Day 119 through the Big Chute Lock and beyond

       Today we continue our TSW adventure.  We will be doing the Big Chute Lock which is the one that involves being lifted out of the water and carried over land within the lock using railroad car on tracks and pulled by cables.  Two days ago we drove to this lock from Midland and took a lot of photos since we will not be allowed off our boat during the locking maneuver. However, The photo at the right serves as a reminder that we are also going to continue seeing a lot of beautiful country. The Trent-Severn Waterway utilizes existing bodies of water whenever possible so it is not a "straight line", but it wanders a lot and has many artificial cuts like the one in the photo. Should be an interesting day. 

      We don't have a definitive destination today but instead have identified several possible stops.  The first is staying on the lock wall below lock #43 which is the next lock after the Big Chute. The second is an anchorage in Deep Bay between Locks #43 and #42.  The third is at the Stanton Bros General Store and Dock in the South West corner of Sparrow Lake.  And the last possibility is on the lock wall below lock #42. There is a 14 mile difference between the first possibility and the last one.  We also have two possible stops for lunch identified. So it all boils down to timing which is always suspect when dealing with locks.  Yesterday we only had to wait for two turns of the lock before our turn but that took almost two hours including our locking time.  But first, the photo above at the left shows one of our first views as we approached the Big Chute (officially Lock Number 44). These are the rapids that were bypassed by the Big Chute.

      The photo at the right shows the railroad car waiting at the top for its first lock through of the day, which although it's not a big deal was Lucky Us. This is our second lock out of the 45 in the TSW, and once again, it is about a 40 foot lift. It looks higher than 40 feet in the photo, but do not forget that we will go over the hill and back down into the water on the other side. We only had to wait a few minutes as the car started down toward us almost immediately.

      The photo at the left shows the car in the water waiting for us to enter. There is a catwalk along both sides near the top where the lockmaster and crew work. We were the only boat waiting, and we were told to enter in the middle rather than along one of the sides. Normally we would have tied to one side with a single sling under the stern to keep the propellers off of the deck. With just one boat they used two slings to hold us upright with the propeller shafts, propellers and rudders hanging over the rear end of the car.

      The photo at the right shows the straps that held us upright. The boat itself was sitting with the long keel resting on the deck of the car. About 10 of our 43 foot length was sticking over the end, but a typical boat has most of its mass near the centers to increase stability so there was no worry about falling off the back of the railroad car. Now, we were ready to begin the trip...

      The photo at the left shows my view from the upper helm station as we were riding up the hill. The excitement was really beginning to kick in just about now. The ride is remarkably quiet since we are pulled by cables that are powered by motors inside the building with the Canadian flag that is seen through front opening of the car. You can see the Admiral sitting there raptly taking everything in as we climbed the hill. We had our head sets turned on, but I don't remember that we said anything as we were both so busy trying to take everything in...

       The photo at the right shows the view out the starboard (right) side as we crossed the highway at the top of the railroad. The camera was about 30 feet above the road when the photo was taken. There was a family waving from way down below. The traffic gate goes up as soon as we have cleared the road. Then a car crossed behind us, and they honked and yelled "Hello Texas!". Talk about feeling like King of the Hill way up in the air...

      Just for scale here is a photo taken while standing on the road looking at the railroad car about to pass the location above. The white power boat is about 31 feet long compared to Lucky Us at 43 feet. Anyway, we were really way up in the air...

      About this same time I took the picture at the right looking back down from where we had come. Yes it was impressive, but if you add it all up, the camera is about 70 feet up from water level so indeed, it was impressive. Obviously the view of the surrounding area was good from here, but I honestly did not notice until later when I looked at the pictures as I had been too busy with the action at hand.




     

      I also took the photo at the right looking forward as we were about to go down into the water to finish the locking process. At this point I am eternally grateful that the railroad car remains horizontal during the whole trip up, across and down. I think that if the railroad car had tipped forward toward the water that I really would have panicked! The last thing that I would want is to be riding Lucky Us if she were sliding down the hill.



      

      Shortly, we were down into the water and starting to float (photo at left). They quickly gave us permission to start the engines. You can see workers using boat hooks to keep Lucky Us centered in the lock until we were ready. Then it was time to slowly move out and get one final picture (below).

      The photo at the right was taken looking back at the lock just after we had exited. It was only then that we both began to relax while also realizing what an incredible experience it had been. I for one am sure that I was on an incredible adrenalin rush...










      I think we were still on a high from the Big Chute lock for some time. However, we still had most of a full day left so we slowly headed onward toward different adventures. The photo at the left shows one of the many nice "cottages" that we passed. If you look at the dock in the center you will see a very high jumping board. At least, I assume that no one would dive off that board, but you never know. Anyway, most of the cabins in this area had some sort of elevated platform, but this one was definitely the highest that I saw. 

      Lunch anyone? These folks (photo at right) certainly seemed to be enjoying lunch on their swim raft. Shortly after this, we also stopped for lunch at Waubic's Inn and Restaurant. It was a delightful little stop with three long piers for transients with a choice of dining on the deck or inside. The weather was perfect outside so we opted for a table under an umbrella. The place is in their third generation of operation under the same family, and their fish 'n chips was to die for.  We actually had to wait 15 minutes to order lunch because they serve breakfast until noon. The wait was well worth it as the filet was over a foot long and was also certainly over a half pound. After all of the excitement this morning, we were really hungry, and this hearty lunch definitely hit the spot (we did take leftovers back to the boat). This stop was also one of our overnight opportunities, but given the early hour we decided to push on a little further.

      The last travel photo (on the left) of the day is this unusual cottage that appears to have been built on pilings and sits mainly over the waters. I am not a big fan of cottages that are painted white or some other bright color, but I also am a big fan of the bright red flowers on geraniums so I will make an exception here. Anyway, this is a scene that I definitely liked a whole lot.

      Well, in the end we went to our furthest choice of possible destinations for today, which was the lock wall below Lock Number 42. The weather and scenery were so good that we had just kept on travelling and soaking it all up. The photo at the right shows Lucky Us nestled way down in amongst the trees along both sides of the channel. There was a road bridge up at the top of the lock level, but there were almost no vehicles at least that we heard. It was also cooler with all of the shade, and we never ran the generator to use the air conditioning as there was just enough breeze to gently blow through the boat with the windows open.

      There were 31 high steps to the top of the lock, and I counted them often as that was where the open grassy space was to walk Lucky. There were only two other boats staying over night down below the lock with us, but the top side had 10 boats waiting to lock through in the morning. This was our first experience staying over night on a lock wall on the TSW, and overall, it was a very pleasant experience.