Update May 28, 2018
I’ve put up a brand new article here on the site featuring some blue hour photos taken in Bobcaygeon and the surrounding Kawartha Lakes area. Please check them out here: Bobcaygeon Blue Hour Photos
This small town of around 3,500 permanent residents can swell in humanity on hot summer weekends. Bobcaygeon, Ontario, Canada has always been an important link between Sturgeon Lake and Pigeon Lake in the Kawartha Region of Central Ontario.
We’ve got some images below of the area around Lock 32 in the heart of Bobcaygeon and the Trent Severn Waterway. For a more indepth look at the town, check out the HD video located at the bottom of the page.
It’s beautiful during the day. Check out our article to see how beautiful it can be at night: Bobcaygeon at Night
The town of Bobcaygeon was incorportated in 1876 but it had been the location of the first locks in the Trent system since 1832.
Originally, the canal system was put in place to transport natural resources through the area. Now, it is nearly 100% pleasure craft that get elevated up and down between lakes.
Bobcaygeon, Ontario
Bobcaygeon is located just an hour or two away from the Greater Toronto Area by car, depending on one end of the metropolis you’re coming from. The nearest major urban centres are Lindsay and Peterborough.
It may or may not be the place you want to spend the week, weekend or even the night, depending on your needs. However, it’s a cute place to stop at to relax and grab some food on your way north to Algonquin Provincial Park.
Trent Severn Waterway
The Trent Severn Waterway consists of 45 locks between Port Severn on Georgian Bay and Trenton on Lake Ontario. Average depths in the locks range from just six to eight feet. The whole system is 386 kilometres, or 210 miles, in length. The locks are open from mid-May to mid-October.
The waterway is often traveled via house boat. Rentals are readily available. However, it seems with the shrinking U.S. economy and sky high fuel prices over the past five years or more, there are less and less of these vessels on the water. The fact that lockage fees go up with each foot in length of your boat doesn’t help matters much.
The area is an angler’s heaven with a bounty of smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, walleye, muskie and northern pike. Many people crowd the dam during fishing season.
See the video for a better look at the nasty water below the dam. The flow actually turns backward and smashs against the lower portion of the dam before finding its way downstream to Pigeon Lake.
The view above is looking downstream from the dam. This was once a sleepy town but real estate has boomed in the past few decades. Now, the structures that line the canal and out along the shores of both Pigeon Lake and Sturgeon Lake more resemble mansions than summer cottages.
Once last look at the raging water below the dam that separates Sturgeon Lake to the west and Pigeon Lake to the east. In contrast to my signature long exposure water blur images, I actually jacked up the shutter speed to 1/4000 of a second for these water shots. I had planned to go back and do some water blur – the confused direction of the water would have made some pretty cool patterns – but did not.
The following HD Video was taken on July 14, 2013 and gives a better look at the town of Bobcaygeon. Be sure to switch the quality level to the highest setting and be sure to hit the ‘Like’ button!
