ORILLIA to BIG CHUTE Anchor / Monday, July 11 (Day 172)

Admiral's Log:     8:15 am, Mon. 7/11/16
                         Air Temp:   72      Water Temp:   72
                        Winds:   3 mph
                        Speed:   8.9 knots

Bill and Kate headed back to Toronto and we headed to the Big Chute Marine Railway. The Peterborough LiftLock is pretty amazing, but the Big Chute is awesome! The Big Chute is Lock #44, the second to last lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway. It works on an inclined plane to carry boats in individual cradles across a road and down 58 feet. 

As we made our way to the Chute, we saw more cute houses on little rock islands. This area is called the "Canadian Shield". It is bedrock formed from volcanoes and glaciers; once sharp peaked mountains but millions of years of erosion have turned the mountains into rolling rocks. 

Narrow winding rock walls. Beautiful!

Perfect example of an island house!

We locked with Sweet T and Morning Star

We tied up to the Big Cute blue line at 12:45 along with about 6 other boats of all sizes. I timed how long it took to complete a cycle of the Big Chute; 25 minutes. We were there a while! We finally got through at 3. But it was a lot of fun watching the other boats being loaded and lifted.

Sweet T being loaded into the chute.

Me getting ready for the chute! See the tracks,
we will go to the end and down into the water, a 58 foot drop.

(I hope to post a video, but it takes too long to download with WIFI here, so will add at a later date)

After we floated out of the chute, 4 of us tied up at a floating dock in the Gloucester Pool at the end of the chute. We had docktails on our own private dock with Sweet T, Morning Star and Jet Stream.