August 16-20

It started raining at 7:30 in the morning and continued for most of the day.  There was another boat at the lock, Our Panacea Dream and when they fired up their engines, we did the same and followed them down the canal.  We had a short wait for the swing bridge and 2 miles farther up we were into Lake Couchiching.    It was still raining off and on and quite windy. We followed the other boat to the Port of Orillia marina and tied up shortly after 4.After we were signed in, Andy and I went for a walk around town.  We found a bakery and bought the essentials bread, butter tarts and cinnamon buns.    For supper we joined other loopers: Dale, Andy, John and Priscilla from Changing Latitudes and Laura and Artie from Leap of Faith at Brewery Bay.  Andy and I stopped at Metro on our way back to the boat and picked up some provisions.

Wednesday morning, the wind has died down, however it is still overcast.     The crews from Changing Latitudes and Leap of Faith came over at 9 am with their charts so Andy could give them a synopsis of  what to expect farther up the TSW and in Georgian Bay.  The left shortly before 11, and then we shoved off at about 11:15.We crossed Lake Simcoe and then went through 5 locks, Gamesbridge, Thorah, Portage, Talbot and Bolsover  in a 4 mile stretch   We then had  to go another 8 miles including the shallow and weedy Canal Lake and the hole in the wall bridge  before we reached Kirkfield  lift Lock. About 15 minutes before our arrival the skies opened and it poured.  We tied up at the bottom of the lock for the night.For dinner we went to a restaurant called Flo’s loch ness  restaurant, I had fish and chips that were quite good.  We also had Kawartha Ice cream.

On Thursday morning, I walked up to the top of the lock and took this picture of the boat below.We locked through shortly after 9 am, there was a houseboat in the other chamber coming down.We crossed Mitchell and Balsam lakes before reaching the Rosedale lock, we went through this narrow cut.  Being the middle of the week, we saw very little traffic on the lakes.To get to Fenelon Falls we had to go another 4 miles and cross Cameron Lake.  We arrived at Fenlelon Falls just before noon, and were able to get a spot on the wall with power. We walked to the laundry mat  and did some washing, we  stopped and bought wine on our way back to the boat.  Later in the afternoon we went out for—you guessed it- Kawartha Ice cream—I had the Sweet heat.  This cruise ship was tied up at the dock- it runs between Peterborough and the Big Chute.  We had previously seen it go through the Scott Mill lock several weeks ago.On Friday, we locked through shortly after 9, with 3 other boats.    It was a 15 mile trip to Bobcaygeon, crossing Sturgeon Lake.  There was very little wind, and sunny skies.   The forecast was for another hot and humid day.  We were unsure as to whether we would get a spot on the wall, but really lucked out as a house boat was just moving up to the blue line.  We tied up by 11:05.  In the afternoon we went and checked out the stores on the main street, but didn’t find anything that we needed.  We avoided the food store as we are trying to clean out the fridge and freezer prior to getting to Buckhorn. However we did have a need for more Kawartha Ice cream to help us cool down.Saturday morning we got up and went to the farmer’s market, where we bought fresh bread, cinnamon buns and corn on the cob.  We then came back to the boat and I did some cleaning/packing.  Andy went in search of a barber, he returned shortly before noon.   We decided to try out the Chinese food place for lunch as it was air conditioned.  Following lunch we checked out some other stores, but didn’t buy anything.  In the afternoon, we sat  in the shade and read our books.  At about 5 pm we went for a walk to the Kawartha Dairies store for ice cream.  Today $1 from each cone was being donated to cancer care because it is  Tragically Hip day in Bobcaygeon.I’ve been talking about ice cream so much, my sister and brother-in-law had to try it.  Here’s Gord  with a Kawartha cone somewhere in Ontario.Bobcaygeon was busy this weekend, they  showed  the Tragically Hip concert on a jumbo-tron on the main street Saturday night.  They estimated there were more than 7000 people in attendance.We took our chairs and joined the bedlam.They had 2 screens set up but the second one closest to us, kept switching to a blue screen so we didn’t see much,  shortly after 9:30 we went back to the boat and watched the end of the concert on the computer.

some of the Tragically Hip  lyrics for Bobcaygeon 

I got to your house this morning
Just a little after nine
In the middle of that riot
Couldn’t get you off my mind
So I’m at your house this morning
Just a little after nine
‘Cause it was in Bobcaygeon, where I saw the constellations
Reveal themselves one star at a time

 I didn’t see any constellations during the night, but there was this drone flying over the crowd, and I wouldn’t say there was a riot, but rather   lots of people from Bobcaygeon  that gained notoriety  because of these lyrics.

We’ll be leaving Bobcaygeon this morning moving on to Buckhorn.