July 28, Day 45 - Newboro to Upper Brewers Mills

What a great day!! We woke up to bright sun and a little breeze and headed up to town to get some breakfast. It was yummy. We also bought cinnamon buns for tomorrow morning.
We left about 9:30 with no real idea where we would end up. The Rideau Lake was just incredible. There were lots of cute cabins and homes along the shore and the lake was huge. There were islands everywhere, some with cabins and many without. The water is crystal clear and fish are jumping everywhere. This is a really neat place. You could spend a couple years up here and never see all the interesting places.

We were reminded by one of the folks we met up here that we should start to hustle because we need to be off of Lake Michigan before labor day if we want to avoid some nasty weather. Otherwise, we may have fooled around a bit more in this area. We can’t imagine a prettier place, but folks we were with last night indicated that the Georgian Bay area will blow our socks off. So, we will continue to press on to Kingston tomorrow and do a bit of re-provisioning and pick up a new fender (lost one while departing this morning and we couldn’t get into the shallows where it floated.).

We arrived here at the upper locks at Brewers Mills around 2:00. It was so pretty here that we just decided to stop for the day. This whole area reminds us of the lakes in the Uinta Mountains, but they are much bigger and there are no mountains sticking up into the clouds. The water is crystal clear and the fish finder keeps alarming with big fish showing up. Here at the lock, they are like piranha – throw in a piece of bread and they swarm it. These fish are the smaller perch and sunfish, but we have seen a couple of largemouth bass show up as well. One of the lady’s from a boat next to us put her finger in the water and was rewarded with a pretty good bite (at least it made her scream).

We bought a roast in Ottawa and Linda is working her pressure cooker magic on it tonight. It is called “Mushroom Smothered Beef Roast”. She just added the wine to the concoction and it sure smells yummy. We will be eating this for a couple of days. With the warm weather, pressure cooking sort of seems out of place, but that’s what we had planned, so that’s what we’re having. We figured we’re the only boat on the Rideau Canal that isn’t BBQing tonight.

We are only about 15 miles from Kingston and we have reservations at a marina there for the next two days.


At Chaffeys Lock. The couple next to us lived in the Georgian Bay area for many years so they had many recommendations for us while we are in that area.

At Davis Lock - the lockmaster house

The house on Big Island .... that is the actual name of the Island. Talk about getting away from it all.

... and this is a tiny island

Guess which way the prevailing wind blows ....

A narrow passage (one of MANY)

Directional signs so you don't get lost

Many canoes out enjoying the day

Houses along the water's edge

This house is even CLOSER to the water's edge

Kids having a great time in the water

Lock at Brewers Mills

Grounds at Brewers Mills

More of the grounds .... picnic tables by the water. Perfect setting.

Monk's Vineyard at the dock at Brewers Mills

Flowers and butterfly

A path that Linda took for a walk down by the river

Grassy stuff .... you can sort of make it out. This is at the bottom, but the water is very clear

The fish are hungry here. These are mostly sunfish and perch, but a large catfish, snapping turtle, and bass also came for a snack. We also spotted a very large (30 plus inches), but we don't know what it was - too large for a pike or muskie.