We leave Orillia Thursday morning along with our friends Sally and Ron and travel some interesting and in places, "tight" waterways. We are out of Lake Simcoe. Orillia is associated with Lake Simcoe but to reach it the day before we went thru the "narrows" into Lake Couchiching. Orillia is at the southern end of this north-south oriented lake. Out of Lake Couchiching, we are in the Trent Canal and transit lock 42 and turn west into the Severn River. That takes us to Sparrow Lake. Just before entering Sparrow Lake we go thru a small rock infested/defined cut to the Lauderdale Point Resort for fuel. A nice place to fuel up or stay for that matter.
Pat, with her "travel agent" curiosity, asked the fellow running the gas dock, "what would you recommend for a destination near Port Severn that would be a really interesting place to spend the night? It does not need to be a marina, even better if it is not." He recommended a resort that happens to have a dock called Christie's Mill Resort. "Upscale but relatively reasonable and the staff is great." We made dock reservations for us and also for Sally and Ron.
The next never been done before by us item was the transit of lock 44, the Big Chute "marine railway" lock. This is just what it sounds like, they load your boat on a specially engineered and constructed rail car and the operator and his helper drive the contraption with your boat loaded aboard up and across the road, (crossing gates down of course) and the trip is completed by descending into the water called the "Glouster Pool" on the other side. This was truly interesting and it worked very smooth.
We navigated our way to Christie's and true to what we were told, we had good staff, good facilities and a quality dinner before retiring for the night. One other good thing about Christie's is that it is within sight of lock 45, the last one on the system. Sally among others was ready to hit the big water and escape the sometimes confined feeling that being lock bound for so long can produce.
Some websites to look at if interested.
Trent Severn canal system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Severn_Waterway
Lauderdale Point Resort: http://www.trentsevern.com/lauderdaleresort.cfm
Christies Mill Resort: http://christiesmill.com/
Simplified map of area: http://www.trentsevern.com/charts/severn_locks.gif
A few photos follow-----
Once again, the Summer Star is on her way out, us on her flank
Jammed into the chamber of lock 42
Cottages for every taste and pocketbook.
No more. I promise! But there are so many.
This is for my brother, Tim, who is a retiree of Grand Trunk which until its absorption into Canadian National was a subsidiary short line rail road in the Detroit Area. This track was near the canal for such a short distance that being there when a train was there had low odds.
It just keeps getting tighter!
This is the sign on each side of the road bridge for route 49 at the hamlet of "Hamlet." It is not a heavily trafficked road and when you sound the horn 3 times, you may have to wait a while. Maybe a half hour wait, the bridge operator sauntered in. I think he was at home having dinner.
Just a look at the end turned over the concrete servicing island as we head north looking at the west side of the waterway. This is a condo development sort of by itself.
A sign to advertise the condos. Just in case.
We caught sight of the "Tortuga" back in Orillia. Of interest because she was built by a Chinese maker of high end boats, Marlow Marine. Also of interest because Marlow Marine's entire US operation is within 2 miles of our house in Palmetto. And we saw the Tortuga there maybe last year being finished out.
We came out of the Severn River into Sparrow Lake, inadvertently bypassing the entrance to Lauderdale Resort Marina. Here we have turned back around. The entrance is between all the rocks on the right and the shore where the light colored building is. See why we missed it?
This is looking back into lock 43 (Swift Rapids) midway on the Severn River between Sparrow Lake and the Big Chute marine railway lock, and has a 45 foot drop. Notice the semicircular wall at the upstream end. The entrance gate is at the top of the wall. Big drop, ah?
This is a view of the entire lock complex. The lock on the left, the power generating station in the middle and the dam with one of the sluice gates opened on the right. For some reason the "High Spirits" who shared the lock ride down with has momentarily turned back toward the lock. Notice all the boats entering the lock for the ride up.
Out of the lock and on the Severn River in its relatively natural state. Dug canals have very few marker bouys since the depth and width are relatively uniform. But in a natural river, bouys are necessary because of shoals at bends and at tributary entrances. Note the green marker near the inside curve of the river. Shoaling can be expected on an inside curve. The marker just to the right of the boat is part of that set of markers.
The next few photos are of the marine railway lock. Not really a lock but a transport device to get a boat across a narrow strip of land between two river systems. Note the track. It takes only minutes to motor all the boats onto the railway platform and strap and block them to keep them stable during the ride.
This photo is from a different sequence but it is of the contraption crossing the road going to the water on the other side. Notice the small wheels and notice the three operators at the center top. Also that the crossing gate is down and the small life raft stuck to the side just to the right of the operators. There are several people on board because of the need to load and unload the boats.
There they are at the west side of the journey. The smaller of the two boats is just about to float off but the "contraption" needs to go just a bit further for the larger of the two to float off. It is quick and surprisingly easy.
All this to move a jet ski or two across? They will move it for a little as a single kayak. It will handle up to an 80 footer as I remember what I was told. The operator I talked with said that so far, they have not had a boat as big as it is designed to handle.
This photo has enough detail to point out why it works so well. The floor is slotted and each slot has a number of moveable/retractable stantions for supporting the back ends of the boats. The is a system of straps at the tops of these stantions that "cradle" and stabilize each boat. Each stantion is positioned "on the fly" so to speak to customize the support as required for each boat. I should note, there is a sign at each end of the ride that "disclaims" liability of the Canadian government for any damage caused.
Two other features to point out. Notice there are two track sets. One track set is for the front set of wheels and the other track set is for the rear set of wheels. The track sets each have their own ascent and descent profiles that are arranged in such a way that the "contraption" is always level. The other feature is the cable system that powers the thing (visible between the tracks,) just like what powers the San Fransisco cable cars. The cables are continuous and are routed into and out of the building just visible at the right. The motors and spindles that give the cables motion are in this building.
Time to suck it up and get loaded. The Summer Star went first. Here you can see the two seperate track profiles.
We are loaded, just about to go up. We share the "contraption" with a pontoon boat and a sport boat. The ride up is much less than the ride down in elevation.
We are at the road. Crossing gate is down and away we go!
At the precipice.
Entering the water on the other side. The pontoon boat is about to float.
We are motoring off, looking back. The "contraption that brung us" is already back up the hill. The track offset is visible as well as the cable mechanism between the rails.
Another tiny rock island that sports a cottage.
Another bird of the area.
We motored all day, got "lifted" and "carried" and refueled etc. and here we are here.
A nice resort. And it lived up to its recommendation. See: http://christiesmill.com/
Here we are again, ready to depart--off to the final lock and out into Georgian Bay. How do you like the tight squeeze? Ron docked second. He does have a good eye.
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