Day 153 - On the Downside

The warm weather and woodsy shores have led to lots of flying insects on the boat, especially at night.  This morning I was up vacuuming and washing hundreds of them off the boat.  Unlike yesterday, there was not a cloud in the sky when we left at 10:08 am.  A swing bridge was just ahead and Lock 37 followed right after.  The lock crew knew we were coming and had the lock chamber ready for us.  We had hit the top yesterday and it was all downhill from here.  Instead of entering at the bottom and grabbing the cable with the boat hook, we were at ground level and the cable was below the bow.  The lock attendant took my line, wrapped it around the cable, and then handed it back to me to hold.  We were in at 10:18 am and out at 10:36 am.

Locks 37-41 are each separated by one mile or less.  They share lock attendants who travel between them by car.  Again, we were the only boat going through, although there was one coming from the other way.  He was waiting on the blue line when we exited Lock 39.  The usual cottages and farmland were seen on the Talbot River Banks and geese were everywhere.

We exited Lock 41 by noon and had about 1.5 miles to go to reach Lake Simcoe.  A Sea Ray (25 foot or so) had come off the lake and we had to make another close pass.  One swing bridge stood between us and the lake and it opened as we approached.  Rocks formed a small break wall and the exit was twisty and very narrow.  It felt good to finally power up!  The Trent-Severn guide book said to plan at least 3 hours to do this section but we made it in just over 2, due to no traffic.

Lake Simcoe is the largest lake on the waterway and has, yes, cottages, homes and small marinas on its shores.  With the good weather, waves were one foot or less and our ride was smooth.  It is connected to Lake Couchiching by a canal called the Atherley Narrows.  At the height of summer this channel is filled with boats going between the 2 lakes (so they say), but there were just a few today.  Small marinas were on both sides of the channel.

 

 

We took a turn to the port after The Narrows to the southwest shore of Lake Couchiching and the Port of Orillia Marina, arriving at 1:44 pm.  It is the municipal harbor for the town of Orillia and has only transient boaters (all 15 or so of us!).  The town of 30,000 dates back thousands of years when Huron and Iroquois people set fishing weirs (fences) to catch fish in The Narrows.  It thrived as an agricultural and lumber town due to its transportation connections to Toronto and the Georgian Bay.  Steamships used to take tourists on the lakes and shuttle them to their vacation spots.  A fun fact about Orillia is that was the first municipality in North America to introduce daylight saving time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the shops and restaurants are on the main street, Mississaga Street.  We strolled up and down, going into a few stores.  The hot spot that afternoon was definitely Mariposa Market, a bakery, kitchen ware and gift shop.  Many of the tables were filled with people enjoying a sweet treat.  The street has several decorative features, flowers, and artful shop signs.  The waterfront park has a beach, playground, covered picnic area and connects to the Gordon Lightfoot Trail.

 

 

On the way back to our boat we saw a boat with a looper burgee.  We thought we were the only ones going through the Trent-Severn this late in the season.  Later we walked across the park to Studebaker’s, a casual bar and grill, for dinner.  The outdoor patio was filled on a Wednesday night so we ate inside.  All appetizers were half price and we had delicious mushrooms stuffed with goat cheese.  Their specialty is chicken wings made about a dozen different ways and the Captain sampled those.  I had a very good salad and the house wine.  In general, I found the house wines to be of better quality in Ontario than in comparable places in the US.  Back on board, Captain Randy watched his St. Louis Cardinals win – again!