Monday we travelled to Peterborough to the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre (OTCC) to pick up a recovered snapping turtle to release. On the way we decided to check out more parts of the Trent Severn Waterway.

First a stop at Gamebridge. This is a traditional lock with gates at both ends and an area called the “pound” where the boats wait as the water is levelled to continue on their travels. Here you can see one of the Parks Canada employees turning a wheel to close the lock gates. Then he will walk to the other end to open the paddles to let water in, raising the boats. Finally the gates at the upper end will be opened to let the boats motor away.

Then we followed the canal road east for a while, passing a few more locks and bridges, and finally arrived at the lift lock in Kirkfield. Similar to the english lock at Anderton, this has 2 caissons side by side which lift and lower on gigantic hydraulic rams.

We waited for a while hoping to see the lift in action after this boat left but it was a grey morning with little boat traffic.

Cathy carried us to the upper level, the high point of the Trent Severn Waterway

Back in the car, we finished the drive to Peterborough and loaded this turtle for transport and release. He is HUGE!

We drove to Orillia (slightly stinky drive as turtles smell) and released him as close to where he was originally found as possible. Most of the shoreline here is occupied by very expensive homes and private docks so our choice of release spot was not great. Cathy had to carry the turtle in his container down some rocks to the water. Fortunately her friend Jen arrived to help with the release. Here he is happily swimming along the shore.

Once we got home Cathy was super tired. A long day of driving (over 500 km) without air conditioning on a hot humid day. We felt great about doing a good deed.