Trent-Severn Waterway

We were at Grangeways on the weekend and what a beautiful weekend it was.  On Saturday we got up, packed a lunch and headed out in the vette for a 7 1/2 hour tour.  Heading east and then north we arrived at Gamebridge which is on the east side of Lake Simcoe and near the mouth of the Talbot River.  This is part of the Trent-Severn Waterway.    The Trent-Severn system stretches 386 km (about 231 miles for my American friends) from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay.  They say it would take a week to travel the length of the Waterway by boat.  You would pass through 36 conventional locks, two sets of flight locks , two of the world's highest hydraulic lift locks and a marine railway during that journey.  Over the years Tom and I have visited most of these locks.  Each is pretty impressive.

The first set of locks entering the river from Lake Simcoe are also called Gamebridge.  We stopped to take a look and to watch them load four boats into the lock heading up river.

 The one at the top right was a 35'-40' cruiser from the US that is cruising the system.  When all settled in the two rangers closed the gates behind them.  These gates are all operated manually.

When the gate is closed behind the boats, the values located at the bottom of the gates are closed stopping the water from flowing out.  Then the values under the front gate are opened allowing the water to flow into the lock, raising the boats to the higher level.

 When the water level has reached the higher level the front gates are opened and the boats continue their journey up the river

It is fascinating to watch.  The locks have lovely picnic areas, wash rooms and some even have showers.  The boaters are welcome to tie up at the locks and take advantage of the facilities.    We following the river and canal for a few miles, stopping at the Talbot Lock to have our lunch and watch more boats being lifted along the river.
From there we just toured around, stopping at Bobcaygeon for some of the wonderful Kawartha Dairies Icecream...yum!!
From there we continued our drive, stopped near Chemung Lake to visit Tom's brother and then into Bridgenorth for a quick visit with his sister.  From there back to Grangeway's.
The sun was shining, the tunes were playing, the wind blowing through your hair, suntans were enhanced.........what more can you ask.
By the way for anyone who has not seen our vette here she is.  We never did name her...any suggestions?