Friday July 27: Port of Orillia

After a quick ride on the walking/bike path that runs along Cameron Lake, it was time to head out. Most of the boats had already cleared out as it was again a beautiful day - a good day to be on the water :-)

After the short crossing of Cameron Lake, Rosedale was the next (and only) lock we needed to go through for the day. We were headed for Coboconk for the night. It's a very small town that is off of the main channel of the Trent. Most memorable thing about this town: the bakery that was there many years ago (like 40!). We had bought some bread but didn't taste it until we were on the way out of town (this is with my parents and brothers - 7 of us on the 21 ft Lone Star). It was so good that we turned around, went back to the bakery and bought some more!

On the way there, we passed the small island on Balsam Lake where we stayed once or twice when we traveled with my parents. The kids LOVED to stay at islands and there was always the distraction of sending them off to find firewood :-)

We pulled in on "our" dock for the night. It's across from the main city docks and is very quiet - with the occasional fisherperson. Two boats from New Jersey were parked on the city docks. We meet them at breakfast the next morning (there is only one breakfast place in town!).

Steve of course had the grill out and was cooking salmon. This is the kind of place that is made for grilling even though there isn't a table.

The only thing that has changed since the picture at the left was taken (probably early 80's) is everyone is younger and thinner :-) And the old wooden dock has been replaced by a concrete dock. But the grilling was taking place even then by Steve and my dad. Becky is standing on our boat fishing - trying for the pickeral that you could see in the water as it was very clear (and still is).

Wednesday was overcast but a nice travel day as much of the way was a speed limit of 6 mph. Lots of canal travel. One lock again this day - the lift lock at Kirkfield. It's the same as the one at Peterborough but not quite as high. We intended to stop here for the night but it's was pretty crowded already so we moved on down the system. Balsam Lake is the summit of the Trent-Severn system so now all of the locks will be lowering us back down to the level of Georgian Bay (same level as Lake Erie).

The 'hole in the wall' bridge is still there on Canal Lake. I half expect it to be replaced on one of these trips - as I recall it was built in 1905. Maybe I'm just making that up in my mind though :)

We also passed the golf course that my mom would longingly look at as we passed it by! There has been very little rain up here as you can see by the dry, brown grass.

Finally, we were docked after a longer day than usual lately - all of 20 miles! This is the first of 5 locks that leads us down to Lake Simcoe. All are totally hand operated so it's usually a long process even though the distance to the lake is not more than a few miles. Rain was in the forecast for tomorrow so this was a nice place to be.

The best thing? A cleaner that was AMAZING on the flybridge seating. Mean Green - what great stuff. I would never have believed that this would have cleaned up so well. I am going to bring it back to see if it will clean up the furniture on the trawler. Haven't found anything yet but I have high hopes!

Meanwhile, Steve was off fishing from the dam. Apparently though he should not have been down on the steps as the lockmaster came over and chased him off. Back behind the fence. Gee, wonder why there was a fence there in the first place!

The rain came in that night as predicted - and stayed and stayed. Off and on most of the day. Finally about 4 pm it looked like it was finished. Should we go or not? The winds were down, the next day was supposed to be much worse. Off we went, arriving at the entrance to Simcoe shortly after 6 pm. The lake was looking good!

By the time we were most of the way across, the sky was threatening off to the left of us. Let's hear it for cruising at 20 mph :-) The distance from the Trent to Orillia is about 17 miles so it took less than an hour for us to scoot across. Finally, the bridge at the Narrows was spotted.

In and tied up at the city docks by 7:45. Will stay here for 3 night (another one of those 'stay 2 and the 3rd is free that we can't pass up).

A few projects to complete .......