We traveled through The Bay of Quinte today to reach our destination of Trent Port Marina in Trenton, Ontario.  Once again the scenery changes were cool and we saw numerous swans near the shore.

    

    

Trent Port would be our last stop before entering “The Trent Severn Waterway” and was the nicest, cleanest and most modern marina we have experienced yet!  There were bunches of looper boats arriving and departing both days.  We caught up again with Rick and Lynda on “Recess” and met Penny and John on “Andiamo”.  Rick and Lynda invited us and Herb to their boat the first evening and Penny and John invited us to their boat the second evening.  We like to compare stories and make plans for how, when and where to continue our travels.

    

Later we visited with Herb on his boat and called it a day…..

We met Mary and Rob (Canadians) several months back in Jacksonville when they invited us to their sailboat for docktails.  They were driving through Trenton while we were there and offered to show us around.  We went to “Lock #1” to purchase our lock pass ($200+ for 45 locks) to enter and travel through the Trent Severn Waterway for the next few weeks (kind of like purchasing a pass to travel on toll roads).  We enjoyed lunch at The Port Bistro Pub before they dropped us back off at the marina.

    

Still daylight and it’s after 9:00 p.m……….

    

This is a new (to us) app called “Nebo”.  It is a tracking app that allows us to see where other boats are.  It tracks the miles and time and even shows your boat moving through the waterway or docked at a marina.  Only my family and a few close friends can appreciate that we found another boat on Nebo named “Karen Ann”.  That is what I was called the first years of my life – and still by some of my family today (and Ron when he’s mad).

    

Random Stuff:  Seems like this little fellow, “Max”, moved into our house since we left Nashville eight months ago and we do believe he is providing great companionship for Stephanie, Jackson and Brandi.

Today we began the Trent Severn Waterway when we pulled beneath the Gateway Bridge after leaving Trent Port Marina.  The Trent Severn Waterway is a 240 mile, 45 lock canal-lake system that connects Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay (google it).  Its scenic, meandering route has been called “one of the finest interconnected systems of navigation in the world” and we are told this is one of the most picturesque parts of our journey.  Our first lock, Lock #1, was only a mile and a half from the marina and we were there early with anticipation of what lies ahead.

            

We entered Lock #1 with several other boats and were asked if we would mind “rafting up” to another boat (rather than tying up to the lock wall).  That was fine with us if it was okay with our tie-up boat.  After entering the lock, we had only inches between our boats – too close for comfort but we made it in and out without any dings…..

        

This shows how close we are, with inches between our boats and the lock walls.  After locking through in these cramped conditions, we opted to hold back at the third lock to travel the next 5 in less stressful circumstances.

    

The locks in Canada are mostly manned by college students because they are only open during the summer recreational season.  There is no commercial activity in these locks.  The lock attendants are attentive, alert and pleasant!  The vast majority of these lock gates are opened and closed manually.

        

The first six locks were in a seven and a half mile span.  Needless to say, this was a very demanding and focused seven miles!

    

    

We passed old abandoned railroad bridges and gorgeous scenery……there were chunks of concrete and rocks in abundance….

        

This is a “double lock”…the blue gates look like a mural that has been painted on a wall, but is actually where the rushing waters have left their stains.  In the double locks you pull your boat into the first chamber, it is closed off and water is raised, then gates lead you into the second chamber (lock) where you are raised again.  It was very intimidating pulling in the first of the two chambers – and what looked like a beautiful waterfall was actually water leaking in from the other lock.  Karen was not real comfortable in these locks until the last gate was open and we were free……

    

    

We have seen many white swans in this section of Canada, and of course those Canadian geese are EVERYWHERE!

   

It took us 8 hours to travel only 32 miles and through 12 locks today.  We were glad to see the municipal city wall at Old Mill Park in Campbellford when we finally arrived late in the day.  This was probably the most exhausting day on our trip so far.

    

Herb had arrived before us and we secured our boats to the wall.  This would be our first night docked on a city wall.  Later we walked over the bridge to the little town of Campbellford.  We had dinner at Antonia’s.  It was a tiny upscale, white table cloth local restaurant owned by Chef Ravi and his wife.  It was everything and more!

    

    

As we walked back to our boats we saw flocks of geese in the waters below the bridge with their white tails aglow….

