The 44 mile run from Orillia to Port Severn includes the final four locks, one of which is the Big Chute, the most unique lock in North Ameria.
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| Big Chute cradle carrying boats east bound to Lake Couchiching |
The Big Chute is a marine railway that transports boats a horizontal distance of approximately 1/16th of a mile while dropping them vertically 57 feet. The original version was completed in 1917 and could carry boats up to 35 feet long. Today's railway carries boats up to 100 feet with a beam of 24 feet. The "cradle" is 80 feet long and 26 feet wide. It is powered by four 200 HP electric motors that provide traction via cables. The cradle contains slings every few feet that come up from the floor. This is an impressive piece of machinery run by a team of very knowledgable operators.
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| View from Lake Couchiching west to the next pool |
Note: A marine railway was chosen instead of a series of locks due to a parasite called the Sea Lampray. The Canadian Government was concerned that the parasite would migrate from the Georgian Bay to Lake Couchiching and therefore contaminate the lakes that comprise the Trent Severn.
Here's how the process works, Boats are loaded with the cradle in the water. Operators adjust the slings to adapt the space to maximize the number of boats to be transported. Then the cradle starts it journey first rising about 20 feet vertically.
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| Boats loading |
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| The cradle rising out of the water |
After traversing the ground, the cradle begins a steep descent, which for a moment makes you think you are on a roller coaster.
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| Traveling over land |
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| Down we go |
Our journey to the Big Chute started at 9:00 AM when we departed Crates Lake County Boats in The Narrows at Orillia. After a half hour we were in deep water and able to check our running gear (spare props, shafts and struts) for vibration. Good news. Smooth as silk all they way through the power curve.
Being Saturday (7/28), we ran into weekend traffic, which slowed us down a bit at lock 42. Actually, we would have been the first had it not been a swing bridge with a 14 foot clearance. We had to wait while a string of smaller boats passed us by. We waited and waited at the bridge. Finally, the bridge tender appeared with a red container, which turned out to be a gas can. The swing bridge was powered by a gasoline engine. We killed an 68 minutes at Lock 42 (Descent of 21 feet).
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| Lock 42 full of weekend boaters |
We finally reached the Big Chute around 2:00 PM. There were at least 10 boats in front of us as we tied up in last place on the blue line. We had to wait almost an hour while the cradle made three trips. Finally, we were called and given the rear slot on the cradle. It all went smoothly and twenty five minutes later we were back in the water.
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| Guided Discovery in the slings at the back of the cradle |
We then traveled another hour to Lock 45, the final lock. 10 minutes later we were in the Georgian Bay. We docked at Starport Marina at 6:00 PM.
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| Lock 45 |
Again, the scenery was nothing short of spectacular and the weather was perfect with temperatures in the 80s. Enjoy:
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| Rawley Resort and Marina at Port Severn |
While having dinner at the Dam Grill, an employee from Starport Marina delivered a FedEx envelope containing a decal issued by US Customs that we had ordered on line at Trenton and had shipped to Port Severn. What interesting is the Starport connected us with the package on their own initiative eliminating my need to chase the package down in the morning. The folks at Starport try real hard.
Trent-Severn Statistics:
- Total Miles: 240
- Number of Locks: 44
- Number of Days Enroute: 11 Days
- Number of Stops: 8 Days
- Total Fuel Used: 108 Gallons
- Efficiency 2.22 Mile Per Gallon
Written by Les.
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