Locking Through – Trent Severn Waterway – Ontario, Canada

Trent Severn Waterway – Canada’s Renowned Inland Passageway –

Jim and I cruised the Trent Severn Waterway once before, it was on our first Great Loop trip, in 2005/06. That time we did the whole waterway, this time we will only do the stretch from Lake Simcoe, south to Trenton. No Big Chute for us this time. It will be interesting to do this waterway from north to south. Last time, we were traveling home to complete our “Loop” in Charlevoix, Michigan, so we went from Trenton to Severn, ending up in Georgian Bay.

Our end-of-summer trip plans start with the Trent Severn Waterway and will end by cruising the Rideau Canal to Ottawa and Montreal. We’ve never done that route before, neither one of us has been to Montreal, by land or sea. So, on this trip, we’ll be combining the old with the new.

We left the Ranger Tugs rendezvous in Orillia late Monday morning to cross Lake Simcoe.

The weather forecast called for windy weather the next day, so we needed to get going. We wanted to get out of the lake as soon as we could. Lake Simcoe is bigger than you’d think. It was windy, but nothing our little tug couldn’t handle.

We’ve waited a long time to cruise the Trent Severn Waterway again, 12 years to be exact. I remember the grassy canals, the quaint locking system with friendly lock masters, and little Canadian towns within walking distance of a lot of the lock walls where we’d tie up to spend the night.

Lock Up! Lock Down!

There are 44 locks in the Trent Severn Waterway. Because we are not starting to the north, in Severn, we only have 41 to complete. The Rideau Canal has 49 locks. Looks like we will be up to our eyeballs in locking our boat up and down for the next six weeks. It’s an interesting adventure, having to first lock up, as the topography climbed ahead of us, and then after reaching the Kirkfield Lift Lock, it will change and then we’ll lock down. The scenery is hard to beat as we remembered our first day out. No big cities along this route, small Canadian towns welcome boaters on the waterway.

Small summer cottages dotted the shoreline of the whole waterway, and few big mansions or overdone houses. We saw water toys, docks, small boats, cabins with decks, and lots of chairs to sit outside. This is what I will always remember about this area, friendly Canadians like to spend time outside.

There were several Ranger Tugs that headed out onto Lake Simcoe on Monday. We were all headed to Gamebridge to enter the canal. First on the list though was a fuel and pump-out stop at Bridgeport Marina. Ranger Tugs at the fuel dock included: Bucket List, Audrey Rose, Evolve, and Kismet.

Leaving Lake Simcoe to enter the Trent Severn Waterway (above).

We received our canal and mooring pass for the Trent Severn Waterway and the Rideau Canal at Lock 41, our first lock on the waterway.

You will often get paired up in several locks with another boat, and travel that way until one of you stops for the night, on a lock wall or a marina.

Don’t get too many photos like this, green pastures out the starboard window of the boat. Looks like we are cruising through a sunflower field.

Meeting up with our Ranger Tug buddies again at Talbot – Lock 38.

The other tug owners pressed on, as they are on a tighter schedule than we are. They want to see as much as they can in a week’s time. We were tired from the rendezvous and decided Lock 38 would be a good spot to tie up for the night. After exiting the lock we moved over to the dock connected to the lock wall and tied up on the front end. Beautiful, serene, and quiet!