Tuesday, July 26, 2022

The Richelieu River

Nana thought it was time to post a little visual directly from the Waterway Guide so that you the reader can see where our next journey will take us. Cruising The Richelieu River/ Chambly Canal will bring NH into Lake Champlain. As you can see Sorel is the starting point and there are several locks along the way. Today we will cruise to St Ours which is the only lock on the Richelieu and stay overnight at the wall. The lock gives  us 5 feet lift.
This was a first for Nana and Nandad. We had never witnessed a cable ferry before. Apparently you need to wait until the cables drop before passing astern of the ferry. A wonderful service for locals and reduces their commute by 40 minutes.
When we tie up at the wall there is a lovely park on Ile Darvard where there is also the lockmasters house that has some interesting local history. 
Just beside the lockmasters house there are a few fancy camping facilities which look very inviting. The St Ours dam has a fish ladder ( Vianney-Legendre Fish Ladder ) which primary function is to aid in the recovery of the endangered species the copper redhorse. It is a complex structure built in 2001 to allow the copper redhorse to return upstream to its Chambly spawning ground. Fascinating. 



Nandad enjoying the huge hydrangea in the park. Tomorrow we may cruise to the Chambly Canal,  which has a total of twelve locks, or we may stop along the way at St Marc sur Richelieu or Beloeil. That is the fun part of cruising - no schedule, no worries, no rushing. 











No comments:

Post a Comment