Happily leaving the Silver Star behind us, we reached Port
Severn after a short drive and got our first look at the Trent-Severn Canal. It’s
really a lake (‘Little Lake’) at this point, and it’s absolutely beautiful. The guide boat entered the water at Bush’s Marina,
just by lock 45 (special thanks to Dustin Martin, the General Manager), and the
row officially started a few minutes after 10 am.
A few hours later, we met Al at lock 44, the Big Chute
Marine Railway. It’s an ingenious feat of engineering, as the boats are
carefully floated onto a rail car, suspended on cradles, and carried 60 feet up
to the other side of the lock. This system has successfully kept Lake Huron lampreys from
reaching the lakes in the remainder of the waterway.
At lock 43, Al learned that there were a set of rapids ahead
of him and that he would be wise to portage the half mile around them. So of
course, after studying the first one, and with some encouragement from the
shoreline, he decided that he could take them. Which he did; hopefully he’ll describe the
excitement in more detail at some point in this blog.
Al reached lock 42 by the end of the day, after 32 miles of
rowing against the current, through the rapids, and in at least one huge
downpour– maybe a little too ambitious for the first day. The locks have picnic
tables, public restrooms, and campsites, and a lot of boats spend the night
there waiting for the gates to open in the morning. But that’s all that’s there, at least at lock
42, so Kathy and I provided a picnic dinner and then bid Al an early goodnight.
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