August 29 – September 14, 2011
After we left Bobcaygeon, we continued up the Trent-Severn Waterway. We took quite a few photos of the sights along the way, highlighted by the beautiful scenery, numerous cottages, narrow passages and somewhat shallow depths. We loved this section of the Trent-Severn, maybe even more than the first part. We continued to stay alongside the lock walls at night, using our generator for power because none but Fenelon Falls had electricity.
We had a couple of additional momentous lock experiences. Kirkfield Lock was similar to Peterborough, except much more intimidating! Unlike the other locks where there is a tall wall at the front of the lock, there is no such wall at Kirkfield. We drove the boat into a large metal tub filled with water and stopped short of what appeared to be a drop off the edge of the tub -- 49 feet down! It’s just your perception that you might fall off though, but it is daunting! Like Peterborough it works like a teeter-totter. The lock keeper fills the top tub with an extra foot of water, causing it to drop and the other lock tub to rise. It’s actually a very smooth ride down. Prior to Kirkfield we had been ascending up the Trent-Severn, but that now changed at Kirkfield as we began our descent to the Georgian Bay water level.
Further down the waterway was Lake Simcoe, which in bad weather, can sport 10-foot waves. We lucked out on the day that we crossed the lake, 20 miles of open water, with a picture perfect day. Next stop was on Lake Couchiching, the town of Orillia. Danny & Susan suggested stopping there for a few days to get away from the boating traffic over Labor Day weekend. It was a great stop! We shared a rental car and went to Midland, Ontario to check out several marinas that we were considering for winter storage. We also went to Casino Rama on the Indian reservation and had a nice dinner at the steakhouse. In downtown Orillia for 4 days, I was a regular at the Mariposa Market – I’m embarrassed to confess that my sweet tooth took possession of my health-consciousness and won in a big way. Labor Day Weekend started off very nice, but deteriorated by Saturday afternoon. It continued to rain the rest of the weekend and the temperature dropped – it definitely felt like Fall had arrived.
Speaking of arrivals, I was anticipating our arrival at Big Chute, Lock #44. Unlike any other lock we’d done, here your boat is lowered down 60 feet by being transported via a railway car of sorts – brought OUT of the water, OVER a road and DOWN a big hill and dropped into the water at the lower level. We arrived mid-afternoon so that we could watch other boats go through before we did it the following morning. Danny & Susan have done Big Chute several times, so they were taunting me about what lay ahead of us. The pictures tell the story pretty well. Danny & Susan went through ahead of us and took pictures and video of our experience, but here’s a description of what happens.
You AND your boat are actually transported over the land between Gloucester Pool and the Upper Severn River on the Trent-Severn Waterway – in about 7 minutes, with a drop of 60 feet! First you drive your boat onto the railway car (or cradle or carriage – whatever you want to call it). The car is already submerged into the water when the lockmaster gives you the signal to approach and you center the boat on the slings (big straps), while trying to manage the current in the water. Then the car is lifted out of the water and the boat is now “high and dry”, supported by the slings, but sitting on its keel on the platform, and hanging off the back of the car. The car rides on the railway tracks, crosses over the road (where---yes---traffic is stopped) and then goes down the hill, re-enters the water and slings are lowered, and the boat floats again on the lower side of Lock #44. This place is an engineering marvel. I mean, who thinks up these things??!! Believe it or not, this system has been in operation since 1917, but has been improved several times and is now called Big Chute Marine Railway.
Two days later, we arrived at Port Severn, our final lock for the season. We stayed overnight before the lock and had dinner on our boat with Susan & Danny. After dinner, Susan asked us which parts of our summer we enjoyed the most and the four of us started reminiscing. After they left, I got choked up and then started crying. I couldn’t stop – I was overwhelmed with emotion. I knew I was going to miss our friends – we spent so much of our summer experience with them & they live in British Columbia, which is about as far from Florida as you can get! I had a feeling of sadness about leaving this other life, the cruising life. Yes, some people think it’s a little like camping, but it makes you realize how simply you can live if you want.
