The Province of Ontario accounts for almost 40% of pleasure boat ownership in Canada. The Trent-Severn Waterway (TSW) cuts right through the heart of this market making, it one of the province’s biggest and most beautiful water-based tourist destinations. The 240 mile (386 km) long waterway from Trenton on Lake Ontario, to Port Severn on Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, is a provincial playground for pleasure boating and all forms of fresh water enjoyment.
The TSW has become a “must” for Great Loopers on the northern stage of their journey north from Chicago or from the Erie Canal as a way to “connect the dots” and enjoy a relaxing cross-country sojourn while skirting Lake Erie, southern Lake Huron, and the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers. The TSW along its entire length is a vacation paradise of tranquil cruising, cottages, waterfront homes, parkland, and small tourist towns filled with Mom & Pop stores and water-based amenities eager to deliver the best in hospitality, goods, and services.
Of course it all started with that French fellow Samuel de Champlain, who was the first European to explore and map the waterway network in the early 1600s. Then once again, as we have learned in the creation of other canals and waterways in eastern North America, the Trent-Severn Waterway was first conceived as a potential military tool following the War of 1812 between Canada and the United States. Surveying was done and construction started in 1833 but stopped in 1837 when its use for military transportation purposes was deemed too slow.
Starting up again in the 1880s, politics dictated further starts and stops in construction. The central Kawartha Lakes portion was completed first and was connected to Lake Simcoe and to Peterborough in the very early 1900s. Following a hiatus during the First World War, this centre section was finally connected to Lake Ontario in 1918 and then to Georgian Bay in 1920. The TSW is comprised of 45 locks which includes two sets of flight locks, two lift-locks which are the highest and second-highest in the world, and one marine railway, the only one of its kind in use in North America.
A bit of history and trivia is relevant at this point. When the TSW opened in 1920, both Lock 43 at Swift Rapids and Lock 44 at Big Chute, both on the western section of the waterway along the Severn River, were served by marine railways. At the time, it was cheaper to build a railway than the deep hydraulic locks which would be required at each location – 47 feet (14 m) at Swift Rapids and 60 feet (18 m) at Big Chute. It was originally intended that both sites were to have their marine railways eventually replaced.
Politics once again delayed any progress. It took until 1964 before a traditional lock replaced the outdated marine railway at Swift Rapids Lock 43. A plan was in place to replace the railway at Big Chute too until the parasite sea lamprey was discovered immediately downstream of Big Chute. It was determined that a standard lock would allow the lamprey to infiltrate the entire central waterway system of Ontario while the marine railway transporting the boats prevented the migration of the sea lamprey.
The original marine railway of 1917 at Big Chute carried boats having a maximum length of 35 feet (11 m). In 1923, a new carriage was put into service that transported boats up to 60 feet (18 m) long. This carriage was in service until 2003, latterly only as a backup to the new railway. This old carriage is still on site on its old tracks as a tourist attraction. In 1978, a revolutionary new railway system was put into service utilizing a carriage that could individually cradle multiple smaller boats, or one big boat up to 100 feet (31 m) long and 24 feet (7 m) in beam. The rail system supporting this carriage is designed in such a way that the carriage is level at all times during ascent and descent.
Some additional historical trivia indicates that in a rush to complete the TSW system, the final lock to be built at Port Severn, Lock 45 at the mouth of Gloucester Pool where it drains into Georgian Bay, was only intended as a temporary lock. It was built to accommodate a boat up to 84 feet (26 m) long by 23 feet (7 m) in beam. This lock has never been rebuilt and remains to this day the smallest lock on the TSW system. It thus limits the size of boats wanting to traverse the entire waterway. All other 44 locks on the TSW can accommodate a boat up to 154 feet (50 m) long by 32 feet (10 m) in beam. Water depth is a minimum of six feet (2.7 m) along the length of the waterway.
First built in 1904, the hydraulic lift Lock 21 at Peterborough has been named a Canadian National Historic Site. Consisting of two bathtub-like caissons, each supported on a 7.5-foot (2.3 m) diameter hydraulic ram, the upper tub fills with one foot more water than the lower tub. The resulting weight difference allows the upper tub to descend without the need of any external power source, while at the same time lifting the other tub. Boats are raised and lowered over 65 feet (20 m), the highest elevation difference on the TSW system. There are fold-down full-width gates at either end of the tubs to allow boats to enter and leave once water levels are equalized. The Kirkfield Lift Lock 36 was completed in 1907 using the same principles as the Peterborough lock, but the lift is only 50 feet (15 m).
