Day 26 - Up the Lazy River

BBQ pork dinner at Rosedale. Note the freshly made Lock-master's Hut Bread

 After a pretty lazy two days at Rosedale, we head off across Balsam Lake to enter the Talbot River on route to Lake Simcoe. First stop would be Kirkfield lift-lock; second only to the Peterborough lock in height and one of only nine such locks in the world. Truly a wonder…

 The journey to the lock from Balsam Lake is one of the nicest we have yet encountered with dark, leafy channels that hem the boat in from the sides and steep, rocky banks that descend into the water at 90 degrees; hewn from the living rock. 

Flora on the bank of the Talbot River

It is quiet and we are the only boat for the most part, although the massive Spirit of The Kawarthas tour boat makes the journey some distance behind us with the radioed warning that any boats heading downstream would have to give way as she demands the centre of the channel because of her draft and the channel is not very wide to begin with. We pass an older gentleman in a cruiser who has agreed to the challenge and awaits the passing of The Spirit under a bridge. The larger boat thanks him by radio and proceeds at dead-slow as the curve of the channel bed would suck the smaller boat below its hull.The Spirit can be seen in the upper chamber of the lift-lock in the photo below.

Mister Huxley enjoying the view as we glide by, inches away from the rocky bank of the Talbot River. The other bank was only slightly further away on the port side.

We motor on, just ahead of The Spirit, at a slow 6 knots, the better to enjoy the passing shoreline and avoid the many stumps, dead-heads and shoals. A Great Blue Heron takes off from beneath our mid-ships and leads us up the channel as a small creature, possibly a mink, swims from one shore to the other. We pass a cave cut into the rocky side of the channel and I notice that there is a ladder that has been placed inside that suggests an opening further up the wall.

"Spirit of the Kawarthas" maneuvering and trying not to crush us

We make the lift-lock and enjoy the swift ride down and tie up at the Kirkfield lock wall with the intention of spending the night. We had hoped to bicycle the two miles into Kirkfield to get some supplies, but the day is hot and the road straight and uninteresting so we decide to forgo it. 

Kirkfield Lift Lock

We also decide to forgo staying at the lock as it becomes apparent that we would have to pay the .90 cents a foot for the privilege of staying there and using their washroom. We decided instead to head for Sunset Cove Marina that will put us in good position to make a run for the often treacherous Lake Simcoe and our new destination, Barrie, where we hope to meet up with some family members. Lake Simcoe is shallow and large and winds and storms can happen up quickly so we want to have as calm a day as possible to head out into her.

We arrive at the marina, make a berth there, have some much-needed showers and await a pizza delivery from nearby Beaverton. We haven’t got a lot of on-board supplies left, so hopefully we can get underway to Barrie soon. Our next stop will be the lock at Portage where we will await favourable winds for our crossing of Simcoe. There are storm clouds a-brewing.