Pat and Cindy's Great Loop Adventure

Second Day of Locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway – Ontario, Canada

Travelled from Percy Reach – Lock 8 – to Hastings – Lock 18

View from campground at Percy Reach
Downstream from the Percy Reach Lock is the Murray Marsh – 7008 acres over 6.8 miles.
This is one of the most valuable wetlands remaining in Ontario.

Huge painting where children can look for all types of wildlife of the marsh – dragonfly, beaver, muskrat, painted turtle, garter snake, etc.

I really liked the landscape at this Lock. As mentioned previously it reminded me of Lincoln State Park in Indiana. There is a wonderful campground there. Most of the Locks do offer campgrounds for bikers or hikers.

Campground at Percy Reach Lock
For my brother David – our fire bug
Look close. These are carvings from wood – a bench and two chairs!

The views from campground onto the River – stunning

The first day of the locks on the Trent-Severn went pretty smoothly. Not so much on the second day. You gotta take the good with the bad.

We left Hastings and were traveling with boats No Rush and Dancing Bears. As we approached Lock 9 we discovered we had to tie up to the wall, to wait for the Lock to open. There was a sailboat in front of us.  We entered the lock, behind the sailboat. The captain of that sailboat said we were too close. He kept poking at our boat with his boat hook. And he looked like Bernie Sanders, which didn’t help matters.

Captain Pat finally had enough. He backed up Sunshine, and said we are leaving this lock, not going to do this.  Our boat buddies on No Rush and on Dancing Bears were like, what? They were right behind us and so they had to back up as well. Anyway, they all backed up and No Rush ended up going into the lock with that sailboat. Dancing Bears

We then just travelled with Dancing Bear through the other locks that day. We ended up going from Lock 8 (Percy Reach) to Lock 18 (Hastings.) That is 10 locks, making for a very long day. It seemed like we finished one lock only to go into another one. And, yes, we did end up with that sailboat in another lock.

Sunshine docked at Percy Reach

Copy of Distance Chart that we use to plan Lock visits
As you approach the Lock, if the Lock is not open, you pull up to the wall
and loop your line around one of these, to secure your boat before entering the Lock.
Approaching the Lock
Close-up of line tie up at wall – you loop your line around this
Cruising from Percy Reach to Hastings, we saw several camps like this one,
reminding us of Lake Winnipesaukee.
Look close – there’s a statue of a brown dog at this camp.

We get by with a little help from our friends …

Mitch took this photo from above the lock – me in the rain!

We were booking it to make Lock 18 before it closes at 5:30 p.m.  Lucky for us, Anne and Mitch were already at Hastings. They went to the Lockmaster and convinced them to keep the Lock open for us. One Lockmaster had to go home. So Mitch volunteered to assist the other Lockmaster, and even helped by manually closing the Lock! We told Mitch he has another talent to add to his resume. We are so grateful for good friends who are always looking out for us.

We – finally! – made it to Hastings, where we docked on the wall of the lock. We thought at first the sailboat was there too! But he went to the marina across the lock.

Hastings was a cute little town. I grabbed dinner with Mitch and Anne and brought dinner back to Patrick, who was still nursing his rib and knee.  What a day.

Our hero, Mitch – Lockmaster in training
Mitch manually closing the lock – you turn the crank around and around

Here’s the real Lockmaster. He said not to post photos on Facebook.
Not often do they have a member of the public assist at the locks.
Thank you, Mitch!

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2 responses to “Second Day of Locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway – Ontario, Canada”

  1. Sound like sailboat”Bernie Sanders” is a “pain” 😂. Glad to hear you’ll be catching up with a few of my family members in Orillia.
    Enjoy & Travel Safe !!!

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  2. A very nice ride and couple of “bright lights”. One is the beautiful nature poster at Murray Marsh for kids of all ages, even older ones like me………and the extraordinarily Good Samaritan, Mitch doing whatever is needed…..

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