs" and have flower beds decorating their locks - much like the lock masters do in England.

We were fortunate to get a spot on the wall at Fenelon just before the lock since it was quite busy. Dean and Charlotte had to tie up on the other side but I managed to talk the houseboat in front into moving up half a boat length so they could squeeze in. This was very attractive to them as our wall has a limited number of spots with hydro and hydro.

I should explain to non-Canadians - electricity in Canada is called hydro, presumably because much of their power originally came from hydroelectric plants. With a heavy reliance on nuclear power now, they should probably call it "nuclear" now. We first heard the term when we went to the North Channel several years ago and made our first port of call in Thessalon. When we registered with the harbor master, he inquired if we wanted "hydro" and I said, "Sure," as we needed to fill our water tank. He explained that what we really wanted was hydro and water.

The new wall at Fenelon was only completed for last season and can hold about 30 boats but only 15 of those have hydro and hydro. They charge an extra $13 for the two but it is a bargain when it is 90 deg. F and we can run the A/C, cook, make coffee etc. without running the generator. Here we have all of the amenities we would normally enjoy in a marina, except showers - but we do have a good shower on the boat - for a fraction of the cost.

They even have the great idea of the day - underground utilities to keep power cords and hoses being run across the sidewalks. (the tubes emerge just below the top of the dock wall)

Fenelon turned out to be a good place to overnight - in fact we decided to spend another night. The town is relatively large for the area and has everything we could need including a Sobeys supermarket, Tim Horton's, Canadian Tire, and a good selection of stores to browse. I should explain about Tim Horton's for the non-Canadian readers. It is a cross between Dunkin' DoNuts and Starbucks and is a national chain. Normally we would not bother to go to a coffee shop like this but it has one big attraction -free wi-fi access and we will be heading there today. In Canada, a town has made the map when Tim Horton's move in. Fenelon also had a barbers shop and I decided to get my locks shorn as they were getting out of control. Had a good haircut for $10 - the cheapest thing we have found to date although the ice cream is close - Black Raspberry Thunder was the order of the evening and we only just made closing time.

July 19 - Staying in Fenelon Fall Today

We thought the weather might have broken yesterday with many threatening clouds moving north and south of us and strong wind warnings forecast for Lake Simcoe but we skated by with just three drops of rain. The barometer continues to drop and is now 29.45 about the lowest we have seen for a couple of weeks. This portends some bad weather but it was 84 deg. F at 9:00 am.

Today will be a day to relax, do some washing, get the blog up to date, surf the internet to find out what is happening elsewhere, maybe go to the beach, and do a few boat jobs.

Some of the sights of Fenelon Falls while on a walkabout.

 

Just as I had finished uploading the blog at the Library, I thought I should check the radar on the phone as weather was forecast for later. See below:

This screenshot was taken just as the second wave of the storm passed overhead and consisted of mainly rain with some thunder and lightning. At the Library, the first wave with the bright orange and red was just about on us so I hurried a few hundred yards back to the boat, added a couple of extra dock lines and fenders, and then it hit us.

First, the winds picked up in excess of 40 knots with debris and dust flying through the air and then the wall of rain came down the channel towards us. Visibility was reduced to about 50 yards for some time as the rain and spray just blasted us. In just a few minutes, the temperature dropped from 85 to 71 deg. F and then dipped again to 68 with the second wave.

The Storm Blowing Through!!!

July 20 - Fenelon Falls to Bobcaygeon (Lock 32)

Today's Route

Two hour ride in open water today with nothing much to report on until we arrived at Bobcaygeon.

Entering Bobcaygeon Lock and the Swing Bridge (with Flowers)

Saturday is not a good day to arrive at this town as there was no room at the inn. Both the upper and lower walls were filled with a few small "illegals" on the blue wall who never seemed to move so we both went over to Gordon's Marina as we were close to needing a pump-out. They had a spot for Dean behind the fuel dock but could not accommodate us until after 5:00 p.m. on the fuel dock itself and we would have to leave by 8:00am. Our only choice was to cruise back towards the lock and hover as long as we could in the hope of a spot opening up. We spotted a 40' space opening (occupied by only three PWCs) so Judy beat out a smaller boat and managed to squeeze us in as another PWC moved back for us. Nice Job Judy! - and she got compliments from passerbys.

Bobcaygeon Lock gets our vote so far for the prettiest lock with a lock master who obviously has a green thumb. From the flower boxes on the swing bridge to the landscaping around the old lock master watch house, he has done an excellent job.

 

Although separated by a stretch of water, we soon teamed up with Dean and Charlotte to see the sights of Bobcaygeon including the Bigley stores. We're not sure of his background but Mr. Bigley seemed to have a monopoly in town - he owned the swimsuit shop (more than 5000 suits); the shoe store (30,000 pairs of shoes); the adult clothing store; the kid's clothing store; the kitchen shop and probably most of the other stores but not in his name.

Women Rushing to Buy Shoes

The stretch from Fenelon Falls to Bobcaygeon is the center for houseboat rentals on the Trent-Severn. These boats range from small to very large and are basically aluminum boxes with windows mounted on three pontoons with an I/O motor drive. Many look just like an RV.

