Thursday July 21: Poonamallie Lock - Near Smith Falls

Well, it's finally official – we will continue on our original plan of completing this Canadian Loop. There has been considerable debate and we've changed our minds 5 or 6 times as we considered turning around at Smith Falls and retracing our steps back to the Erie Canal. Apparently there were some issues with the Richelieu Canal (connecting St. Lawrence to Lake Champlain) and we had heard yesterday that it was closed. The lockmaster here at Poonamallie called and confirmed that it IS open and the dredging that needed to be done has been completed. So back on track.

We left the Newboro lock early in the morning as it continues to be very hot. It was only a 5 mile run to Westport (largest city between Kingston and Smith Falls) but we wanted to be sure that we would be able to have power for air conditioning.

The arrival was well timed with boats leaving as we were arriving. It's a really nice place to spend a day – grass right next to the dock as well as picnic tables with SHADE!!! There was a cute bridge that we had to go over to get to town – never saw this before. The town itself was fun – just hot. Nice hardware store and very good ice cream :-) I managed to resist the cinammon buns with gooey topping and pecans. Maybe next time. There was a spring right up on shore (near the pavillion) whose water was very cold compared to the 78 degrees of the lake. Tasted pretty good too!

Up early again Wednesday and off to check out the provicial park on Colonel By Island. The Big Rideau Lake is just that – the largest lake on the system. Many days could be spent exploring the numerous little coves. But we headed off to the park. The chart is marked with our path in (yellow) and then our kayak path in red.

The water was crystal clear but we didn't see too many fish and only a few turtles. Steve is checking a large snapping turtle with his binoculars. It was sitting on a rock and apparently did not want it's picture taken. A welcome find were black rasberries! It seems we missed them every year at the farm since we were usually up on the Trent canal during July – they were great :-) Finally replaced Bob. His outside transmitter had died so we picked up a new one at Westport. Back in business.

Up and on the move again early this morning as today was forecast to be the hotest day yet. The lock was about 2 hours away. We've found that if we arrive early enough, it's not a problem picking up shore power. It worked – we were the first (and only for the moment) ones here and tied up. We are now hiding in the boat for the most part with the air running – crazy, crazy hot. Steve did tackle a project this morning: he's trying to straighten the plastic we bought while in Cleveland so we can make a new cover for the stove. If this works, I'll post a picture of the finished product!