Friday, August 21, 2009

Fenelon Falls to Lake Simcoe July 27 - August 1

After Peterborough we passed through a number of regular locks. Above the Lock 26 and town of Lakefield we started to see more rugged terrain. Rocky islands and more rapids were common in this area which is a popular vacation area for Canadians. We will pass through Clear Lake, Stony Lake Pigeon Lake, Sturgeon Lake which are all part of an area called Kawartha Lakes. One popular activity for tourists is to rent a houseboat. They were thick as squirrels and many boat captains quiver with fear when entering a lock with one of these rookie houseboats drivers. (Note that Canada as of September 2009 will require proof of competence which normally is to pass a written test for boater skills. However, as I understand it this license is not required for houseboat renting.)

















Since most of these lakes freeze over during the winter most of the docks have a provision for getting them out of the water. Some that are on floats can be pulled up onto shore. This one shown is an example of one that is made to pivot up out of the water.










This is a picture of this area of Ontario, Kawartha Lakes. You can see the numerous lakes used for passages on the Trent Severn.












Lock 34 is at Fenlon Falls. The town is named for this falls. This picture is actually the second day after we arrived and had a good nights rain. The entire width of the falls was overflowing.
We were tied up below the lock. We stayed two nights to allow some time to make phone calls. Our Verizon phone was not working and the Pre-Paid Canadian phone had cost over $2.00/minute to call the US. So back to old technology. Yes, I went into a phone booth and used a credit card. Also there was an excellent coffee shop with Wi-Fi service so I sat there several different times to conduct some financial business. Each area of Canada seems to have its own brand of ice cream and we noticed that Canadians love their ice cream. Appropriately, the local brand is called Karwartha ice cream



Our boat was on the falls side of a concrete lock wall and where we were subject to a sideways push from the current. This made it very difficult to get the boat off the wall and backed up to get into the regular channel to the lock (which is to the right in this picture.) I missed a chance to pull the boat backwards by hand before another boat pulled in behind us. We had a hard time getting off.







On August 31 we went through the narrow Trent Canal. We did our "Security" call on VHF channel 16 before entering. There are several spots that are so narrow that passing a boat of our size would be treacherous. This part of the canal was dug by blowing up the limestone, part of the Canadian Shield, that covers half of this country. The chunks of rock were piled up on each side of the canal making a high wall that further enhance the feeling of being in a tunnel.








The water in the canal was so clear that we could see where the rock sides tapered from the bottom of the channel up to the side. Often we were only 5-10 feet from the submerged rocks.








Reached the second hydraulic lift lock on the Trent Severn: the Kirkfield lock. This lock has a lift of 49 feet and works just like the Peterborough Lock but is made of structural steel rather than concrete like Peterborough. This lock is in a fairly rural area so there were not as many spectators as at Peterborough. There was a nice series of signs explaining the operation of the lock.



This picture is the lock chamber at the top. We are in with a little 19' aluminium boat ahead of us and a power boat behind us. The view is eerie because you are just looking out into open space. The gentleman ahead is a retired Canadian who we spent time talking to while tied up at Lock 40 that night. He travels several weeks every summer usually by himself exploring the canals and lakes. He used to do canoeing but switched to this aluminium boat several years ago. He has a small bed and his accommodations are simple but self-contained.




Going through Lock 39 we saw a scape mark on the algae covered walls left by a previous looper. AGLCA is of course the America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association of which we are members and fly their highly recognizable burgee on our bow flagstaff. So obviously, "Loopers" have been coming through.







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