July 23 – Monday
Time to move on - now that the weekend traffic is off the waterway. I can’t imagine dealing with the continual parade of boats going up and down and down and up the relatively narrow waterway. Everyone seems to have a boat up here, either on a trailer or tied to a dock at home.
About 07:00 we moved from our slip and idled to the fuel dock to have our breakfast and wait for our favorite dock hand, Mark, to help us with fuel and a pump-out when they opened. Fuel wasn’t essential, but Hurst is a top drawer operation and I had confidence their diesel would be clean, so we took on 200 liters (about 53 gal.) @$1.09 per liter. I wanted to be sure we could wait for our return to the U.S. before fully reloading. We had not bought fuel since Ess-Kay in NY.
We left the fuel dock just before 09:00 and wound our way towards Ottawa. The shore line reflected the fact we were on the outskirts of a large city with home next to home for miles, ranging from very nice to spectacular. Not all of the wealth is along the shores of The Bay, we had to remind ourselves that we were in this nation’s capital, where politicians, lobbyists and other government trough feeders dwell. 11:25 saw us through the Black Rapids lock and at 12:25 we were tied to the mooring wall, just before the swing bridge at Hogs Back Falls and lock – the day’s destination and a mere 5 SM from the end of the Rideau. We learned this was the southern end of a bike path network that goes all to way to the Ottawa River and beyond, so after a quick sandwich (and jalapeno Pringles) we unloaded the bikes and took off. We quickly learned this town is a biking heaven. There must be 50 miles of paved trails around and through to city for biking, walking and rollerblading, only – no vehicles. We rode along the west side of the Rideau until we found a cross-over street and then returned to our boat along the east side. That route took us by Dows Lake and the marina we will stay at for the duration of our kids’ visit. We confirmed our slip reservation and that they have rental peddle boats, something our grand-daughter Libby is looking forward to. While checking out the marina, we met a couple about our age, and they had come to Ottawa just for a biking vacation, staying at a hotel on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. Our impression of this city is very positive at this point.
Within 50’ of the mooring dock we are on, is the waterfront facility of the Rideau Canoe Club and it is a very active facility. Since we have arrived we have been continually entertained by canoeists of every age and gender. There were young children’s groups all afternoon and in the evening until dark there were adults in various types of kayaks, training and racing. There is at least one team here (from China we think) getting ready for an international Dragon Boat competition being held next week in Montreal. Dragon Boats look like the long Polynesian canoes we have seen in movies, with 14 – 16 paddlers and one person at the stern steering with a paddle. These boats do not have out-riggers, though. We are looking forward to settling in at Dows Lake on Tuesday and enjoying our visit with Libby, Matt and Kate in this beautiful city. Oh, the weather was perfect again today.