Since Campbellford was a neat little town, we decided to stay for two nights and they gave us the third night free on the wall at Old Mill Park.  The dominant feature of the park is the large sculpture of “The Toonie” (the Canadian two dollar coin).  It was designed many years ago by a local artist.

    

    

    

We started our second day at the local Senior Center, adjacent from the city dock wall, where once a month they prepare a wonderful ham and egg breakfast – for $4.00.  That is 4 Canadian dollars – which converts to $3.01 US dollars – not bad for ham, eggs, hash browns, toast, juice and coffee!  Herb and Don and Barb joined us.

    

It was market day in town and we picked up some salad greens, onions, radishes – and the like…..for a healthy meal on the boat.

    

Campbellford is a tourist stop because of its “World’s Finest Chocolate Factory”,  the “Empire Cheese Factory” and “Dooher’s Bakery” – home of the best donuts and butter tarts in the province.  All loopers are told they must get the famous BUTTER TARTS from Dooher’s, and we did just that!  We also picked up some turkey pies and focaccia bread to accompany our salad ingredients picked up at the Farmer’s Market.

        

As in the prior day, we started our morning at the Senior Citizens Center.  Today was the annual crafts fair.  We like to support the local communities. Ron helped Herb hang his American flag and later we all walked to the local theater for popcorn and a movie.

    

We had a docktail with Herb and Don and Barb on our boat before walking to Capers Tap House for dinner.  We met Don and Barb while going through the locks the prior day.  They have a beautiful 50ft. DeFever Yacht named “Cavara”.

        

Walked for ice cream after dinner…..visited at the park’s picnic tables where Herb taught us how to make a time-lapsed video of our ice cream social.  Ice Cream is big and everywhere in Canada.

    

Random Stuff:  Gives a whole new meaning to “Hang Ten”.  This little Christmas flamingo was a gift from our good friend Jane and, like Santa, he has been with us since before Christmas.  He normally rides in the salon window – starboard side – and has made it fine for seven months now.  It was humorous when we found him hanging upside down from his toes in the window after today’s trip.

    

We pulled off the Campbellford city wall at 7:00 a.m. to be first in line for the first lock of the day, Lock #13.  If there are several boats ahead of you it could mean an hour or more wait for the lock to “re-cycle” back.  We tied up on the lock wall, had breakfast on our boats, and waited for the 9:00 lock opening – we were on our way!  Winds were low which made for easier locking.  We would lock through 6 locks today.

    

    

    

    

        

Locks #16 and #17 are tandem locks with beautiful falls.

    

We see lots of people fishing on the banks and under the bridges and once again “ice cream” is always a priority in this area!  Notice the large ice cream cone on the port-side bank – it is advertising an ice cream stop along the canal.

    

Our final lock before arriving at our destination was the Hastings Lock #18.  All of the locks are well maintained and adorned with colorful flowers of all varieties.  Some even have small herb and vegetable gardens.  Hastings had canoes filled with blooming flowers.

    

Hastings was a tiny place that only consisted of a grocery store, a post office, 4 restaurants and a lock.  Three of the restaurants were closed so we opted for the only one left, “The Captain’s Table”.  We had their specialty – fish and chips – and probably would have been as well off dining on the boat, although we did see some interesting characters there.  That is a fuzzy “Elmo” motorcycle helmet!

        

I read that you can walk the whole town in 20 minutes and that the lockmaster said we were welcome to help him roll in the sidewalks at six-thirty.  At the end of the day the river was calm and the sunset was beautiful.

    

It was a classic morning on the water.  As we headed north to Peterborough we encountered some narrow passages and more pastoral homesites as opposed to what we see in the states.

    

    

    

When we say “manual locks”, we mean “manual locks”, the attendants march around in a circle on a wheel, cranking the huge lock gates open and closed.  Very few of the larger locks are mechanically operated.

    

    

As we rounded the Peterborough Harbor, the water fountain was our first welcome to the marina.  There were several more Looper boats already docked.  This coming weekend is “Canada Day” and boaters are finding their place to settle in for the celebration.  There will be tons of boat traffic and the locks will be crowded.  We walked next door to “The Gazebo” for a bite to eat.

    

The predicted rains finally arrived and in between sprinkles we walked to the local marine store and bike shop.  The late evening brought us sunshine and rainbows.

    

   

And we are still amazed by the coal black squirrels in Canada!

