Traveling along the Trent – Severn waterway is a beautiful scenic tour of inner Canada. We traveled through the day with 3 other boats. Miss Adventure, Sand Dollar and Voyager. We locked with the same boats all day. The group became very comfortable and smooth entering and leaving the locks.
One of those picturesque places we stayed over night was Lovesick lock. Lock 30 is located on an island, and therefore only accessible by boat – a unique feature on the Waterway. The natural beauty of the setting and island seclusion makes this lock station an extremely popular overnight stop.
The Legend of Lovesick Lake
Lovesick Lake: a name like that calls out curiosity, and local lore contains no shortage of explanations for the forlorn epithet. Samuel Strickland recounts a tragic affair between an Anishnaabe man and an Irish settler; the stars were crossed against them and prejudice and circumstance kept them apart. Devastated, the young man cast himself away on one of the lake’s many islands, determined to give up the ghost. His near lifeless body was discovered by a fishing party and he was rescued, but his point had already been made: Lovesick Lake is a beautiful place to pay tribute to a love that will never die.
After the Lock workers had gone home by boat for the day I thought it would be fun to swim in a lock chamber. This is strictly forbidden on the canal system. I mentioned my plan to Dorothy and her response was “NO Brian, you can’t do that”. This was all I needed to hear to justify the swim. I was able to talk a fellow Looper into the dip as well.
The group got together for some fireside docktails until the killer mosquitoes over powered any sort of repellent we could come up with.
A Canadian sunset
SEASONS underway 