The "Booze Cruise"

Rental requirements are reputed to be a little lax although at least one person must hold a Canadian Pleasure Craft Operator Certificate. It maybe undeserved, but we had received numerous cautions about the houseboats and to avoid being the last boat tied up on a lock wall as it is a vulnerable position. We have not experienced any problems with the houseboats so far and we are pretty much out of the range of a weekly rental now. Still, watching the number of cases of beer being loaded on several of the boats in Bobcaygeon, we hoped they were aware of the strict rules in Canada about drinking and boating - their leading cause of water accidents.

Talking of drinking, we have been on a quest to find the best cider in Ontario on our trip and have been sampling the wide range of ciders offered at each of the LCBOs. We have found cider to be very refreshing in the heat and a lot lighter than beer - goes down well. The only way to buy beer, wine and liquor in Ontario is through the monopoly of Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores and a limited number of licensed Beer Stores. Each place we have stopped at whether a large town or a village of twenty houses has an LCBO even if they luck a Post Office. So far we have discounted most as anything from OK to just plain "nasty." Our favorite to date is:

June 21 - Bobcaygeon Lock to Young's Point Lock (Lock 27)

A long day, but we did get to enjoy some time on autopilot as we traveled through Pigeon, Buckhorn, Lower Buckhorn, Lovesick, a short portion of Stony Lake, and finally Clear Lake to reach Young's Point. The route was not particularly challenging until we reached Stony Lake and a very congested waterway called Hell's Gate which, while convoluted, was very clearly buoyed. Along the way, there were the usual cottages lining the lakes and just a few of the noteworthy are shown below. The landscaping of many was spectacular and must have been either professionally maintained or the owners were Master Gardeners. One home I missed photographing was a rectangular two storey made entirely of glass with terrific views of the lake in all directions.

Another Nice "Cottage"

At Young's Point, we were seperated with Dean and Charlotte on the top and us on the bottom. I think they got the best deal as later in the evening it appeared the challenge for the local teenagers was to jump from the thirty foot road bridge just in front of us into the canal. This went on until dark. Note for the future - Stay on Top!!

The big attraction at Young's Point was the Lockside Trading Company which sold everything from furniture to ice cream (including Black Raspberry Thunder which has taken over from Rollo as the best). It was not long before we broke down.

The Ice Cream Lady Strikes Again

The Other Ice Cream Lady Strikes Again!!

The Macchiato Man

We briefly looked around the combo Post Office, Realtors, General Store, LCBO and fishing store. They had some muskie lures and below was one of the most impressive.

We Are In Big time Muskie Country Now

June 22 - Young's Point Lock to Ashburnham Lock (Lock 20)

Quite a long day as our days go with seven locks for us and eight for Dean and Charlotte, 15 miles and a drop of 141 feet. Between locks was generally through river scenery and a couple of small lakes.

One Way to Get to The Cottage

Fortunately, we had a pack of four boats all traveling together so we managed to fill each of the locks and only had one short delay. I do not think we could have bettered our time of just over 3.5 hours of engine time today. I hate to think how long this stretch could have taken at the weekend - probably two days!

Charlotte Beaming 'Cos She's Only Got 1 Lock To Go

We took a break at the bottom of the Peterborough Hydraulic Lift Lock for lunch and a visit to the Visitor Center where we saw the Parks Canada mascot - the Beaver:

Beaver Taking a Rest in Front of the Visitor Center

Beaver and the Group

The Peterborough Lift is very similar to Kirkfield which we locked through a while ago but higher, in fact, the highest such lift in the world. The lock took 8 years to complete in 1904 and was the largest construction project in Canada at that time. It was also the largest concrete structure to date and is immense when you at the top looking down.

Carrie Rose at the Top

65 Feet Later

The Island Princess III Getting Ready to Go Up

Ashburnham Lock was just a short run through a swing bridge and clogged bow thruster later where we were lucky to be able to tie up on the bottom of the Lock where we are going to stay for two nights as it is just a short bike or dinghy ride to everything in Peterborough.

Where We Are Now

July 22 - Staying in Ashburnham

After playing musical boats this morning to move Carrie Rose, D-Ole Boat and STB to clear the "Blue Line" (reserved for boats which want to lock through), we took off on our bikes to the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough about a 20 minute ride away. Peterborough is a very bike-friendly town with miles of designated bike paths.

While we don't particularly have a strong interest in canoes, it turned out to be a very enjoyable three hour visit and is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in boating and the early history of Canada. The museum has the world's largest collection (over 500 canoes and kayaks) with over 100 on display in the museum at any one time with excellent narratives for each display. The Peterborough region was a major canoe manufacturing area in the 19th and 20th century with many companies making various types of canoes. The Peterborough Canoe Company was one of the most prominent and was chosen to build three canoes as gifts for the Royal Family for special occasions including Queen Elizabeth's wedding. These canoes are on permanent loan and are oustanding examples of the craftsmanship of the area.

Laden Voyageur Canoe

Following lunch in a nearby neighborhood restaurant, we biked to the Hutchinson House Museum, an 1837 restored home, where we were given a guided tour of the house donated by the citizens of Peterborough to Dr. Hutchinson as an incentive to keep his practice in the town. THe house and its contents give a good insight to the lifestyle of the mid 1800s.

A threatening storm curtailed further exploration of Peterborough but a stop on the way back is in the cards.