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Ontario Boating - East

WaterWays in Ontario’s Eastern Region take boaters to extremes.  Explore a wild northern river in cruising comfort.  Challenge its charging rapids in a canoe or kayak.  Meander through the countryside on more than 400 miles of manmade canal systems.  Cruise the eighth largest body of fresh water in North America or follow a commanding river to the sea.

St Lawrence River

Quick Facts:

1. The St Lawrence River drains 386,000 square miles of North America.
2. The average flow of the St Lawrence River is 13,000 cubic yards per second!
3. The St Lawrence is a young river, created just 10,000 years ago as the glaciers retreated.

The St Lawrence River was once the highway that brought Europeans into the heart of North America.  Now it is one of the busiest WaterWays for recreational boating.  You’ll see classic antique watercraft and ocean-going freighters… you’ll anchor in the natural beauty of tranquil bays, or pull into a slip that’s just a few steps from downtown excitement.

Thousand Islands

Quick Facts:

1. Officially, there are 1,149 islands in the Thousand Islands.
2. 665 of the Thousand Islands are Canadian; 484 are on the American side.
3. Only 367 of the Thousand Islands have names.

This archipelago stretches 50 miles down the St Lawrence.   More than 300 years ago Frontenac called it “the most delightful country in the world.”  His words ring true today.  Grand old cottages and modern palaces grace the wooded islands.  Wooden yachts and modern cruisers ply the channels between the islands for some of the most glorious cruising anywhere!

Upper St Lawrence (Brockville to Morrisburg)

Here the river opens wide in its quest for the sea.  All summer long, cities and towns along its shores provide entertainment, shopping, historical sites and festivals that celebrate life along the river.  In this stretch you’ll pass the first St Lawrence Seaway control dam on your way downstream… but if your cruiser draws less than 8.5 feet, instead of taking the lock you can ride down a chute!

Lower (Morrisburg to Bainsville)

Now the river begins to revert to its roots… fewer towns, more countryside and a pioneer settlement that’ll take you way back.  There’s golf to swing you back to the present and several locks and dams that make the St Lawrence navigable to the Atlantic.  Near Cornwall, the river becomes all Canadian, as you pass the US/Quebec border on its south shore.

Rideau Canal

Quick Facts:

1. Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers designed the 124-mile system and supervised the building between 1826 and 1832
2. Forty-seven locks at 23 stations lift boats up 167 feet from the St Lawrence River and down 273 feet to the Ottawa River
3. Many of the workers on the Rideau Canal died of malaria.  Some believe the Royal Engineers carried the disease from their previous posting in India.

One of the greatest engineering feats of the 19th century, the Rideau Canal opened end to end in 1832 and has been in continuous operation ever since!  Little has changed.  Most locks are still operated by hand.  Intertwined with walking and cycling trails, the canal corridor offers natural beauty, extraordinary bird watching (you’ll have to compete with the ospreys for fish!), wonderful museums, great places to dine, overnight mooring at most of the lock stations, as well as marinas in towns… and the time to enjoy it all.

Rideau River

Quick Facts:

1. Rideau is French for curtain.  The river flows over a 35 foot a curtain-like waterfall into the Ottawa River.
2. The water of the Rideau River is cleaner today than it was 10 years ago.

The Rideau River flows for about 60 miles from Upper Rideau Lake in a northeasterly direction toward the nation’s capital. From the farmlands on the limestone plain around Smiths Falls it gently flows through shallow marshes, alive with birds and wildlife.  In its length the river drops 273 feet – in rapids and waterfalls.  The river carries boaters on a ride through history, with buildings and walls hand-hewn with hammer and chisel sitting beside the soaring modern homes of Ottawa’s commuters.

Big Rideau Lake

You enter the lake at Narrows Lock with only a four-foot lift.  The hard rock and quartz of the Canadian Shield are apparent here but there are also beautiful beaches.  Big Rideau is the largest lake on the system, a sprawling WaterWay with myriad bays and islands.  Colonel By Island is the largest with Parks Canada docking.  Almost directly north of the island, you’ll find Murphy’s Point Provincial Park where you can pitch a tent at a boat-in campsite.  The lake is renowned for its large bass.

