I woke up early and went for a little walk around Fenelon Falls before the locks opened for the day. Fenelon Falls is a cute little town. One thing I found interesting is the snowmobile trail through town. There’s a large permanent map on the edge of water showing a looooong trail for winter traffic. It doubles as a walking trail during the summer. It even crosses an old railroad bridge that is available during the winter but closed for the summer months in order to swing open to allow boat traffic to pass.

I was happy to see a curling club, and I chuckled at the sign on the door. This entire area lives a double life–I’m sure it’s completely different in the winter!

When the lockmaster arrived, we paid for our stay on the lock wall, then went through the lock. This one used to be two locks, but a more modern single lock replaced the two some years ago.

After the lock, there were several boats tied up to the wall with power and water. Those spots were in high demand. We were glad to have the powerless, water-free spot we had because it was very private. We had a family of fishermen who kept us company for a while, but the fancier spots had a lot of pedestrian traffic and lookie-loos. But they tolerated any potential annoyances in air conditioned comfort.

We pulled over for a little while at Lock 35 in Rosedale for Owen to finish his work day. It was a beautiful day, and there was a family there who had set up a picnic and yard games. I took a little walk and loved the maple leaves painted on the stumps of some trees that had been cut down. Across the lock, there seemed to be a hiking trail, however, the “bear sighting nearby” sign quickly ended any hope of checking it out.

The great thing about summer in Canada is that the daylight lasts forever! We were able to get some miles behind us as we crossed a small lake and then entered the Trent Canal. The Trent Canal is a (really!) narrow passage cut through solid rock in 1920. The displaced rock still lines the side of the canal in some places as a reminder of what is down there under the water. The controlling depth is just 6 feet, but you never know if a tree or some debris may have fallen in just waiting for our props to catch. Owen sent out a Securite message over the radio indicating our intention to go through the channel. It was slow going, but we made it through unscathed. What a legacy those workers left 100 years ago when they dynamited the rock and moved it out of place!

Near the end of the day, we finally made it to our destination, the top of the Kirkfield Lift Lock. This lock is similar to the Peterborough Lift Lock, but a bit newer and not as tall. We docked the boat and took a look around the lock and the park surrounding it. There was just one boat on this side of the lock with us tonight, and we were far enough apart that we couldn’t hear each other’s generators. We had a nice and peaceful night.

All this time, we had been going up in each of the locks, lifting from between eight feet to 65 feet in each lock. We reached the waterway’s high point today. Tomorrow, we start moving down.