In case you missed the last chapter here is a summary: We have wanted to take a boat ride in the
historic canals of the Eastern USA and Canada.
One of the reasons for buying a 25 foot micro trawler after selling
Salish Aire (our previous Nordhavn 46 – see salishaire.blogspot.com for a full
history) was that we could trailer it to where the canals are and it fits
them. We decided that with our
grandson’s upcoming high school graduation in Ontario Canada that the timing
was right so with Hyacinth the boat on her trailer (which was switched out in
Ontario after several issues with the brakes) we headed from our home near
Olympia Washington to the canals of Ontario Canada.
When we finished our return trip back on the Rideau Canal described
in the last chapter we moved back to where we had initially launched the boat
at Trent Port Marina and then started up the Trent-Severn Waterway. Rather than spend much time in this chapter
covering canal travel we will focus on the high points of that journey.
The first thing we noticed on the Trent-Severn is that it is
not the same as the Rideau. The Rideau
has a historic national park feel about it whereas, even though the
Trent-Severn is also part of a historical park it hasn’t had the same effort
put into maintaining the historic feel.
Examples: Even though MOST of the lock gates in the Trent-Severn are
still hand operated, most of the valves have been switched to hydraulic (as
have a few of the gates), in the Rideau efforts have been taken to match the
original materials and workmanship much more than in the Trent-Severn, and the
Rideau always had low docks for small boats to tie to whereas it was much more
hit and miss in the Trent-Severn. That
said, once we changed our perspective we found that the Trent-Severn had many,
many things to make it fun and attractive as well.
While both canals were designed to basically flood the low
spots between the existing numerous lakes of the region, the Trent-Severn seems
to have really expanded on the concept as the natural lakes were already in
place and digging in the granite bedrock was almost beyond the tools and
methods of the day.
The Trent-Severn connects the north-eastern corner of Lake
Ontario with Georgian Bay on Lake Huron.
In doing so it goes from one geographic region to another. If one looks at the photos of the southern
sections of the canal where it was cut through the local bedrock you will see
layer upon layer of sandstone but once you cross a magical line the terrane becomes
classic “Canadian Shield” where the shield icefields of the last ice age
scraped off any loose soils and left hard granite exposed. What was exceptional to our eyes was that the
granite was pink in color. So once you
cross the line the canal traverses lakes with thousands of granite islets that make for a spectacular scenery. This
bedrock is so hard that the canal engineers finally decided to put a very short
lock at the summit of the system rather than try to cut through the rock and
connect the two central lakes.
The other difference in the canals was that the Trent-Severn
was an industrial canal when it was created and much of the old industry is
still visible along the shores. Along
with the industry is the Canadian elites version of “cottages”. I put this in quotation marks because when I
hear the word cottage I think of something small and minimalist. The owners of lake cottages on the other hand
tend to be of the bigger is better mindset.
The cottages (AKA: summer homes) are found not only on the shores of the
lakes and canals but on any islet that will support a foundation (what is done
for water, sewage, etc we never did find out).
We did pass an Anglican Church that was on an islet and could only be
approached by boat when it held services during the summer “cottage season” (which
hadn’t gotten into full swing yet while we were there).
We also were taken aback by the size of the locks. Along the Rideau Canal the locks were kept to
small lifts as the technology hadn’t fully matured yet but on the Trent-Severn
the locks were BIG. The tallest standard
lock was in Healey Falls where two traditional locks had been replaced by one
newer concrete walled lock with the goal of reducing traffic stops on the towns
streets while boats transited the older flight.
There are two lift-locks on the Trent-Severn system of which we rode in
the larger one in Petersborough. The
Petersborough lift-lock takes boats up 65 ft in one swoop. In order to do this the boats enter one of a
pair of “bathtubs” and then the tubs switch places with the upper tub’s weight
(plus 1 extra foot of water) pushing water out of the massive hydraulic
cylinder under it and into an equal cylinder under the lower tub and so lifting
it (using only gravity) up into the upper position along with any passengers
that are aboard for the ride. We were alerted that if we politely asked the
lock master for a tour he was always eager to show off his very special
lock. In our case he had Clarice operate
the lock under his careful eye while a tour boat was lowered from the upper
canal to the lower canal (the good news is she didn’t drop them!) The other
unusual lock on the system is a marine railroad where the boats are lifted in a
sling across the highway to the next section of the canal – a standard lock was
considered but the railroad/sling system keeps an unwanted fish from crossing
into the section of canals and lakes which was beyond the limit of our travels.