Anticipation of the “Big Lift” got us going early this morning.  It would be our second lock, so we arrived early at the blue line of Lock 20 to be first.  The blue line is the part of a lock wall entrance where you wait for the lock to open.

   

After locking through “20” we were soon in view of “21” or better known as “The Big Lift” .  She was quite impressive.  This historic engineering marvel was built in 1904 and is the largest in North America.  The two “pans” work to balance each other to go up and down.  When it’s time to lower one pan and raise the other, only one extra foot of water is needed in the upper pan to push the upper pan down and raise the lower pan to the top.

            

After Kara Mia enters the pan with a house boat, we are raised 65 ft. in a matter of 2 minutes.  Whoa….. what a ride.

    

    

There were five more locks to make this morning in a matter of 5 miles.  We were going up fast.  Our traveling mates through all 5 locks would be a houseboat, a cruiser, and a kayaker (yes, they let kayakers in the locks).  In the second picture is a girl kayaking the entire Trent Severn (240 miles) – solo.  At the end of each day she pitches a tent at the lock wall park.

    

    

The route to Young’s Point was slow (6 MPH top speed allowed) but scenic.

    

In Lakefield there was a sure to be the next big thing…  a “pontoon pickup”.

            

Young’s Point is not a big place, but its claim to fame is the “Lockside Trading Company”, a complex of unique shopping opportunities.  They have furniture, clothing, gifts, decor items, tourist junk, snacks, and of course ice cream.

    

    

We docked on the lock wall above the dam (sans power and water) and strolled through the modest community.  We think tiny homes are a new phenomenon but they were building them in Canada 20 years ago as summer cottages.

    

    

    

The summertime residents enjoy a laid-back lifestyle.

        

Only a few hundred feet away, and right up the gravel pathway, we enjoyed dockside dining at Patio 27 (hence – Lock 27).

        

We have now entered the Kawartha Lakes region.  This has long been a vacation spot for Canadians and abounds in lakeside homes, cottages and churches.  This is also a product of glaciers thousands of years ago and is called the Canadian Shield.  The rock islands and boulders are plentiful – nice to look at but hard to dodge!

                

A lot scarier sounding than it actually is, we entered “Hell’s Gate”,  however, the current does make it tricky.

Not far after the Buckhorn Lock, we entered Buckhorn Yacht Harbour Marina and docked in our first covered slip since leaving Nashville.  We would lay over here through Canada Day and avoid the busy holiday traffic.  The marina even had its own little beach – they just forgot to spread it!

    

    

    

The next day at the marina, we enjoyed visiting several of the folks around the docks until the power went out.  Everyone scrambled to turn on their boat generators for air conditioning as it was nearly 100 degrees.  It got hot fast in Canada!  We got on our bikes for a tour of town.  On our way, we passed Adam & Eve.

    

The town was quaint and of course had ice cream shops and a general store.

    

    

We thought we would have dinner at one of the three restaurants, however, power was out in Buckhorn as well as the marina (the ice cream shop had a generator to preserve their product).  The best we could do was a glass of wine at “The Ice House” – nothing cool about it!  Kim was our waitress and was pleasant in spite of the heat.

        

……so we biked home and had dinner on our boat – WITH AIR CONDITIONING!

RANDOM STUFF:  Our good friends Mike and Brenda have a Rossborough like this one.  You don’t see too many Rossboroughs around!  And this marina had more Carver Yachts than any marina we had encountered so far.

    

Karen is growing an herb garden and we enjoyed the fresh basil and onions in our salad and on our pizza!

This was “Canada Day” , the celebration of the July 1, 1867 act that united the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a single dominion called Canada.  We rode our bikes to town for breakfast.  The town was hopping with people off for the long weekend celebration.  We had breakfast bowls (back bacon, which is Canadian bacon, and grilled potatoes topped with a fried egg), sprout toast and bagels at “The Lock Stop Cafe”.  After a little shopping at the general store for the grandkids, we biked back to the marina.

    

Our dock neighbors invited us to celebrate Canada Day with them on the docks.  We toasted to Canada Day and they toasted to our upcoming July 4th.  Even “The Dude” (green shirt, sunglasses below) joined in the celebrations.

    

The Monday morning ride to Fenelon Falls was pleasant and uneventful until the last two miles.

    

We continue to enjoy the cabins on the islands on the many lakes.

