We crossed back into the United States at Drummond Island, and then headed for Mackinac Island and then Lake Michigan to head south to Chicago.  Mackinac is a pretty special place.  No cars are allowed on the island, except for emergency services.  Your choices are to travel on foot, by bicycle or by horse.  We saw the UPS driver delivering packages by horse and cart.  Skipper was fascinated with the “big dogs” and told us on a regular basis that “I can take him!”.  Saw a few cool rock formations, both natural and man-made.  Did the touristy, ice cream and fudge thing. Watched a troop of girl scouts march in formation each evening to lower the flags. Nice to see the US flag at the top of the pole again.

Our time in the North Channel was relatively short.  Ran into a few rough weather days, and started seeing “end of season” sale signs in the marina shops.  By Meldrum Bay, the dockmaster greeted us by saying “It’s pretty late in the season for loopers”. Didn’t stop the Skipper from hunting frogs, and didn’t stop me from getting at least one swim in — even though the water was only about 68 degrees.  Oh well, time to move on.  We did discover that there was a boat rental outfit in Gore Bay that rents both power and sailboats to explore the area;  further south, in Georgian Bay, there are the ubiquitous houseboats available for rent.  If we ever want to come back up this way — and it would be well worth doing — I might consider those options or a cottage, if we decided against another full loop.  That’s a thought for another day.

Stopped at Killarney Mountain Lodge, which was a very nice property with restaurant, pool and nice docks.  The local LCBO (municpal booze store) was accessible by boat.  We then headed into the North Channel.  Didn’t spend as much time as we had originally planned, as we are a bit late in the season due to our prior delays and the weather was a bit sporty, shall we say.

Just so wild and gorgeous, amazing to see.  Neither photos nor words really do this area justice.

Baie Fine is one of a very few fjords; we travelled in and played follow the leader with a small powerboat and sailboat through the entrance.  Met up with M/V Inspiration along the way.

After Snug Harbor, we headed out into Georgian Bay.  There was a lot of wind and chop that day, and the marked channel went out to the Bay and then back into a a number of tight turns and shallow water. We chose to stay in the Bay and cut directly across to Byng Inlet.  A lucky choice, as it turns out, as we were happy to meet up with Pam and Phil on Inspiration and have travelled with them on and off, ever since.

After by-passing Henry’s Fish Camp, we recalled that our friends Robert and Brenda on Over Ice recommended stopping at Gilly’s in Snug Harbor.  As there was a bit of a blow forcast, we wound up staying there a couple of nights. Amazingly, we were able to get into their dock, however the wind was whipping up some pretty big chop and we had to tie across to the next dock to hold in place.  A great meal.

Yaaayyy!  So done with locks for now. This was the last, tiny lock on the Trent Severn leading to Georgian Bay and more skinny water, rock outcroppings, and comments of “We’re supposed to go WHERE???”.  Tried to follow the locals, or at least their wake, to get a feel of where to go.  Even with a chartplotter, paper charts and binoculars at the ready, the channel markers were difficult to spot, and not always easy to interpret. We arrived at the famous Henry’s Fish Camp a bit too early in the day to stop.  Notice the float plane at the dock.

Last Lock in the Trent Severn

Small lock

Headed out to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron

Hard to see the markers

Don’t miss the markers on the rocks!

Follow the wake

Follow the lake

Oh, now I see where he went!

Henry’s Fish Camp- Notice the float plane?!

Henry’s Fish Camp

Skinny again

After leaving Orillia, we passed through more skinny water and rock outcroppings; our next stop was the Big Chute.  Click on images for captions.

More skinny water…

More rock outcroppings

We are now in “cottaqge country”

Approachng the Big Chute

Loading in with two other boats; they left our running gear hanging over the back

The straps come up to support the boat and the water drains out

Up we go, over the roadway

Looking ahead

Almost to the top

Looking down and ahead, just like a rollercoater!

Looking back, notice the roadway

Going down

Lock masters

At the end, we pulled over just past the chute to stay the night

While stuck in Orillia waiting for the prop repairs to be completed, we rented a car to check out the local sights.  Lots of farmland nearby, and of course we did Artie’s favorite cultural excursion to the local boat boneyard, where you never know what you may find. We were also happy to reunite for a short time with Lynn and Wayne on LeryLynn, and with Dale and Andy and John and Priscilla on Changing Latitudes.  And finally, we drove over to the Big Chute, which is a lock in the guise of a marine railway.  Essentially, your boat is driven onto a railway car, picked up in slings, and the railway car is moved over a hill and roadway, where you are deposited on the other side.  You do have to see it to believe it.

Sorry for being so far behind. We finally have decent internet access, and I finally have a new phone, and, and, and, yada, yada, yada … the dog ate my homework, etc.  In other words, no good excuse. After our LOOONNNGGG and excruciating stay in Orillia, we decided to keep moving on pretty promptly as the boating season can be awfully short in Canada after August.  We have since moved through Georgian Bay and the North Channel in Lake Huron, then checked back into the United States at Drummond Island, then moved to Mackinac Island, and then into Lake Michigan, starting on the Michigan side and moving across the Lake to the Wisconsin side, where we are now.  Next stop:  Chicago.  Photos and updates to follow.

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).