To access the TSW at Trenton from western Lake Ontario or from Oswego, New York and the Erie Canal, utilize a short cut by boating around the Presqu’ile Point Lighthouse off Brighton, Ontario, the second oldest lighthouse in Ontario. It sits on the northeasterly shore of Lake Ontario. Then take the 5 mile (8 km) long Murray Canal into the Bay of Quinte. The City of Trenton and the mouth of the Trent River -- the start of the Trent-Severn Waterway -- will be ahead on your port side. From Lock 1 at Trenton, the Trent River will take you through some quaint and welcoming towns like Campbellford and two sets of flight locks up to Lock 18 at the delightful town of Hastings.
From there, the Otonabee River will take you through historic Rice Lake, Little Lake within the vibrant City of Peterborough, and the Peterborough Lift Locks through to Lock 27 at Young’s Point. At this point you are entering some of Canada’s finest vacation area -- the Kawartha Lakes. The TSW takes you through 10 of the 13 Kawartha Lakes, namely (and in order from east to west) Clear, Stoney, Lower Buckhorn, Buckhorn, Pigeon, Sturgeon, Cameron, Balsam, Mitchell, and Canal.
Lake Scugog is a relatively less congested side trip off the main waterway route. It starts at hospitable Port Perry at its southwest corner and drains north via the Scugog River through the tourism town of Lindsay and into Sturgeon Lake. The Kawartha Lakes were formed by similar glacial action as the Finger Lakes of upstate New York and are similarly beautiful with sparkling crisp, clear, and clean waters.
Although Balsam Lake is the highest point along the TSW, the significance of this fact in boating terms has been passed on to Lock 36 -- the Kirkfield Lift Lock. It is deemed that the flow of water on the east side of the lift lock is east and south to Lake Ontario, while the flow of water on the west side of the lift lock is west and north to Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. Therefore, according to the boating navigation rules regarding red and green marker buoys where the rule, red-right-returning applies, proceeding westbound toward the lift lock, you are deemed to be returning “upstream” and the red markers will be on the starboard side of your vessel.
With the lift lock having been given the designation of being the height of land, having passed through the lift lock in the same westerly direction, you are then deemed to be headed “downstream” and the markers will have switched sides with the red markers on your port side from there to Georgian Bay. Local signage near the lock provides bold reminders of the change.
Although Balsam, Mitchell, and Canal Lakes are considered part of the Kawartha Lakes, they are in fact the headwaters of the Talbot River which flows westerly to Lock 36, the Kirkfield Lift Lock, and on to Lock 41 at Gamebridge, the entrance to the freshwater playground of Lake Simcoe. Being the largest lake on the TSW and the closest access on the waterway to Canada’s largest centre of population, metropolitan Toronto and surrounding area, means that Lake Simcoe is home to dozens of marinas and facilities catering to pleasure boaters. Almost immediately across the lake from Gamebridge is the City of Barrie at the head of Kempenfelt Bay, a large city by tourism standards, and home to all a large city offers.
Lake Simcoe drains through what is known as The Narrows at its north end. The highway bridge across The Narrows was re-aligned during its recent reconstruction when 4000-year-old indigenous fishing weirs were discovered near its base. Sticks and pilings stuck in the lake bottom in the shape of a funnel had been built to corral the migrating fish to be scooped up by the natives of that time. This is now a National Historic Site and can be viewed quite readily through the clear water under the east end of the highway bridge. The clear, cool, and fast-flowing waters of The Narrows have preserved these wooden weirs over the centuries.
The water in The Narrows flows north into Lake Couchiching with the City of Orillia on its southwest corner, home to arguably the largest transient boating marina on the TSW. Lake Couchiching drains into the Severn River at its north end and the TSW follows this river west through Sparrow Lake and to Gloucester Pool via the marine railway to Port Severn and finally to Georgian Bay and Lake Huron via Lock 45.
It indeed may have taken 87 years to complete, from 1833 to 1920, but the end result is a boater’s dream come true. And for very good reasons, the Trent-Severn Waterway has itself recently been deemed a Canadian National Historic Site.
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