I am happy to report we left Edmonds lock by 9 am.when the locks opened. After Edmonds there are 2 more lock stations until you enter Smiths Falls. There used to be series of locks through the town but they have now been replaced with an impressive sized lock.
As you can see the old lock on the left is a bit tricky to navigate
After this you can hope to catch the downtown bridge opening. If not you can blue line it. Either way you can park downtown and walk to a great grocery store, Canadian tire or numerous fast food joints. We stopped here to stock up and take advantage of the air conditioning as the heat today was oppressive.
After Smiths Falls there is one more lock then many Kms of big water going through the Rideau lakes which are truly spectacular. We motored on to big Rideau lake and stopped at lens cove Marina
for two nights. Lens is a full service marina and most importantly for someone, it has a pool.
The big Rideau lake is in my opinion the nicest lake in eastern Ontario and is easily comparable to
northern Ontario lakes or Georgian bay. It is clean and deep but not cold, so perfect for swimming
and fishing.
Day 4
Still at lens cove we decided to ride our the heat wave in the morning by visiting the pool. At lunch time we had a visit from Canada's favourite wine rep, Vanessa. We headed next door to The Galley, a decent pub type restaurant with some local craft brew on tap.
After lunch Vanessa left (but not before delivering cake and present for a certain boy turning five).
The heat was now insane so we decided to boat out to colonel by island. This government island, formerly owned by the king of the New York Yellow cab company is a popular spot for boaters and all the government docks and mooring buoys were full so we dropped anchor off a little island and allwent for a swim.
Better than a pool
Day 5
We had thought about making Kingston today but the rainstorm didn't end until around 9am and frankly the sound of the rain hitting the boat kept me in a deep trance. We did leave around 11 with
the goal of hitting one of our favourite locks – jones falls. The wind was fierce and in our face
through the big Rideau and upper Rideau lake. It made for a slightly nerve racking lock up at the narrows between the 2 Rideaus. The passage between upper Rideau lake and Newboro lake is in a
word, crazy. When you are traveling down the km long stretch you can't imagine meeting a large boat and being able to fit past it.
Hoping to NOT meet a boat here
Locals are different here
More narrow
This whole section of the canal from Rideau lakes to jones falls is in my opinion the best section, with several great swimming lakes, beautiful cottages and great scenery.
A fixer upper!
Boat mansions everywhere
Just some scenery here
Around 5 pm we made Jones falls. There is no power here but the swimming is incredible at the locks. The water is very deep and clean with no weeds. You can easily jump off you boat or swim in the lock basin between the upper and lower sets. There is also an ice cream joint and restaurant just a short walk away. Today we happen to be joined by a close to a hundred sea cadets, up from Kingston I'm assuming, who are camping in the basin down below. As I type this note at 9:30 at night I can still hear them jumping and swimming. It's a busy time of year for the locks from all types.
Some crazy cadets
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