Great Loop: Ottawa River
St. Anne-de-Bellevue is a pleasant first night stop on your way from Montreal to Ottawa.
Canada Parks Lockage and Moorage Fees
This is also a convenient location to purchase your Canada Parks Lockage and Moorage Passes. We purchases ours from the lockmaster. Very easy. As we planned on doing both the Rideau and Trent-Severn Canals, we purchased season passes. This allowed us to pass, for the season, through all locks operated by the park service. The moorage permit allowed us to overnight, tied to the Quai at the locks.
Downtown St. Anne-de-Bellevue is adjacent to the locks and very walkable. A grocery store, restaurants, a donut shop, and pharmacy, are also close.
Our travel from Montreal to Ottawa was via the serene and scenic Ottawa River. The towns were all cute and well maintained. Many had imposing churches. Surely they were central to the social fabric of the community.
It was not difficult to locate towns when their church spires beckoned from miles away.
Lighthouses were located to help mariners navigate and avoid shoals or other hazards.
Adjacent to Locks were Blockhouses which at one point were defensive structures. The canals and lock structures through which we were traveling were originally built by the British government as secure routes for supplying and provisioning outposts and garrisons.
A Lock Blockhouse
Carillon Lock, note the floating dock inside, and the height of the lift
Many attractive estates were located along the shores.
We spent a night at Montebello Municipal Marina.
It was clean and nice.
Our final night on the Ottawa River was spent behind Lower Duck Island. It was a calm anchorage, just a few miles before the entrance to the Rideau Canal. Our multi-day passage had been low intensity. It was nice to have a break from challenging conditions or situations.
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