One of our early surprises on the Trent-Severn was when we
got caught in “boat jail” as was a daily experience. (Since the canal opens and
closes daily on a schedule, if you arrive at a lock after closing then you can
only wait for it to re-open in the morning). As we were early in the boating
season the canal hours were still pretty short each day so I decided it would
do me some good to get a bit of exercise on my bicycle. Off I went to the next lock upstream where
there was reported to be an ice-cream stand.
On approaching the lock I saw a boat that was the same make and model
(and color) as the last 25 ft boat we owned before moving onto Salish
Aire. I decided to go have a look and as
I got closer I noticed the radar mounting on the front of the Rosborough and my
eyes got very large. I had built that one-of-a-kind radar mount
myself!! I went and looked closer at the
boat (no one was on board) and confirmed that I was sure it had been our
boat. I walked across the lock gate and
got the all-important ice-cream cone and sat on a bench to enjoy it. In the meantime the owners of the Rosborough
returned. I think they were pretty
surprised to see someone saying “hey, that used to be my boat” in Ontario since
they were from British Columbia. The
woman asked what name was on the boat when we had it and when I said Sea Meadow
her eyes got pretty big too as she told me I was right, it had been our
boat! We talked about the boat for a bit
and I learned that they had brought it from BC to take on the canals just as we
had brought Hyacinth across. Talk about
a small world!
About that time I posted this on Facebook:
So after about 1 1/2 months
living in our 25' boat both on the trailer and on the water what has and hasn't
worked:
We actually went further on the Trent-Severn than we planned
as we were getting serious “lockitis” (caused by many many starts – tieups –
lifts (or lowers) – unties and restarts and repeat) and ready to get back to
see our daughter’s family but people let us know the beauty of the canal really
was north of the dividing line where the granite islets were a feast for the
eyes and they were right. So we
continued on to Bobcaygeon lock where we made a U-turn and headed back south
putting Hyacinth back on her new trailer in Trenton just in time to get stuck
traversing rush-hour gridlock in Toronto on our way back to the southeastern
corner of Lake Ontario where our daughter lives.
Back at Erin’s house we finished making the “new” trailer
safe enough to feel comfortable that it could safely be pulled over many
mountain passes on our way back to the west coast.
As soon as our grandson Carter went through his graduation
ceremony we headed west along the Trans-Canada Highway (which is really a
collection of different highways that provide a unified route across southern
Canada.
One of our bucket list places to take Hyacinth in the future is Georgian Bay. Early in our westbound trip we were able to get a look at the archipelago and decided to keep the guide book handy for the future. Then it was on to the plains of Canada where crops were growing which made for lovely scenery. Finally we took time to revisit Banff National Park where most of our memories go back to our honeymoon there 46 years ago. The weather crossing the nation was really favorable and so the return trip was a great finale with one frustrating hiccup.
On reaching the USA border in British Columbia we knew we
needed to get some kind of paperwork so we could re-register the new trailer in
our names in Washington (after buying it in Ontario we registered it in our
daughter’s name for convenience). We
knew very well that not only was the trailer made in the USA but that we had
upgraded it to a higher standard when we switch the heavier tires and fancier
brakes off our old trailer BUT we missed ONE very LITTLE detail. The trailer had apparently not ever been
labelled for sale in the USA (even though it had a label from a US trailer
merchant) but was labelled as meeting Canadian DOT standards (which just happen
to be the same as US standards!!)
Non-the-less the American Customs folks would not let the trailer enter
the USA (we could have floated the boat in legally!) and there suggestion was
that we contact a commercial broker (this was on a Saturday). A few phone calls later and we realized that
we could be out a lot of time and money going the broker route so we found a
storage lot with space and left the trailer with Hyacinth aboard in Canada
while we headed the final 150 miles home.
