July 2nd - Day 59: After leaving the lock wall at Poonamolie, we travelled north to our destination, Merrickville, just 15 miles up the canal. Merrickville had the reputation for being quaint with several antique and nick-nack shops lining the main streets. One of the curious things we’ve noticed about Canada is their “appreciation” for country music, e.g. at a café we stopped at to eat lunch, there was a trio that started off the set with “Your Cheating Heart”. The further up the canal we went, the more we ran into French-Canadians who came down from Quebec to enjoy the canal on their 25 ft sport cruisers. In Merrickville, we were the only non-French boat at the dock, and managed to get the last spot at the dock. Because we had bought an annual Parks Canada mooring pass, we are able to stay at lock walls for no charge, allowing us to save a few dollars for higher cost marinas in other spots along our trip.
July 3rd - Day 60: We reversed our track today, heading back down the Rideau to one of the “larger” towns in this part of Ontario, Smith’s Falls, so we could let Rickshaw rest for a couple of days, while we hopped on the train to visit Ottawa, which was 40 miles north of Smith’s Falls. Since we were going back through all of the same locks we had gone through on the way up the canal, we knew what to expect and the lock experience seemed to go much better.
July 4th - Day 61: At 9am on our Independence Day in Smith’s Falls, Belinda put on her stars and stripes shirt, and we unloaded our folding bikes off of the aft deck and pedaled the 3 miles to the train station for our 10am train to Ottawa. Upon arriving in Ottawa, we inquired about local bus service to downtown Ottawa and managed to find the correct bus which took us to the heart of the capital city. We had read that a couple of looper friends, Bill & Joyce on Carried Away (from Williamsburg) who we met on the Hudson, were in Ottawa on their boat, so we went down to the canal in the city center, and found them relaxing on their aft deck, having just gone up the 8 step locks in Ottawa. Since Ottawa is the capital of Canada, and considers Queen Elizabeth to be their monarch, the British influence can be seen everywhere including the governmental buildings which resemble those in London, and the queen’s guards in red suits and bearskin hats, like those in London. Since we had a relatively short day on the first day (since we didn’t arrive until almost noon), we used the rest of the day to visit the large farmers market area next to downtown, where Belinda found the local delicacy that she had been told had to be tried while in Canada – fried beaver tail, which is really a variation on a funnel cake in the US. Toward the end of the day, we went to the centerpiece of the Canadian governmental complex, Parliament Hill, which houses the legislative branch of the Canadian government, including the House of Commons and the Senate, and were able to jump on the final tour of the day. Our return train to take us back to Smith’s Falls left shortly after 6pm, so, following the parliament tour, we hopped on another city bus and caught our train back.
July 5th - Day 62: One of the “must do’s” in Ottawa is to watch the changing of the guard in front of Parliament Hill, which happens each morning at 10am. Since the morning train did not arrive in Ottawa until noon, we opted for the 7am Greyhound bus from Smith’s Falls into Ottawa, which took 90 minutes to cover the 40 miles into Ottawa. So, we hopped on the bikes at 6:15 am, and made our way to the bus station. The daily ceremony was very elaborate complete with marching bands, bagpipes, and a couple of hundred red-coated guards marching from down the street, through the front gates, and onto the front lawn of the parliament building in strict formation. Following the changing of the guard, our next destination was the local marine supply store to buy a few new docklines that were needed to make Belinda’s job as the linehandler in the locks a bit easier. Unfortunately, the one we needed to go to was outside of town, so our challenge was to figure out the local bus service, and where and when to catch the correct bus to get us at least close enough to walk to the marine store from the bus stop. Two hours later, we had found the lines we needed, found the correct bus to get us back to the city center, and returned to town for our next to-do of the day, a hop-on/hop-off tour of the city on a double-decker bus. The bus gave us the opportunity to see parts of the city not accessible by our normal means of transportation, walking or the city bus, including a lot of the museums and foreign consulates. We were very impressed with Ottawa and, to some degree, regretted that we had not come up via Rickshaw to see the city. But, the entire Great Loop is a multitude of tradeoffs of what to see and what to skip along the way, so, in the interest of time and not wanting to shortcut other parts of the trip, we had decided to visit Ottawa via a quicker form of transportation than a trawler provides. At 6pm, we took the train back to Smith’s Falls, picked up our bikes from the bus station down the street from the train station, and returned to Rickshaw, exhausted after a very long day.
