August 2, Day 50 - Deseronto to Frankford

We departed this morning at 8:15 in a light drizzle. Soon the drizzle changed to a downpour and the winds really picked up. This was the first real rain we’d had in a week. Our original plan was to reach Trenton and start up the waterway; however, with the weather we were thinking of other options. One was to find a marina and another was to anchor out. However, shortly after passing under the bridge welcoming you to the Trent-Severn Waterway, the rain stopped, the sun came out and it got hot …. almost within the space of 5 minutes. With the drastic change in weather we continued up the waterway.

The first lock was Trenton. According to the guidebooks this lock is also known as the “Greenhorn” lock because it is the first lock at the southern end and for many boaters, it is their first lock experience. Not for us by golly; we have 70 locks under our belt.

The lockmasters here give you a couple of cards as you are locking through. They are cards of endangered species in the area and are furnished by the Trent-Severn Waterway Wildlife Action for Habitat Health. The card has a picture of the fish, animal or bird and then on the reverse some interesting facts about that particular species. It will be kind of fun to collect them all.
We found some interesting current at the blue line for lock 2 and had a bit of a problem tying up. Between the current from the dam, the release of water from the lock and the wind we had an interesting “landing”. After that though, we proceeded past Lock 6 with no problems. We tied up at the top side of Frankford Lock … they even have electric here. This is something new within the past year. The grounds are very well kept. They were very clean with lots of grass, trees and flowers.

We went through all of our guidebooks and sort of came up with a plan for the next week. We are planning on being in Orillia on August 13 as we need to pick up our friends on August 15. We are actually a little ahead of schedule so we are trying to pick out places along the way where we would like to stay.

We are parked next to a Canadian couple that are also doing the Great Loop. They left Montreal over a month ago and are really taking their time. Didn’t get a chance to talk to them much, but we’re going in the same direction and pretty much the same speed, so we’ll probably meet up with them again.

Since we had not had lunch, we decided an early dinner was in order. We walked into town and ate at the only restaurant we could find that was open. It was a Chinese buffet and actually was very good, but we ate too much and walked back the long way to get a little more exercise.
The day had started out wet and dreary, but ended up sunny and quite pleasant. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Boat leaving our anchorage on a misty morning

Welcoming sign to the Trent-Severn Waterway. Unfortunately, the weather was still bad at this point and I couldn't see anything in the camera viewfinder, so had to guess where the sign was. I missed the "y" on waterway .... but you get the idea.

Approaching the first lock on the Trent-Severn (Trenton Lock)

The Lockmaster house at Lock 1

Leaving the first lock. The gates are opened differently here -- Push bars on a turnstyle

The falls at Lock 2 - Sydney. This is where we had trouble docking the boat on the blue line.

Flowers at Lock 2

A kayak leaving the lock at Lock 3 - Glen Miller

The sign at Lock 3 - Glen Miller

The campground next to Lock 6 - Frankford. This is the lock we stayed at overnight

The way into town. There was a grassy path beside the canal all the way to the bridge that went into town.

A small church and its reflection in the water.

These geese were a little upset at us. They didn't want us in "their space"

We saw this fisherman at a lock further down. He had walked up to this lock and was out fishing until well after sunset. He had a bucketfull of fish.

Information about the workers who built the canal



Monk's Vineyard on the wall -- at the far end on the left side

Sunset on the canal