SMITHS FALLS, ONTARIO TO JONES FALLS, ONTARIO

Monday, July 6th, 2015

Day 336

Miles Traveled: 44

Total Miles Traveled: 4994

  Our travels today had us leaving behind the Rideau River section of the Rideau Canal.  The next section of the Rideau Canal consists of a series of lakes joined by locks and man-made canals.  Our first lake for the day was Lower Rideau Lake.

Lower Rideau Lake

  The largest lake on the Rideau Canal is Big Rideau Lake.  The lakes all have many islands scattered throughout their waters.  Upper Rideau Lake was no exception.  On this particular lake we found the smallest island ever called Snake Island.

Upper Rideau Lake

Snake Islnad - two trees make up this island

  Up until now, the locks had been lifting us up.  After leaving Upper Rideau Lake, the next lock, Newboro Lock, began to take us down.  We exited into Newboro Lake.  Between the next lakes, Clear Lake and Indian Lake, was the shortest ferry crossing we had ever seen.  It was located in the canal connecting these two lakes, and, we believed that if we put our boat sideways in the canal that pedestrians could walk from one end of our boat to the other to cross the canal.

shortest ferry crossing - small ferry barge is on the right and goes to the bank on the left

  We traveled a short distance on the northern section of Opinicon Lake and then crossed the southern half of Sand Lake.  This then took us to The Quarters.  This is one of the narrowest sections of the Rideau Canal Waterway.  With only 80 feet from side to side, we had rocks cliffs on either side.

The Quarters

  Our final destination for the day was Rideau Canal Lock 39 at Jones Falls.  Jones Falls is known for its Stone Arch Dam.  At the time of its completion in 1831, it was the highest dam (61 feet) in North America and the third largest (350 feet long) in the world.  This keystone arch dam, constructed of interlocking tapered vertical (instead of horizontal) stones, is one of the first of its type in the world.  After getting docked at the mooring lock wall, we took a walk to see the dam.

Jones Falls Stone Arch Dam

  Also on the lock grounds were a couple of old buildings, the lockmaster's house (called Sweeney House) and the Blacksmith Shop.  It was a very quiet and peaceful place to tie up for the night.

"Seahorse" docked at Jones Falls lock wall dock

  After dinner, Angie worked on the blog post and Dan did some fishing.  He was very excited after catching a small large mouth bass just below the lock gates.

Dan and his large mouth bass