July 8

Jones Falls Upper Lock: 44°32′44″ N 76°14′18″ W

This past January Catherine & I went to the Toronto Boat Show & while we were there we attended a seminar presentation about the Trent Severn & Rideau River & Canal systems that was given by Parks Canada staff. That added greatly to our interest in making this trip.

The Rideau system was built between 1826 & 1832. It is North America’s oldest continuously operated canal & connects Kingston to Ottawa. It is 202 km in length & has a total of 46 locks. The entire system is Ontario’s only UNESCO World Heritage site.

We left Kingston Mills Lock (#46) at 8:00am. I had been talking to another boater the day before who had traveled the entire Rideau System numerous times. He told me that the overnight docks at Jones Falls locks were very nice & that would be an easy day’s trip for us.

It wasn’t long before we approached our first lock at Lower Brewers (#45) & I explained to Catherine & Emily how to handle the boat lines at the bow & stern while we were “locking-up”.

Each lock has a series of cables attached to the walls. Boaters loop a line around the cable & hold on to it as the boat rises or lowers in the lock.

It can get quite turbulent in the lock when it is being flooded so it’s important to hang on tight or the boat could be pushed away from the wall & bump up against other boats in the lock.

After exiting this lock we traveled less than 2km & entered Upper Brewer’s combined locks (#44 & 43). These 3 locks together lifted us a total of approximately 24 feet.

After leaving Upper Brewer’s Locks we entered Cranberry Lake & passed through the Brass Point (wooden) Swing Bridge that opens for boaters on demand.

The other side of the swing bridge was Whitefish Lake with Jones Falls Locks (#39, 40, 41 & 42) just a short distance away. The upper lock (#39) was to be our destination for the day.

When we arrived at the lower lock (#42) other boats were already in the process of “locking-up” so we had to wait about an hour for our turn.

We tied up on a waiting dock just in front of Hotel Kenny, which was built in 1877 and still operates today as a guest lodge. Lots of character & it reminded Catherine of the summer she worked at Rawley Lodge in Port Severn on Georgian Bay back in 1974.

We walked over to the hotel to get some ice cream, figuring we had lots of time to enjoy it but by the time we got back to the boat the lock master was signaling us that it was our turn to enter the locks. That was the fastest ice cream cone I ever had!

We exited the upper lock at about 5:00pm & tied up on the overnight dock immediately in front of the lock. It was pretty hot & the water looked very refreshing so we all took a dip in the water right behind the boat. What fun!

After our swim I fired up the BBQ & cooked our supper while Catherine & Emily got the rest of the meal ready.

It was a great way to end an adventurous day on the water.

The next day we continue on our journey towards Smiths Falls.

Cheers!