Ontario Boating Destination Guide

Trent-Severn Water Way - Lake Simcoe and Couchiching

Excellent cruising, quiet anchorages and eventful communities combine to make this chapter of the Trent-Severn System well worth exploring this season.

The Trent-Severn flows through the heart of Ontario’s cottage country offering natural beauty with much to see and do all season.

When you enter the locks at Gamebridge and enter Lake Simcoe, you enter into the largest body of water in Southern Ontario, excluding the Great Lakes. It's nearly round with two large bays, Kempenfelt and Cook's. You can quickly cruise through the lake and head up to the Trent Severn, and spend less than an hour on this body of water, or take the time and enjoy everything the area has to offer, which is certainly the preferred choice since there are a lifetime of summers to experience here.

Lake Simcoe has welcomed summer visitors for generations and some of the shore side cottages have been passed down for a century or more. The summer lodges have welcomed guests since your great grandfather's time.

You'll also find cozy anchorages, sand beaches, line-snapping fishing and downtown docks, along with a handful of rivers to explore. Along the shoreline, Simcoe's lakeside communities come to life in the summer. Within easy walking distance from the water is all the shopping you could ask for, whether you're looking for necessities or luxuries. Wonderful restaurants, from fast food to fine dining, movie theatres, live theatre, museums and parks are just a few of the attractions.

There are also many excellent accomodations. Seen here is The Brairs, an excellent resort where unwinding is the order of the day.

Heading up stream, you'll first see Lagoon City. This was planned and built for recreational boaters with homes that front on to canals where owners can moor their boats. Naturally, there's a large, well-equipped marina and a casual restaurant.

Instead of pointing your bow toward Atherley Narrows, take the time to enjoy Simcoe. Turn to port and head toward Beaverton, the closest town to the Trent Canal. Excellent shops are within a short walk and its downtown district has interesting antique stores. Pefferlaw, Sutton and Jackson's Point are along the south shore, behind Georgina Island. At Jackson's Point is one of Canada's oldest summer stock theatres, the Red Barn, which showcases plays and other performances all summer.

When you continue west and head south into Cook's Bay, you'll come to Keswick and a little farther along, the mouth of the Maskinonge River. If you really feel like exploring, head a little farther up stream along the easily navigable Holland River to Bradford, where you can purchase fresh produce at the farmers' markets that definitely define the word "fresh." If you happen to notice a large anchor by the shore of the East Branch, it's been there since the War of 1812. A team of oxen dragged it from Kingston, however the war ended before it could be delivered to the British.

Rounding the foot of Cooke's Bay, the waterways begin to head north again, past Gilford and Lefroy where - as in most of the towns along the lake - full service marinas welcome transient boaters and offer all the services you need. Once you get to Big Bay Point, head west into Kempenfelt Bay and the largest community on the lake - Barrie.

The city has a busy recreational boating port with transient docks, which is the gateway to downtown shops, or take a short taxi ride to shopping malls. But the big boating attraction here is the annual Kempenfest - a celebration every August that brings boaters from around the lake and beyond.

Heading north, along Kempenfelt and into the lake again, you soon reach the Narrows at Atherley. This is a busy area. Not only are there many docks and marinas along both sides, people come here to fish and they are successful. As you pass through, you'll see anglers in reeds or standing on an old swinging railway bridge that's now rusted permanently open. People have fished here for centuries. Long before the Europeans, First Nations would gather here in the spring and fall. Look into the clear water and you might see rows of small branches laid like stockade fences. They're ancient and once channelled the fish into the waiting nets. Through the Narrows you enter Lake Couchiching and to the west is Orillia.

Lagoon City is a popular haven among recreation boaters.

Celebrations at Orillia also fill the docks - the popular Christmas in June, and annual in-water boats shows are just two of the popular spectacles many boaters enjoy. But no matter where you are, towns and villages from Lake Simcoe through to Port Severn always have something to celebrate.

The trip from here to Georgian Bay is only a few hours if you want to hurry, but the channels and rivers that wander through Precambrian granite have the peace and quiet you want to savour. At the Narrows, pull into any number of the marinas. On the west side is a trail to walk or cycle all the way to Orillia. From the Orillia Port, take a bus directly to the casino or if you'd rather stay out on the water, the sandy anchorage on Chief Island is a popular gathering spot. Long weekends there usually mean party time!

The next morning haul your anchor and head north. Once you reach the top of Lake Couchiching, the many channel markers give boaters the feeling of landing a plane. It's a straight run back into the channel. Around the bend the Severn River joins the flow downstream as you continue your voyage toward Georgian Bay.