Day 61; 07/25/2023. We’ve been on the loop for 2 months having left on 5/25/2023. Fun to see our progress with the push pins on the map.
The forecast for severe thunderstorms on 7/24 kept us an extra day in Talbot. We ended up with a few scattered showers and thunder rumbling off in the distance, but the big storms never really appeared. We felt it was better safe than sorry since the next leg of our trip would take us across Lake Simcoe, which apparently can be pretty nasty in high winds and weather. That’s okay – we were safe and got a good walk in around the lock. There was nothing but farmland out there once you left the Canal property – soybean as far as the eye can see!
With sunshine and literally no wind, we locked through Trent Severn locks 38 (Talbot), 39 (Portage), 40 (Thorah) and 41 (Gamebridge) to reach Lake Simcoe, descending a total of 51 feet. All 4 locks covered about 2 1/2 miles so they were one right after the other, separated by a man made canal which was literally a trench with gravel on either side only about 6-8 feet deep. There was more room than a couple days ago through the granite blasted canals, but not by a ton. We followed Karma (another looper in a 49’ Grand Banks) the whole way. If he could get through, we could too, but it was wise to go slow. We were both churning up some mud and could tell we were gathering weeds on our props and rudders, but neither of us bumped the bottom. We were quite happy to reach Lake Simcoe and it’s deep, open, clear water!
It was about a 2 hour run across Lake Simcoe and it was as flat as a pancake the whole way. As Gary said, we saw more waves in the bathtub locks! We arrived at Orillia around 2:00 pm and once we got settled in, headed out on our bikes to explore the town a bit and pick up some provisions. We will spend 3 nights here then off through Lake Couchiching, Sparrow Lake, Swift Rapids, the Severn River and onto the Big Chute Marine Railway. 45 locks in all on the Trent Severn, we’ve been through 41.
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