Big Chute Marine Railway

 Another cool cloudy day between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron. At least it didn't rain today. First stop is the second hydraulic lift lock, the Kirkfield lift lock, on the Trent-Seven waterway, about half the lift of the Peterborough Lift Lock. Lock is open but there is no activity.  

We have to be careful getting our coffee in the morning. We drink our coffee, black and in the states we ask for a regular coffee. Apparently in Canada, thanks to Tim Hortons, every other coffee shop has followed their lead and a regular coffee means one sugar and one cream, yuk!

As we head north from the Kirkfield Lift Lock the landscape transitions from rolling farmland to rock outcroppings and lots of small lakes with rocky shore lines.

Kirkfield Lift Lock

We then head to the Big Chute Marine Railway. The previous marine rail system built around 1900 was supposed to be temporary and prior to World War 1 they started building dams for the intended 4 locks here. WW1 interrupted that activity. Eventually around 1960 they built the current much larger system which had the benefit of blocking some invasive fish species from migrating to other lakes.

Big Chute Marine Railway, crossing the road

Trent-Severn Waterway

https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/on/trentsevern/visit/cartes-maps

Three hours north we stop for the night at Chutes Provincial Park. Nothing to do with the Chutes Marine Waterway.  There is an impressive waterfall here, and in the logging days they built a wide log flume so the spring flood log drives would avoid the waterfall damaging the logs and also causing a log jam.