The adventures of MR5 as she cruises America's Great Loop
The Trent-Severn Waterway, Locks 1-12
July 2-6, 2026
And so the locking begins… again!
Our adventure has officially kicked into high gear as we started our trek along the infamous (at least in the boating world!) Trent-Severn Waterway. For Loopers, just hearing the name brings a mix of excitement, anticipation… and maybe a few butterflies.
The Trent-Severn is a 240-mile canal stretching from Trenton, Ontario, to Georgian Bay on the eastern side of Lake Huron. Along the way, we’ll make our way through 44 locks. Yes, forty-four! By the end, we should feel a great sense of accomplishment and elation—or possibly a little exhausted.
Some of these locks are among the most unique in the world, including the incredible Peterborough Lift Lock and the one-of-a-kind Big Chute Marine Railway. We’ll save those stories for when we experience them firsthand—they definitely deserve their own spotlight.
For now, here are some of the highlights from our first twelve locks….
Ta – da-a-a-a! And awa-a-a-a-y we go!Lock 1: the first of forty-four. The first one always seems to be the easiest.The locktender is handing me a sort of welcome packet containing informational magazines and a map of the Trent-Severn. Many of the locktenders are students on summer break. We found all of them to be very friendly and welcoming.These are some of major stops along the waterway. We plan to stop in each one.I am all suited up and ready for locking. The gear includes the headset (a.k.a. “marriage savers”) for communicating with the captain, a Mustang life jacket which will automatically inflate if I fall in the water, a whistle to hopefully get the captain’s attention if I’ve fallen in the water, and gloves because the walls and cables are covered with a healthy growth of freshwater green algae.We are in a lock that is about to be raised. At the wall ahead, there are the two doors at the top and a cement wall at the bottom. The chamber must fill with enough water so that the bottom of our boat will clear the cement wall. Mostof the locks are still manually operated. These two locktenders are turning the cranks that will open the doors to the lock. There are locktenders on each side for each door. This needs to be done after all boats have entered to close the doors and before leaving to open the doors.At the end of our first day, we only made it as far as lock 4. Lock 7 up ahead had lost power and caused a back up of boats along the waterway. Thus, the lockmaster at lock 4 advised us to stay in place for the night. It was isolated and serene.The locks are left at their highest water level overnight.So, what does one do in an isolated location on a very hot night? We decided to cool down in this very inviting “pool” (or full lock).Certainly, Chris needs to work on his diving form.It was absolutely refreshing!!Some of our fellow boating neighbors agreed to join us.The next morning, our lockmaster treated all boaters to coffee from Tim Horton’s, the Dunkin Donuts of Canada.
Locking with friends
At lock 7, Frankford, some loopers friends informed us of a pop-up truck serving burgers and fresh cut French fries…so, of course, we had to give it a try while out on an exploratory bike ride. One can work up quite an appetite while exploring and riding.Dinner with friends at Dimitris in Frankford, Ontario: Tom and Ellen (Sea and Air); Gail and Tim (Tug Along); and Betty Ann and Jairaj (Yatra). There are numerous camp sites and summer homes along the Trent-Severn thus making it a delightfully scenic ride. And most have Adirondack chairs…and most chairs are Canadian red. Here’s two outliers.The locks on the Trent-Severn are slightly smaller than those on the Erie and Oswego. The latter can hold approximately six large boats of approximately 45-50 feet tying to each wall, whereas the former can only accommodate two large boats each with one small boat rafted to their side.This is one time that Gail is more than happy to be on a smaller boat.After all the swan sightings, we finally see one nesting.At lock 10, we think we’ve hit the jackpot when we are granted access to a picnic gazebo and a full-size grill. Expectations are really low when looping.Interestingly, this picnic site comes with a sleeping pod. Is that an alien in the pod?? No, it’s just Betty Ann. Lock 11/12 is a double lock and is doubly high. The total rise is approximately 48 feet. You can’t be afraid of heights for this lock.Tom and Ellen (Sea and Air) arrived at Campbellford a day earlier and just happened to be at the top when we were coming through. A good deal of the walls of the Trent Severn are covered with primarily invasive Quagga mussels and Zebra mussels. Although small, approximately 1-2 inches in length, they can be razor sharp.This bouncy ball that we were using as an inexpensive tender was the victim of too many razor sharp mussels.A camping scene along the Trent. Can you spot a red Adirondack chair?In addition to the red Adirondack chairs, there were numerous Canadian flags.This scene has neither the red chairs or the flag, but it has a nice barn. And this scene has red chairs aplenty as well as a nice flag atop a nice pole.The Ranney Gorge Suspension Bridge in Campbellford is a highly recommended point of interest. (Chris is still disputing the claim that it’s a suspension bridge.)