The outcome was that on Monday the trailer manufacturer had us email
them photos (which we had taken before leaving the trailer in the storage yard)
of the identification stickers on the trailer and our proof of ownership and
within a couple of hours they had the proper USA DOT sticker in overnight mail
to us. So 2 days later we went back
north and retrieved the trailer and after waiting about an hour in customs we
got our needed paperwork and were able to re-register the trailer in Washington.
Back in Lacey the first order of business was to finish
arrangements for my mother’s memorial service.
She had died about a week before we had planned to go on the trip to
Ontario and we joined with the rest of the family in electing to allow some
time between the challenges and frustrations of caring for her in her last
year, months, weeks, and days of life and remembering her life in the
memorial. I am now convinced this was a
good choice and the service went well, was meaningful, and well attended. The good news for Clarice and I personally
was that we could move on from being the primary medical, and financial
decision makers as well as the closest to her location wise for emotional
support. This had proven to take a huge
amount of our time and physical as well as emotional energy and while we were
saddened to see my mother (whom I never questioned for a minute loved me
unconditionally) pass on we were relieved of the pressure her care had put us
under.
Erin and our granddaughter Valerie had planned to come out
to Washington so that they could attend the memorial as Erin was very close to
her grandmother. The timing also worked
out so that she could attend a national meeting of scrap bookers with her
friends while we cared for Valerie. To
top it off we were jumped at the chance to care for our other granddaughter
Hyacinth for a long weekend while her parents were off at their LARP (Live
Action Role Play) games. We had expected
to stay at home as I had promised Hyacinth’s older brother Etienne that I would
help repair his car but the repairs took only a day of the planned four days I
had laid out. This meant that we could take both granddaughters on a boat trip
for the first time. Our yacht club had
planned an outing to Seattle and they reported that there was room at the dock
so we quickly loaded the boat and headed north (launching in Tacoma to save
some water miles). We had a great time
introducing the girls to boating, meeting new people in our yacht club,
watching the Seattle Torchlight Parade, and visiting Blake Island State Park
(where Clarice had to dive in to cut a dock line out of our prop – oops).
We also finally had time to take a boat trip through the San Juan Islands and on up into the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. We made it as far north as Nanaimo where we spent three days with a very active Albin cruising club. The club was a lot of fun but the “bad” news is Clarice got a lot of ideas for changes she wants make to our boat! While we were there I continued my new hobby of broadcasting on ham radio for POTA (Parks on the Air) where hobbyist try to get at least 10 contacts while calling out from a park at which time they have “activated” the park. During our stay in a cove on Wallace Island Provincial Park I was able to activate the park successfully for the first time ever (and make a lot of other hams happy when they not only got to check off a new park on their list but also talk to their first “maritime mobile” operator (broadcasting from a boat)).
When we bought the house it had a very large deck of which
one-half had been added on by someone with poor building skills and probably
the same folks had covered the original section. Our hot tub sits on the problematic section
which was sinking more and more in the middle so we started our project of
replacing that section. The physically
hardest part was removing several cubic yards of dirt that had been left in
place when the deck was added (they had just raised that section about 6 inches
to accommodate the higher ground). When
we completed that section we were very happy with the result both in the
strength of the underpinnings and the look of the new decking. Eventually the
lack of symmetry won out and we took on finishing the project which involved
adding beams and joists under the original section and then putting on matching
decking material. The big change was
adding a cover that should hold up to any snow load (in Puget Sound or the
Arctic!) and which is much better ventilated in the summer sun. The only thing about it is that my design
ended up much higher than I envisioned so it would go comfortably above the
existing roofline.
Another BIG accomplishment (for me) was in taking a day trip
to Paradise on Mt. Rainier. I’ve gone
there many many times living most of my life near the base of the
mountain. What was different on this
trip was it was my first attempt at hiking a significant distance uphill at a
higher elevation since I my back surgery and I was started on routine
medication for my asthma. Clarice and I
walked up to the point where the residual snow was too soft for safe travel
without an ice axe and crampons and looked at each other and recognized that
the snow had stopped us, not leg pain/weakness nor shortness of breath. Since we have been planning for some time to
head to Utah and to the Grand Canyon for a fall outing we felt we had
demonstrated that we both were ready for the challenges.
Final Photo:
