Trent-Severn Waterway Canada

I have found a hotspot so I can update the blog. We left Oswego and had a great crossing of Lake Ontario and stopped at Waupoos Island to check in to Canadian Customs. Since this was an out-of-the-way place, we only had to call Customs on the available phone and they checked us in with a few questions. They could have required us to go to a different city to be inspected but I suspect that since they had Chuck & Bill's information already in the system (from trips to British Columbia from Washington) they figured we were not a threat to Canada. After checking in and getting our clearance number I could raise the Canadian courtesy flag.

We docked across from the marina on the island and went exploring. There were a number of houses on the island and they all seemed to be summer houses. Currently there were sheep everywhere. We took our bikes and rode all of the "roads" we could travel. We found sheep and three pigs.

We took the time to repair a place on Bill's dinghy while we were there. The next morning we all awoke to black boats. I didn't get a photo but our boats were covered with bugs I call "Fuzzy Bills" and others have called "Blind Mosquitoes". They are, I believe, male mosquitoes and do not bite but will cover boats and die. We left hoping that it was just the sheep farm and not the time of year.

We went to Picton next and found that there was a free concert in the park. We heard a band playing mostly country music along with some oldies. We went into town and in the grocery store I found that you could buy live Rainbow Trout. This was something new.

We found that we were in an area that had float planes. One took off and one landed right next to us.

Ww stayed in Picton overnight and then headed for Trenton and the beginning of the Trent-Severn Waterway.

We tied up to the wall after the first lock and purchased our locking passes and spent the night at the wall. Gail found out about a concert of Fiddlers in Frankford, the town after Lock 6, only about 6 miles up the waterway. We went there on Saturday and they had the "Fiddlers on the Trent". The fiddlers showed up on canoes just as we were tying to the lock wall and then the bagpipers arrived on pontoon boats.

We rode our bikes into town to a Chinese restaurant then went to part of the concert then had dinner in the park next to the boats.

Some of the fiddlers were very good. It was a benefit that occurs each year on Father's Day weekend. The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a charity and all contributions are matched 4 to 1 by the Canadian government. On Sunday morning they had a church service of all of the community churches and we attended.

We left this morning (Monday) and passed through one of the largest locks in the system. It is a "flight" lock where you actually exit one lock into the next. It was very interesting looking at a door 48 feet above you holding back that much water.

We will be here for a couple of days before moving on. There are quite a few things to do here and I will update when I can. The weather has been absolutely beautiful here but we are supposed to get stormy weather here tomorrow. After the front passes we will make our way further up the waterway. Everyone tells us that the best is yet to come.