Fenelon Falls to Talbot Lock 8/1/17

Fenelon Falls is much much nicer on the top.  Note to self if I ever do this again get a spot early.  We left on the first lockage up and continued through Balsam Lake and Cameron Lake.  I met a guy from Lakefield who has a Trojan F32 like I had for 10 years.  He gave me a tour of the boat and then we chatted for a while because the lock crew had to go off and adjust the dam gates, to lower the water level.  He told me he paid $3200.00 for the boat, but it did have a motor that had frozen and also the generator had frozen.  Nice buy considering I paid $85K for mine in 1986.  The boat looked great too. We went through the lock and across Balsam Lake to the start of the Trent Canal.  This section is very narrow and long and it would be hard to pass another boat in here so lucky for us we did not meet any boats coming the other way. This is a high stress area for the captain as there are rocks on both sides and very little depth.  I had Debbie and Brad on watch on the bow to tell me if they saw anything. We bumped some deadheads and that really makes my heart rate go up.  Finally we came to the lift locks at Kirkfield and transited down (our first down bound lock as we have reached the summit of the Trent Severn) and had lunch on the lower side

Brad on the lookout

Top of Kirkfield Lock

Kirkfield lock looking down from inside the pan

The unfriendly sides to the canal

This is the "Hole in the Wall Bridge".  We were warned by several people that there was an object just past the bridge that we were likely to hit.  Their advice was to use our dingy to tow the boat through. we took a chance and were able to motor through slowly without incident.

Brad went to the head at the lockstation and on the way back found a fishing hook on the lock wall which ended up embedded in his big toe. We tried squeezing first and then got out the pliers for a surgical procedure.  The patient was not looking happy at the sight of the pliers.  I offered him a drink and or pain meds but ended up giving it a quick pull and it was all over quickly.  We spent another peaceful evening tied up at the lock.  Parks Canada really does a great job with their facilities.  Nice shaded areas for picnic tables and beautiful grounds.  They give you the combination for the restrooms and its a great place to spend the evenings.  We paid $526.00 for the seasonal mooring pass and I think we have stayed at least 20 nights or more on lock walls or Parks Canada mooring balls or docks.  Brings the cost per night down to about $25 per night or less.  Sure beats 100-$150.00 a night at marinas where we never use any of the facilities except power and water. It is so nice to have decent showers and toilet facilities on board.

fishing hook in the toe

fishing hook out of the toe