The Port Severn Lock #45 should have been a cinch, but it turned out to be a bit of a challenge. It was the smallest lock we had been in – length and width. The lock keeper wanted both Potest Fieri and our boat to lock through at the same time. The pictures show that we were less than a foot from Danny & Susan’s boat and our dinghy’s pontoon was right up against the back door of the lock. One of the lock keepers positioned herself on the back gate and kept the dinghy off the door. When we left the lock, the current was strong and the channel very, very narrow. This was a good farewell to our summer locking, reminding us that we always have to be on our game.
Soon after the lock, we entered Georgian Bay, our final destination for this year. It was a gorgeous site – beautiful, clear water, peppered with islands and granite rocks popping up everywhere! It should be renamed “Gorgeous Bay”! We arrived at Bay Port Marina where we had a reservation for the winter season. This is one terrific marina and we knew right away that we’d made the right choice of where to store our boat. We had quite a bit of work ahead of us to get the boat ready for storage. Rae & Steve Mason joined us for one last visit this year. Rae helped me varnish the back rail of the cockpit. We were really proud of our workmanship and it felt good to get that done before we put the boat away. Thanks, Rae, you’re the best!
The six days that we spent at Bay Port weren’t all work though. We went to an end-of-season party at the marina on Saturday night and had a great time with Susan, Rae & Steve, eating, drinking and dancing! On Sunday, Roger & I took a long bike ride and stumbled upon St. Marie of the Hurons, a French Jesuit settlement from 1639, where the missionaries worked among the Huron-Wendat Indians and other local tribes. We lucked out because the annual Pow Wow, sponsored by the Georgian Bay Native Friendship Center, was going on. It was a festival of Natives in their dress and with music, food, art and dance. During some of the Honour Songs and Dances, people were prohibited from taking photos or video, so as not to interrupt the sense of spirituality. Roger & I were mesmerized and felt fortunate to have been able to experience this event.
The next few days were busy! We packed up the boat, arranged for a couple of small service projects and the compounding and waxing of the boat before shrink-wrapping. Roger winterized all the systems on the boat and at 5:00 on Wednesday, we said good-by to the Karen Anne for the winter. Rae & Steve had left us one of their cars and we drove down to Kincardine to stay with them for the night. The next day they drove us to Detroit (about 3-1/2 hours), and Roger, Louie and I flew back to Tampa to “our” other life, where we won’t be roaming as much, on the phone or otherwise.
As we waited to board our flight, Roger and I looked back at our summer. We had a great feeling of satisfaction for all that we had done since May, when we left Solomons Island, Maryland. The bodies of water that we traveled on: Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean, Hudson River, Erie Canal, Cayuga-Seneca Canal, Cayuga Lake, Oswego Canal, Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River, Rideau Canal, Trent-Severn Waterway and finally the beginning of Georgian Bay – it sounds like a National Geographic story. We went through 132 Locks this summer! We knew we had done a lot of locks, but this was the first time we’d added them up. They had actually become a way of life for us.
What will we miss from this summer? Just a few things come to mind:
--the good feeling that we have about the boat – how we’ve maintained and improved upon the workings of its systems and how comfortable and safe we feel living aboard for long periods of time
--the isolation, quietness of our overnight stays at the pristine locks
--the carefully manicured gardens and wide open grassy areas along the lock walls where we could easily walk Louie
--the smell of the cedar trees on the last part of the Trent-Severn
--the rural settings of the small Canadian towns where you can always get a good order of fish & chips
--the local farmers markets, festivals, and bakeries
--the dinners & visits with friends and family along our route
--the people that we’ve met on the waterways
We are nearly done with our Great Loop; we only have Georgian Bay and the North Channel (both in Canada) and then Lake Michigan left to do. We could have finished our loop this year, but decided that what is ahead of us next summer is worth the wait so that we can take our time and not rush through it. We’ve already had a small taste of Georgian Bay, as we brought the boat to Midland, Ontario. We’ll look forward to next summer’s travels through the 170 miles of Georgian Bay and its breath-taking 30,000 granite islands and surrounding picturesque and crystal clear waters. (Caution: Rocks just below the surface of the water if you go outside of the channel.) No more locks to go through, but plenty of other challenges along the way. Everyone tells us that the most beautiful cruising waters in all of North America are ahead of us in the North Channel of Lake Huron. They’ll just have to wait for us – we’ll be back!
No comments:
Post a Comment