On 7/2, we left Ottawa on the north end of the Rideau Canal to take the full ride south and do 49 locks to Kingston by 7/7. That’s more locks than the Trent-Severn Canal in 240 miles vs. 125 miles so we hustled. This waterway is where Canadians come to play on their boats and you will be doing locks with kayaks, pontoon boats, rental houseboats, Sea Scouts in canoes and cruisers of all shapes and sizes. "St. Paul, MN" on our dinghy bottom always gets some attention and we say that we've traveled 7,000 miles just to be here. Often we meet people who are planning an adventure but are still reticent so we like to encourage them to "go for it."
Everybody is happy here on the canal, eager to give tips on the best places to stay and this friendliness is in full display with the lockkeepers who always give a welcoming smile, help with lock lines, fend-off, and even find a spot for you on a crowded mooring wall.
There are easier ways to get back to the Great Lakes but we love the canal route. Each is a piece of history forged by men against incredible odds (1,000 lost their lives building this canal) and the Rideau museum at Merrickville commemorates their efforts. It’s a chance to see small town Canada, go at a leisurely pace and enjoy the scenery. This canal is a microcosm of other parts of the Loop—the marshlands of Georgia, the narrow tree-hung sections like the Dismal Swamp of Virginia, fresh water lakes that open up and then narrow to cuts of small islands and rock like Georgian Bay and some skinny water of 5 feet 2 inches in the well-marked channels and sometimes in the down locks.
We did not have an itinerary for these 6 days and chose destinations based on boater recommendations, weather of 90 degrees with equal humidity, and space availability by 2pm. Without planning, we did a pretty representative sample by anchoring in beautiful Morton’s Bay (grass and mud with good holding but you will pull up a clump), staying on the mooring walls with power at the towns of Merrickville (plenty of shops and restaurants) and Smiths Falls (nice park), and the quieter mooring walls at Burritts and Newboro (check out Kilborn’s).
There are so many places to see and explore and we've met boaters that have been cruising here for 20 years and have not seen it all yet. Maybe we will re-do the Rideau again in the future. We are now in Kingston and will tour this town, reprovision and head out to explore the 1,000 Island area for a few days.
There are easier ways to get back to the Great Lakes but we love the canal route. Each is a piece of history forged by men against incredible odds (1,000 lost their lives building this canal) and the Rideau museum at Merrickville commemorates their efforts. It’s a chance to see small town Canada, go at a leisurely pace and enjoy the scenery. This canal is a microcosm of other parts of the Loop—the marshlands of Georgia, the narrow tree-hung sections like the Dismal Swamp of Virginia, fresh water lakes that open up and then narrow to cuts of small islands and rock like Georgian Bay and some skinny water of 5 feet 2 inches in the well-marked channels and sometimes in the down locks.
We did not have an itinerary for these 6 days and chose destinations based on boater recommendations, weather of 90 degrees with equal humidity, and space availability by 2pm. Without planning, we did a pretty representative sample by anchoring in beautiful Morton’s Bay (grass and mud with good holding but you will pull up a clump), staying on the mooring walls with power at the towns of Merrickville (plenty of shops and restaurants) and Smiths Falls (nice park), and the quieter mooring walls at Burritts and Newboro (check out Kilborn’s).
There are so many places to see and explore and we've met boaters that have been cruising here for 20 years and have not seen it all yet. Maybe we will re-do the Rideau again in the future. We are now in Kingston and will tour this town, reprovision and head out to explore the 1,000 Island area for a few days.
