The Great Loop has many attractions from the coral reefs of Florida’s Dry Tortugas to the wilds of Georgian Bay in Lake Huron, but many a veteran looper will tell you that Canada’s Trent-Severn Waterway is the jewel in crown of the loop experience.
And, for those who are not ready to ditch the work-a-day life and spend a year on the Loop, you can still experience the Trent-Severn aboard a self-drive or bareboat charter boat. The French canal charter boat company Le Boat has a base on Lake Ontario and from there you can spend days or weeks discovering the beauties of Ontario’s canals, lakes and rivers.
One of the advantages of chartering from Le Boat is that you don’t need much experience or a boating license to use one of their canal boats. With a little training at their base and a working cell phone, they will let you loose to explore at will.
You can arrange for round trip or one-way charter vacations although a one-way will involve a surcharge. And you can go at your own pace and choose your next destination each morning and then change your plans impulsively after lunch.
At night, you can mooring in a marina, either private or run by the Parks Canada. Or you can pick up a moorings near one of the locks. There many places to anchor out as well. Most of the locks are hydraulically operated and can be opened with the push of a button.
Fishermen will find that the rivers and lakes that are part of the waterway abound with northern fish like large and small mouth bass, trout, walleye and pike. You need a permit but that can be arranged at the base.
While the canal sections of the waterway run mostly through lush farmland, the natural sections are largely wild rivers and lakes. Nature lovers and bird watchers will feast of the abundance and variety of wildlife to be found from beavers and deer to eagles and songbirds.
Le Boat is known for making canal charter vacations easy and fun. So, you may not be ready for the loop, but everyone is welcome on the Trent-Severn Waterway from late spring through early autumn.