   

The last two miles through a gorgeous canyon was disrupted by a serious thunderstorm.  We could not see through our isinglass.  While keeping us dry, it fogged over and we could not see where we were going.  The area was congested and we barely missed other boats and kids swimming in the channel.  Debris was flying everywhere.  It was one of our most unpleasant moments thus far…..

The rain abruptly subsided and we locked through – up into sunshine – and docked on the city wall.  Santa was ever popular with the kids here!

                

The lockmaster suggested “Texas Burger” (really?  in Canada?)  for a great casual meal.  We hiked the short distance back across the lock only to find Texas Burger and Murphy’s both closed.  (It was Monday, this happens to us a lot).  The Perch, overlooking the waterfalls, was a good option – but they closed early!

    

But they did allow us chicken wings, a pizza and a go-box.

    

This lock tends to be congested and with little maneuvering room.  We were pre-warned about “Hiawatha” – a very large cruise boat!  Hiawatha departs the Fenelon Falls dock, makes a wide U-turn in the small area between the lock and the railroad bridge and does not wait for vessels to clear the area.  She turns in front of existing vessels – regardless of right of way!  Look out!  And Canada’s version of the Coast Guard was busily re-positioning misplaced green and red buoys…….an ongoing issue in the waterways.

    

A tour of Fenelon Falls revealed these cute butterfly seats, fun in the water, kids at the water-park, the museum, and a nice stroll along the water….

            

The  FRIENDLY FOLKS OF FENELON FALLS were a pleasant reminder of hospitality on the waterway.

Hernando from Hondurus (aka Bob) and Wenda and Adam and Nadine (aboard Star Chaser) offered us great direction on our trip along the waterway and the Georgian Bay.

    

And Sandy at the yarn and crafts store sewed on Ron’s AGLCA patch for free, and her knitting club helped. Great people here in Fenelon Falls.

We’ve met Lee on “Breeze”  several times and we enjoyed meeting up with him again here in Fenelon Falls.  We had some great burgers at “On The Locks”.  Lee is doing the Great Loop solo!

    

    

We left after daylight with clear waters and tons of rocks and boulders….the LARGE ORANGE DANGER signs were abundant and gave us cause to take precautions on our voyage…….

        

and the sun set over Fenelon Falls . . . .

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:  “Your Mind is a Garden,  Your thoughts are the seeds, You can grow flowers, or you can grow weeds…….you decide!”

  We enjoy finding words of wisdom along the waterways………

We would celebrate yet another holiday on the boat, July 4th., America’s Independence Day!  This would be mostly a travel day for us so Karen decided we needed to show some good ole’ American pride (even though we were still in Canada) and decorate the boat!  Ron, thinking we might offend the Canadians, recommended against it.  Our American spirit did prompt some attention from the Canadians.  We were greeted at all seven locks with, “Happy July 4th!” and it made the long travel day much more pleasant.  There were two young couples out on their dock as we waited for one lock to open and they began singing The Star Spangled Banner (I was surprised they knew all of the words)!  And as we got closer they saw Santa and immediately switched to Christmas carols.  What a fun day on the water!

    

We are continually impressed with the clarity of the water……and always on guard for the rocks!

    

    

More fun on the water……

   

More cottages along the canal…….

    

“Hole in the Wall Bridge”………

    

This part of the canal, constructed in the 1920’s, is a very narrow, shallow canal connecting Balsam Lake with Simcoe Lake.

    

“SECURITY, SECURITY, SECURITY” (SAY-CURE-IT-TAY).  This is the International Safety Signal and is a message about some aspect of navigation………..Before entering the canal we had to send this signal over our VHF radio, also announcing our direction, size and boat name.  The canal is so narrow that, unless you are a small boat, you can’t meet or pass another boat and you certainly can’t turn around!  It was a harrowing experience!

    

Our second “lift lock” seemed more precarious because we started at the top of the lock.  This is the highest point in the Trent Severn Canal and at this point we start going down in the locks.

    

Seven locks today made for a long and tiring trip.  We appreciated the work of our lock attendants manually opening and closing the HUGE lock doors, that we might pass through their waterway.  After going six miles an hour for 30 miles, we were excited to reach Lake Simcoe and let the Volvo Penta 600’s breathe (30 MPH).

    

        

Orillia is just around the corner!