Continuing on the Trent-Severn Waterway: Lakefield, Hastings, Bobcaygeon,Bolsover, Orillia

On Sunday, July 19, we left at 7 am from Hastings, Ontario.  We crossed Rice Lake, which used to be a rice field, entered another canal, and finally made it to lock 19 Scotts Mills.  We went through locks 19 through 26 and made it to Lakefield at 5:00. It was a long ride and there was a wait at the first few locks due to Peterborough being a busy place and it was a weekend so a lot of boaters were out. There were a lot of people watching all of the locks in Peterborough so we had fun conversing with them. The highlight of Peterborough is the lift  lock, Lock 21. It has two lift chambers that are counter-balanced and use gravity and a crossover pipe for water transfer. It's a 65 foot lift the direction we were going and so looking up at the other chamber that would be coming down was a sight to behold. As we lifted they came down. We had 4 large boats in our chamber and they just had 2 kayaks that we could see. Our friends from boat Blue Loon (Matt and Jean) were in Peterborough and happened to see us so they got a video and photos of us. Another highlight was passing through Trent University campus as the Trent-Seven runs right through it. Another area was very narrow with trees so it was very pretty.  Lakefield was another nice marina and town and we had greek food at Lakefield Restaurant. Tim and I took a walk around the town and along the water back to the boat. We saw a beautiful sunset that evening from the boat. 

On Monday, July 20 we left early to get to the 9:00 opening of Lock 27, Youngs Point. We were the first 2 boats and were joined by 2 others and we would go through locks 28 through 31 with them today. (Strangely there is no lock 29). We passed through beautiful Clear Lake and another called Stony Lake. Stony lake has  many rocky islands with cottages (and larger homes too) on them.  There was also an Anglican Church on one of them called St. Peters on-the-Rock. We also saw a small waterfall from a brook near Burleigh Falls. The challenge today was our plan to tie up to one of the lock walls with power on them in either Buckhorn or Bobcaygeon but they ended up being all full. We called Gordon Yacht Harbor in Bobcaygeon and they agreed to give us the one spot on their gas dock and let our buddy boat The Dash tie up to us. The owners, Angel and  Carlo,  were very nice and have owned the marina for 2 years and have made a lot of improvements. The building was once a canoe company and boat works. They now have a restaurant called The Yacht Club which they converted from a storage room and it has a beautiful deck along the water.  We had appetizers and drinks there and later walked around the town which was on the other side of the canal, an easy walk over the lock. We saw the lock wall crowded with boats. Bobcaygeon's name means "water flows around rocks". Lock 32 is in Bobcaygeon and was the first lock built on the Trent-Severn. On Tuesday, it rained pretty much all day as forecasted we stayed put and did projects. We did eat dinner at the marina restaurant "The Yacht Club" and it was very good!

On Wednesday, July 22 we left Bobcaygeon when Lock 32 opened at 9 am. Once we got to Sturgeon Lake the water was pretty choppy with the wind so we took it up on plane to cross the lake. We got into Fenelon Falls which was a nice area with homes on a narrow canal. But when we got to their lock (Lock 34) the wind was pretty gusty and there were boats waiting to go in before us so it was pretty nerve-wracking. Once a boat went in we were able to tie up to the wall and wait our turn. Our buddy boat The Dash had enough of wind by that time so they stayed on the wall for the day. We made it through the lock despite the wind and kept on going. We went fast on Cameron Lake and made it through Lock 35  Rosedale. After this we were in narrow canals mostly which were quite beautiful, however the water in the canals, and in the small lakes that followed, was very shallow or "skinny" and we saw sometimes on ly 2.5 feet under our boat. However, we finally made it safely to Sunset Cove Marina near Bolsover. The wind was not bad there and the owners (Alan and Lisa) were very nice. They even made us spring rolls! Also we celebrated 5000 miles with our 5th Caymus!  Wow! Hard to believe it has been 5000 miles! 

On Thursday, July 23 our next plan was to get to Orillia. We left Sunset Cover Marina to wait for the 9:00 opening of Lock 37. When you arrive early you tie up to the "blue wall" and wait for the lock to open. We went through with just one other boat through that lock and the rest of the days locks (38-41) which were pretty close together. After this we crossed Lake Simcoe to get to Orillia. It was a pretty smooth ride on the lake and we arrived in Orillia at about 1:30. We reconnected with Gary and Monica (Honey Badger) who we first met back in November at Orange Beach. We later had dock tails with them and a few others in the nice boater lounge the Port of Orillia Marina has. The marina had new and modern showers and free laundry as well. We were only staying one night so didn't take advantage of those, but had a nice dinner at The Social Club restaurant. Gordon Lightfoot is from Orillia and apparently there is a statue of him in town that we missed but we listened to his music back on the boat and watched the sunset. Our boat also had a good view of a neon Canadian Flag at the marina entrance which looked stunning at night. We were pretty excited for Friday as we hope to make it through the Big Chute Railroad Lock.  More on that in the next blog!