Upper Rideau Lake

Colonel By created Upper Rideau Lake when he built the canal.  Rather than dig a WaterWay through the mud and hard rock base, he raised the water level of the lake with dams – including the Narrows Dam that carries boaters into Big Rideau Lake.  While the main channel cuts directly through the Upper Rideau, a detour to the northwest takes you to Westport and Foley Mountain Conservation Area with its unrivalled view of the lake and town.

Lower Rideau River

From Burritt’s Rapids, “The Long Reach” is a stretch of river almost 25 miles long without a lock.  It carries boaters past one of the most splendid historic mills in Canada.  At Black Rapids, farmlands and natural scenery give way to a more urban setting.  Just north of the Hog’s Back, the river turns to the east.  Boaters take the west channel through the city.  It culminates in the dramatic 8-lock flight between the Parliament Buildings and the Chateau Laurier Hotel to the Ottawa River.

Ottawa River

Quick Facts:

1. The Ottawa River was dredged for gold… downstream from the Royal Canadian Mint.
2. The peak flow of the Ottawa River exceeds 5200 cubic yards per second.

Almost 800 miles long, the Ottawa River is an invitation for boating adventure.  Particularly in the northern region where there is a great deal of water and not many boats.  Hydro dams, rapids and waterfalls stem its flow and divide the river into regions, but there is a fond dream of many boaters to open its northern reaches to Georgian Bay.  The rapids are part of the fun for kayaks, canoes and inflatables… and even when the flow is at its ebb, there’s plenty of white water.  Fishing is excellent.  Bass, pickerel, pike abound but there are rare sturgeons, sauger and ancient gar as well.  You’ll find sandy beaches, peaceful anchorages, and plenty of services along the way.

Lower Ottawa River

Where the Rideau Canal steps down into the Ottawa River, boaters enter a vast new boating region.  You can turn to the port and head upstream.  Unfortunately you can’t go too far because dams and rapids are in the way until you get into the Upper Ottawa.  Lac Deschenes, although hemmed in by rapids and a dam, is a twenty-seven mile heaven for sailors and cruisers alike, with boat ramps at marinas along its length.  Turn downstream at the Rideau and you can go to Hawkesbury, Montreal and eventually back into the St Lawrence River.

Upper Ottawa River

For most of its 300 navigable miles, the Upper Ottawa River WaterWay is wide enough to make its flow seem placid.  The deep forests along its shoreline look unchanged by the modern world. The cities and towns on its shores have fascinating histories of their own.  The other side of the Ottawa River is its rapids… huge standing waves and prodigious flows that have lured the rafts and kayaks of adventurers for years.  From Arnprior to New Liskeard there are five dams and rapids but hydraulic trailers take you around them in minutes.  History and wilderness, towns and cities, shopping and dining… the Upper Ottawa River WaterWay is a boating destination to discover.

Lake Ontario

Quick Facts:

1. Lake Ontario has 712 miles of shoreline, including islands.
2. Lake Ontario is the 8th largest body of fresh water in North America
3. Slightly more than half of Lake Ontario’s 7300 square miles is in Canada

The smallest of the Great Lakes was not named for the province, as one might think.  It was the other way around.  The word “Ontario” is derived from the Iroquois meaning “beautiful lake”.  The shores of Lake Ontario encompass sand beaches, rocky shores, major urban centres, quaint towns and fishing villages, steep cliffs and marshland, industry, farmland, and forest.  Its waters are deep, down to more than 800 feet.   And from Niagara-on-the-Lake around to Kingston, it has a vibrant, active boating community with marinas and yacht clubs, boating clubs and schools, all along its shore.

North Shore

In fair weather the shore of Lake Ontario looks like Monday morning washdays.  The bays are hung with the sails of thousands of sailboats.  You might see trials for Olympic hopefuls, club regattas for bragging rights, or sailors just out taking the breeze.  There are motor yachts, too, of course… escaping from land, heading for a distant horizon… and fishermen looking for bass in the Bay of Quinte or salmon at the mouths of the rivers.  The best way to enjoy this lively shore is from a boat – any boat!

Toronto

The foot of the city is an extraordinary WaterWay.  The manmade Leslie Street Spit extends a protective arm into the lake.  The spit grew by the dump truck load from the foundations of downtown towers.  The Toronto Islands are natural.  Lord Simcoe gave Gibraltar Point its name for its commanding view of the harbour.  Yacht clubs and marinas abound.  History says you could walk to shore on the backs of the salmon.  Today you could almost step from boat to boat.  Slips are within an easy walk of pro sports, concerts, artists, antiques, crafts, shopping and services.  The theatre district and some of the finest dining anywhere is a walk up and taxi back.

