We left the Sunset
Cove Marina at 8:20 am and headed 22.5 miles to Fenelon Falls, Ontario,
specifically to stay on the lock wall in downtown Fenelon Falls. We had just a short distance to the first
swing bridge, and we had not done due diligence because we had failed to note
that the swing bridges, which are also operated by Parks Canada, also operate
on the same schedule as the locks, which open at 9:00 am. Thus, we returned to
the marina about 10 minutes later to tie up and shut the engines down to wait
until 9:00 am to start again (photo at right). Lesson learned fortunately with
little pain. This is another relatively short mileage day, but we did have 2 or
3 locks and two swing bridges to deal with so we didn't expect to have too early
of an arrival time. The marina had no restaurants or stores nearby, but it was
a really good place for Lucky, and we got a lot of steps climbed on our Fit
Bits. 
The
photo at the left shows the Bolsover swing bridge, which was ready to open for
us at 9:00 am when we arrived for the second time. There is generally little
traffic over the swing bridges so as long as the operator is awake, which
seemed to be doubtful about some bridges on the river system in the U.S., we
have gotten right through each time.
Another classic bridge is the
Hole-in-the-Wall bridge (photo at right). It has 20+ feet of clearance so it
was not a worry. The bridge sits out on a fairly long, narrow causeway on
either side. Since it is so exposed, I would imagine that its steep ramps would
not be fun in icy and windy conditions, but I never intend to find out…
The first lock of the day was the
Kirkfield Lift Lock, which is one of two similar cantilevered locks on the
waterway. It is not truly cantilevered on an arm, but one side does go up/down
in opposition to the other (photo at left). Instead of a lever arm the locks
are lifted/lowered by huge hydraulic pistons. There are two locks (or boxes)
with gates on both ends. The piston is round and black just below the raised lock
on the left. The gate on the outside swings out and down to allow boats to
enter or leave the lock. The sign also shows the red/green channel marker
symbols, and it indicates that after this lock, the red and green markers
reverse. Thus we will change from red on the right to green on the right for
the remainder of the waterway. This change was made since this is our last lock
going up and from now on we will be slowly going down to the level of Lake
Ontario at Trenton, ON.
In the photo at the right Lucky Us is
inside the lock, and the gate is swinging up behind us. Almost immediately we
began to go up at a rate that was faster than a normal lock where the water
flows in or out. The water in a normal lock flows in or out rapidly but as
the water level begin to equilibrate with the water level outside the lock, the
hydrostatic pressure drops slowly until the water levels are equal. As the
levels equilibrate, the flow slows down so the last bit of flow can be very
slow. That is not the case with this lock since the moving locks weigh exactly
the same whether they have a boat in them or not, and it would take only a
slight pressure difference between the two pistons to move the locks at any
level. This sounds like a crazy statement at first, but it is easier to start
with the two locks and no boats. It is obvious that each lock would weigh the
same if they have the same amount of water in them. Now, remember that a boat
float because it displaces an amount of water equal to the weight of the boat. This
is the answer because the lock with less water and a boat weighs the same as
one with all water.
On our way out of the Kirkfield Lock we
made a quick stop along the lock wall to watch a boat going the other direction
enter the lock. This was also an excellent time to surprise Lucky with an
unexpected late morning walk (photo at left). The Admiral even took a few
minutes to let her run around a bit. When we loaded back up to continue our
voyage, it was obvious that we had a happy camper. At least she promptly went
into her kennel on the flybridge and fell asleep.
In the picture at the right you can see
that there is a narrow channel ahead, and in this case there is an official
sign requesting all entering boats longer than 12.2 meters (or 40 feet) make a
Securite call on the VHF radio to announce their passage to boats approaching
the other end of the narrow section. It is required by law that all boats
monitor channel 16, but there is no guarantee that everyone does.
There have been very few service vessels along the waterway so far. Our
first one is the tug Trent owned by Parks Canada (photo at left), and she was
looking very smart as she was moored along the side of the waterway. I try to
include tug photos whenever possible as our Grandson Will likes tugs so this
photo is for him!
Okay, the channel markers are red and
green, but Canada also uses green markers to warn of obstructions, which many
people, including me, find confusing. Here is a photo of a green marker for an
obstruction (photo at right), which if someone mistook for a channel marker and
passed on the far side, they would come to a grinding halt. I also included
this picture because I found it amusing that someone put this little piece of
rock art on the natural bed rock obstruction that barely sticks up out of the
water.
Lock Number 35 (photo at left) was our
next and final lock for today, and as indicated above, it is our first down
lock on the TSW. You can see how brown the grass is, except for some areas right at the water edge. Evidently they have had no or little rain for the past 2 months. Even some trees and shrubs are very stressed with drooping branches and some dead leaves.
We arrived at the town Fenelon Falls in mid-afternoon,
and were lucky enough to find a space on the lock wall with power. At the edge of the park along the wall they had this nice rock sign for the town (remember that I am a geologist - so a rock...).
They only
have one 30 amp plug per space, but we were fortunate when our neighbor moved his
boat a few feet back and also moved his power cord to the next power pole. This
gave us two 30 amp plugs so that we could run both air conditioners.
On our way
to dinner we walked to the other end of the lock where there is a viewing area
for the Fenelon Falls (photo at left), which are of course the reason for this
lock. There is also a small power generating station here, but it is out of
view on the right. Our destination for dinner was the building jutting out from
the shore just to the left of the ridge. The name of the restaurant is “The
Perch” so I had visions of a fresh perch dinner. To my great surprise the only
fish on the menu was cod in the fish ‘n chips. When I asked the waitress about
the lack of perch on the menu she quickly replied that the name refers to the
restaurant being “perched” above the falls. At that point I gave up and did not
bother to ask why the logo on the menu shows a blue heron holding what is
obviously a perch in its beak…
The downtown area (photo at right) had a
number of restaurants and many nice stores. In addition, we walked once about
0.8 miles to a Canadian Tire store only to find that it had already closed, but
we went back the next day on our bikes along with Lucky in her trailer towed
behind my bike. We were looking for one of the mid-sized floating swim pads.
They only had one of the huge ones left in stock so we will keep looking for
one about 6 feet square. At the far end of the lock wall was a nice park with a
small swimming area that Lucky liked to visit to drink the water.
On our full day in Fenelon
(Day 132) we went to the Dockside Bar and Grill (photo at left) for a nice
lunch of fish ‘n chips. In spite of its name it is across the street from the
lock and really has no view. Luckily I did not feel cheated by the name since
we went there specifically for the food and not the dockside view. Later we
went to dinner at the Bistro Thai Restaurant which was wonderful. I have been
having so much fish that the Thai food was a very pleasant change of pace.
One of our favorite food
establishments was also one of the closest to Lucky Us (photo at right). No, we
did not stop for ice cream every time that we passed by here, but they did have
our favorite Kawartha Ice Cream flavors. We have been enjoying this brand for
over a month as we have cruised down the Georgian Bay and along the Trent-Severn
Waterway. I started eating black cherry
ice cream way back in mid-June in the Door County area of Wisconsin, and I have
been having it ever since. However, my real favorite is the one made by
Kawartha!
So, we are probably two thousand road miles from home, and what do we find in Fenelon Falls? Yup, a genuine "Texas Burger"... Not exactly our favorite place to eat back home, but it did bring back some memories of home.
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