If you’re hoping to hit the water this season, Canada Day could be the perfect time. Karen Feeley, acting external relations manager for Ontario Waterways, said lockages along the Trent-Severn Waterway are free on July 1.
To celebrate, we set out to (and over) the iconic Peterborough Lift Lock.
“The light has turned green now, so we are going to go into the tub on the right-hand side, the gate is down,” Feeley said as we approached Lock 21. “It is all done on a gravity system with one tub at the top and basically acts as an elevator.”
The almost 20-metre elevator is the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world.
“The lift lock was built back in 1900; it was finished in 1904,” Feeley said.
“It is also built without any reinforcing steel and without the help of any mechanized construction equipment.”
Without it, Feeley said you would need four consecutive lock stations to span the difference. Once inside the lock tub, it’s about a 90-second transfer to the top.
The Trent-Severn Waterway, and the Peterborough Lift Lock, are both national historic sites and attract local and international tourists.
Two of those visitors are Bill and Margie Sundstrom, who we met at the top of the Peterborough Lift Lock. They are what you call “Loopers,” named for the circular waterway route that led them to Peterborough and will eventually take them back home to Florida.
“Now we are doing the Trent-Severn, Georgian Bay North Channel, around to Chicago and back to Florida. It is known as the Great Loop, a 6,000-mile trip through the eastern third of the United States and Canada,” said Bill Sundstrom.
“It will take us about 12 months. We did about six months last year and this year will be a bit more than six months,” added Margie Sundstrom.
And while we weren’t headed quite as far, it was back on the water for us to complete our “mini-Peterborough loop.”
Park warden Cameron Loker had our next lockage covered.
“As you approach the lock you can see the blue indicated paint on the right-hand side. If you aren’t parking and staying for the night, you pull up to the blue area and the lock staff will direct you in.”
He added that while lockages are free on Canada Day, camping and mooring fees still apply.
“You can see the lock staff cranking those gears that open lower valves and it slowly releases water from the lock and brings us down to lake level,” he said.
Another fun fact: “R.B. Rogers, he designed the lift lock and this area of the canal, he is buried at the Little Lake Cemetery just across the way, facing back toward the lock,” said Loker.
For more information on Trent-Severn season, and to plan your trip, you can visit the Parks Canada website.