July 3rd - Day 60: We reversed our track today, heading back down the Rideau to one of the “larger” towns in this part of Ontario, Smith’s Falls, so we could let Rickshaw rest for a couple of days, while we hopped on the train to visit Ottawa, which was 40 miles north of Smith’s Falls. Since we were going back through all of the same locks we had gone through on the way up the canal, we knew what to expect and the lock experience seemed to go much better.
July 4th - Day 61: At 9am on our Independence Day in Smith’s Falls, Belinda put on her stars and stripes shirt, and we unloaded our folding bikes off of the aft deck and pedaled the 3 miles to the train station for our 10am train to Ottawa. Upon arriving in Ottawa, we inquired about local bus service to downtown Ottawa and managed to find the correct bus which took us to the heart of the capital city. We had read that a couple of looper friends, Bill & Joyce on Carried Away (from Williamsburg) who we met on the Hudson, were in Ottawa on their boat, so we went down to the canal in the city center, and found them relaxing on their aft deck, having just gone up the 8 step locks in Ottawa. Since Ottawa is the capital of Canada, and considers Queen Elizabeth to be their monarch, the British influence can be seen everywhere including the governmental buildings which resemble those in London, and the queen’s guards in red suits and bearskin hats, like those in London. Since we had a relatively short day on the first day (since we didn’t arrive until almost noon), we used the rest of the day to visit the large farmers market area next to downtown, where Belinda found the local delicacy that she had been told had to be tried while in Canada – fried beaver tail, which is really a variation on a funnel cake in the US. Toward the end of the day, we went to the centerpiece of the Canadian governmental complex, Parliament Hill, which houses the legislative branch of the Canadian government, including the House of Commons and the Senate, and were able to jump on the final tour of the day. Our return train to take us back to Smith’s Falls left shortly after 6pm, so, following the parliament tour, we hopped on another city bus and caught our train back.
July 5th - Day 62: One of the “must do’s” in Ottawa is to watch the changing of the guard in front of Parliament Hill, which happens each morning at 10am. Since the morning train did not arrive in Ottawa until noon, we opted for the 7am Greyhound bus from Smith’s Falls into Ottawa, which took 90 minutes to cover the 40 miles into Ottawa. So, we hopped on the bikes at 6:15 am, and made our way to the bus station. The daily ceremony was very elaborate complete with marching bands, bagpipes, and a couple of hundred red-coated guards marching from down the street, through the front gates, and onto the front lawn of the parliament building in strict formation. Following the changing of the guard, our next destination was the local marine supply store to buy a few new docklines that were needed to make Belinda’s job as the linehandler in the locks a bit easier. Unfortunately, the one we needed to go to was outside of town, so our challenge was to figure out the local bus service, and where and when to catch the correct bus to get us at least close enough to walk to the marine store from the bus stop. Two hours later, we had found the lines we needed, found the correct bus to get us back to the city center, and returned to town for our next to-do of the day, a hop-on/hop-off tour of the city on a double-decker bus. The bus gave us the opportunity to see parts of the city not accessible by our normal means of transportation, walking or the city bus, including a lot of the museums and foreign consulates. We were very impressed with Ottawa and, to some degree, regretted that we had not come up via Rickshaw to see the city. But, the entire Great Loop is a multitude of tradeoffs of what to see and what to skip along the way, so, in the interest of time and not wanting to shortcut other parts of the trip, we had decided to visit Ottawa via a quicker form of transportation than a trawler provides. At 6pm, we took the train back to Smith’s Falls, picked up our bikes from the bus station down the street from the train station, and returned to Rickshaw, exhausted after a very long day.
Rickshaw in Merrickville - this is the farthest we will go on the Rideau Canal.
Belinda eating a fried beaver tail - a Canadian delicacy!
Belinda and Jim standing with one of the Royal Guards at the War Memorial in Ottawa.
Since the last track map we have traveled from Illion NY to Merrickville, Ontario then back tracked to Smiths Falls - a total of 218 nautical miles.
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Rickshaw docked at a pretty town park in Smiths Falls. She got to rest while we visited Ottowa by train.
The eight step locks in downtown Ottawa.
The Canadian Parliment building in Ottawa.
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