Rideau Canal - Sept. 2-5

The Rideau Canal was built after the War of 1812 to provide a secure means for the transportation of goods from Montreal to Kingston by avoiding the exposed stretch along the St. Lawrence river. You remember the war of 1812; that was the one where the Americans decided to try and take over Canada while the British were busy in Europe with Napoleon. The one where the White House earned its name for the white wash that was used to cover over the burn marks from when we set Washington ablaze. Special credit should be given to Dolly Madison who purportedly saved a large portrait of George Washington from the flames in the soon to be called White House, whilst her husband, the president, and his cabinet were fleeing westward into the hills of Virginia.

Anyway, as I was saying, construction of the Rideau Canal was prompted by uncertainties arising from the war of 1812. Construction began in 1826 under the supervision of Lieutenant Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers. By 1832 construction of the 202 km waterway with its 47 masonry locks and 52 dams was complete. 175 years after its completion, the Rideau Canal was designated as a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site. Today the Rideau Canal  is a haven for boaters who enjoy leisurely traversing the length of the system.

Much of the Canal operates as it was originally designed to do back in 1832. Canal staff operate hand cranks to open and close the lock doors. At several locations hand operated swing bridges are still used although electrical swing bridges have replaced the hand operated ones on the busier roads.

Bascule Train Bridge, Smiths Falls (raised by hand or DC motor, 1914-1978)

Long Island Lock - Boats entering lock - Hand Crank in Front Right of Picture

Long Island Lock - Boats being lowered - Swing bridge open on far side

Long Island Lock - Boats decent completed - Lock doors opening

Our excursion on the Rideau didn't include any of the above sites but they are typical of the locks seen along the length of the canal. Our journey began at Chaffey's lock (the 37th lock along the canal). We launched our canoe and with Mya sitting sedately in the middle, we paddled across Opinicon Lake to Davis lock where we camped Friday and Saturday night.

Our Campsite at Davis Lock

After setting up our campsite we cooked some delicious sausages for supper. I know that technically they were breakfast sausages but we lived on the edge and had them for supper anyways. It was a beautiful warm evening for September; we removed the fly from the tent and were able to watch the stars as we lay down the sleep.

Saturday was yet another beautiful day. Mya and I got up and enjoyed the beautiful morning with Mya going for a refreshing swim while I took a few pictures.

By this point I was getting pretty hungry so I made some breakfast sandwiches and dragged the third member of the expedition out of our tent. After enjoying the delicious repast we set out to attempt some geocaches around Sand Lake.

Our first one we found hidden in the rocks on a little island in the middle of the lake.

Watch Your Sign 3

As we paddled around the lake searching for our caches we saw several birds, some on the water and some in the air.

A Loon on Sand Lake

Some kind of hawk I think.

We found our second cache at the base of some cliffs tucked into a back bay of the lake in a fish sanctuary. We would have found this one sooner if I had listened to Trace.

Cliffs of Dover - Triumphant Trace as she finds cache

We then went to Rock Island where we found our third cache and had a wonderful refreshing swim.

Rock Island

After leaving Rock Island we headed for the last stop on our trip around Sand Lake - Birch Island. One of the islanders had set up a series of six caches that took you on a lovely tour across the island. One of the interesting sites we saw was the Birch Island Branch Library.

Birch Island Branch Library

We were only able to find 4 of the 6 caches as we walked the length of Birch Island. We might have fared better if someone hadn't left the information sheets with the hints in the canoe.

It was a wonderful day and by this time we were getting tired and hungry so we headed back to camp where I made supper while Trace played with the camera.

And Mya slept.

The next morning we awoke to ominous clouds rolling in and thunder booming in the distance. We were up at the washrooms when the storm finally hit. The skies opened as the three of us waited in the doorway for the rains to abate. After several minutes we were finally able to return to our campsite. A shirt and a towel had been blown into the trees, and the canoe had been blown off the dock and was half full of rain water, but otherwise our camp had survived the storm - our tent was still cozy and dry!

As it was our last day camping we proceeded to pack everything up and load the canoe for our return journey to Chaffey's lock.

Before leaving we tried to get a group shot of us on our rock. Unfortunately one member of our trio was less then co-operative.

We had to settle for taking the picture in front of our rock instead. Which, apart from Mya feeling the need to stick her tongue out, worked much better.

John, Mya and Trace in front of our rock.

We canoed back to Chaffey's Lock and fortunately the rain held off as we paddled back. We did have to deal with a head wind and a fair lop on the lake, but made it back unscathed.

The last day of our Rideau Excursion was spent roaming Ottawa. We visited Hogs Back Falls, where the Rideau Canal departs from the Rideau river and both find their separate ways down to the Ottawa River.

We then headed downtown, where we walked from the along the Canal from the Pretoria Bridge down to the Byward Market (as an astute reader may have noted, the Byward Market, as well as Ottawa's original name of Bytown are both derived from Lieutenant Colonel John By's name) and enjoyed some scotch and a nice supper at The Highlander Pub.

Sadly the time came for Tracey's flight back to Newfoundland bringing an end to this installment in our adventures.