Golden Horseshoe

From Toronto west, around the lakeshore to the Niagara River, the pace slows down somewhat.  There are boating schools, marinas and yacht clubs… rivers to explore and amazing fishing for salmon, steelhead and brown trout in particular.  In places you can pull right up to the restaurant, tie up and walk downtown, get what you need at the boat store or spend an entertaining evening in a world-renowned theatre.  At the western end of the lake, a lift bridge lets you in on a secret – a quiet bay, hiding behind the steel mills, filled with sailboats and cruisers, parkland and walking trails.

Welland Canal

An amazing engineering feat, first achieved by William Hamilton Merritt in 1829, the Welland Canal climbs 326 feet from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie and carries huge freighters.  It takes seven lift locks including a world famous series of twinned flight locks with a length of close to a mile and a lift of almost 150 feet.  On the 27-mile trip from Port Weller on Lake Ontario to Port Colborne on Lake Erie, cruisers share the locks with ships from the farthest reaches of the globe.  It’s the fastest WaterWay to get into the upper lakes.  The only other is the Trent Severn.

Trent Waterway

Quick Facts:

1. The first lock on the Trent was at Bobcaygeon, completed in 1835.  The WaterWay wasn’t completed until 1920.
2. Trenton to Gamebridge is 177 miles
3. Water levels peak each spring but they are maintained through summer by controlling the flow from “reservoir” lakes.

The Trent Canal scrawls across the map of Southern Ontario in a northwest/southeast line.  The WaterWay flows through a fascinating and varied landscape, by cities and villages, past First Nation’s burial grounds, reservations and art galleries, through history and modern day.  You can anchor in secluded bays to catch pickerel, pike, bass, muskellunge or panfish… tie up at the marina and walk into town, or let your passengers ride a bicycle to the next lock.  You are rarely far from shore.  Fuel, supplies, services and safe harbour are always close by.  While you can travel from Trenton to Lake Simcoe in a few days, you’ll have a lot more fun if you dawdle.

Trent River

The gateway to the Trent Canal is a busy place but as you leave lock two, you pass under the highway 401 bridge and the noise of traffic and the modern world fades.  For about 75 miles rolling farmland and forests cover most of the shoreline.  You will be busy.  Eighteen locks take you around dams and waterfalls.  So by the time you get to Rice Lake you’ll be an old hand.  In busy times, lockmasters expect boats to travel in a “pod” from lock to lock but you might want to stay overnight along the way.  Wet a line for pickerel and bass, or walk over to Healey Falls.  The adventure is just beginning.

Otonabee River

From Hastings to Peterborough there isn’t a lock… mind you the hydraulic lift lock in Peterborough makes up for this shortfall!  Before you get there, however, you have some easy cruising and fascinating sights.  Upstream from Lock 18, the river widens into Rice Lake, a haven for muskellunge, largemouth bass and the panfish they feed on.  Along this stretch of the Trent you’ll find aboriginal burial grounds and a re-created pioneer village.  From Little Lake in Peterborough to Nassau Mills, the Otonabee and the Trent Canal part ways for a few miles with many locks now until you get to the Kawartha Lakes.

Kawartha Lakes

On the map the Kawartha WaterWay is a jagged series of lakes lying northeast to southwest. You could spend your entire vacation here and many cottagers have, year after year, generation after generation. Watch for old log cabins, gothic frame cottages and boathouses sagging into old age. There is so much to do… golf courses, museums, art galleries, live theatre and shopping, fishing, swimming, yacht clubs and regattas.  Balsam Lake is the highest elevation on the WaterWay. The lift lock at Kirkfield begins the downhill journey. Time to switch your thinking. You’ve been taking red markers to starboard all this way, now it’s red to port as you continue downstream.

Talbot River

The Talbot was a vigorous river.  The drop in the last four miles is 75 feet, with five locks one after another.  The fishing is excellent and there are several marinas and anchorages along this stretch.  Many boaters choose to spend an afternoon and evening here, before heading out onto Lake Simcoe early.  It’s a good idea to check with the lock hands about the weather on Lake Simcoe.  This is the largest open water you’ll encounter along the WaterWay and it’s a big round lake that can kick up in any wind.