We’ve finished crossing the first forty-one locks of the Trent-Severn Waterway.  That’s in addition to all of the NY locks on the Erie and the Oswego.  We’ve crossed Lake Simcoe.  Our next leg is the balance of the Severn: the last three locks including The Big Chute.  If you thought the lift locks were impressive (or wacky), wait until you see this one.  So, we’ve now been living on board for over a year. We’ve been travelling for going on ten months.  We’ve had our share of adversity.  And now we’re dealing with our first boat issue.  We will be here in Orillia for the next week, undergoing some repairs and maintenance, doing a bit of reprovisioning and hopefully catching up with a few other loopers. Then it is off to finish the next few locks, and into Georgian Bay and the North Channel.

Kirkfield is a bit smaller than the Peterborough Lift Lock, but the same concept.  The main difference is that for our direction of travel, this marks the beginning  of the descent.  We entered the lock at the top then took the ride down.  Note the drop off in front of the AGLCA burgee — we were first in.  Note the small boat with blue canvas who was below us and wound up above us.

Very narrow going on this part of the Trent, very shallow and a lot of rock visible just below the surface. We passed through the Hole in the Wall Bridge and also the Kirkfield Lift Lock in this leg of the trip.  Cool and quirky dog logo.  Cool truck advertising the Iditarod and Dogsled Tours.

Boat ahead going through Hole in the Wall

Going through Hole in the Wall

Quirky mascot

Narrow going through a lot of the Trent

Narrow passage out to Lake Simcoe

Lots of rocks around

More rocks just below surface

We’ve been hearing about butter tarts since we started planning this trip a few years ago.  We finally had the opportunity to sample them, at the Bobcaygeon Bakery which is renowned for them.  Tasty?  Yes.  Do they live up to their hype?  Not so sure.  Think pecan pie, without the pecans.  Fenelon Falls also.

After leaving Lynn and Wayne in Peterborough, we started to head up towards Orillia. The scenery starts to change; this is cottage and lake country, and is incredibly beautiful.

These folks went through in a large canoe. View of the bathtub up top.  View of the mechanism below. It’s large enough for a car tunnel to pass underneath. Canoe guy holding on for dear life.  Wayne and Lynn, who were nice enough to take us along on a drive. Sorry we missed the Petroglyphs!!

This is a different kind of lock.  We took a car ride over with Wayne and Lynn from LeryLynn to see how it works.  Basically, you pull your boat into one side of the bathtub at your level – in our case, we would be going up.  Water is added to the other bathtub – reportedly about one foot or so.  The difference in weight pushes the top tub down and the bottom tub – with water, boats and all, is lifted up about 90 feet.  You then exit to the higher river level and continue on your journey.  Here it is in photos (click on last two for video of the tour boat rising).

Another Canadian difference:  the marker bouys are smaller and much harder to differentiate.

Approaching the lock, I am at the ready with my trust boathook, watching that we aren’t too close to the spillway and relaying the lock side to Artie, who is up on the bridge.  After I hook on in the bow, he goes to the aft deck and hooks onto the cable in the stern.  We’ve got it down to a ballet at this point.  Well, almost.

In this photo, you can see that we are at the top of the lock, and the boat down below is waiting to enter.

Some nice scenery along the way.

Eagles, or possibly an osprey.  And a little hitchhiker.  First time that I’ve seen a bright blue dragonfly.

Headed out on the Trent-Severn Waterway into Lock One with Lone Star and Moondance, along with another boat (not a looper) Why Knot.  In the NY lock system, the locks are operated by the NY DOT, and are hydraulic.  On the TSW, the locks are generally operated by college kids, and many are manually operated.  The operator actually grabs a bar and walks in a circle to open and close the lock door and many times will use a hand crank to control the water flow.  The connection points are a bit different also; on the TSW there are cables linked to the top and bottom of the wall and the lines from your boat are passed behind the cable, by hand, and brought back to the boat.  The locks seem a bit smaller, also.  In most cases our four boats totally — and I mean totally — filled the lock.

Finally have decent internet access so that I am able to update the blog.  We left Kingston and headed over to Trenton, Ontario.  Nice marina stop with free laundry (always a plus!) and another nice, small town.  Had some very nice meals, lots of laughs and good times with the crews of Lone Star, Moon Dance, and LeryLynn and met other loopers at the dock.

Next we headed over to Campbellford, another nice stop with a municipal mooring (wall) with electric and water available.  I unfortunately caught the pocket of my shorts getting off the boat, and Artie and I watched as my phone took a slow motion tumble to the bottom of the river.  It “sleeps with the fishes”.  On another phone/ data related note, AT&T — “bless their little hearts” — is not allowing me to use the data plan that we pay for every month in Canada.  I could have used it in Mexico apparently, but not in Canada.  HUH??  Phone and texts do work, but not texts with any multimedia or photos attached.  And, since I’ve lost my phone, my calls are now supposedly being forwarded to Artie’s phone — but I haven’t received any calls.  Texts supposedly can’t be forwarded.  The laptop will only work in stops with a decent wi-fi connection.  Feeling a bit off the grid at this point.

Have seen a lot of locks over the past week or so, and in fact I’m feeling a bit “locked out”. Made stops in Cambellford, Hastings, Peterborough, Young’s Point lock, Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, and a bit of an eventful trip coming here to Orillia.  We will be here until mid week before moving on down the Severn portion of the Trent-Severn Waterway and into Georgian Bay. Notes and photos to follow.

Looked good until the landing.  He was able to walk away, at least as far as the ambulance.

We stayed at Confederation Marina, which is also where we cleared Customs.  A simple call from a pay phone is all that it took.  We were right downtown, in walking distance to all. Very nice stop.  This is also the start of the Rideau canal, going in the other direction.

We really loved Kingston, Ontario.  Terrific small city, very accessible, very friendly.  This is St Mary’s Cathedral.