On the Ottawa River

July 16, Sunday, From St. Anne de Bellevue to Carillion, Quebec

Before we left St. Anne’s I took some photos of its water front and crazy crowded canal leading to the lock.  I was tempted to stay and explore, but on the other hand we wanted to move on, so into the lock we went, crowded with many other boats tied up together.

We followed the boat leaders for a little while, but were soon left far behind all the Canadian boaters. It was explained to us by some new friends that they need fast boats because they need to squeeze in all the water time they can in the short Canadian  summer. The Lake of Two Mountains was large and beautiful, and later we entered the Ottawa River which also seemed like a lake to me.

We arrived at the channel to the Carillion Lock  in the afternoon, and it was a surprise to see, even after reading that it was the tallest lock we’d encounter (70 feet!) and includes a hydroelectric dam.

Tomorrow we will be lifted up, but today we climbed to the top as the lock was loaded to capacity with boaters heading home on Sunday and watched them lower the boats into a deep hole until the huge doors opened and let them out.

I took a before and after of the boats in the canal – you can see our boat on the left and the boats leaving the lock after being lowered 70′.

We walked to the only eatery in town, a walk up order and eat outside diner that specialized in poutine, a French-Canadian specialty with French fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. We ordered plain French fries and chicken nuggets instead and walked back to the boat via a beautiful park area with historical information about previous versions of the canals and locks in Carillion. We talked to the interesting Canadian boaters along our dock wall and are now done for the day.