Travels of the Confetti

8/4/11 -  8/8/11  After raising us over 800 feet above the level of Lake Ontario the locks of the Trent-Severn were now lowering us back down to the level of Lake Huron.  Lock 43 took us down 47 feet and we spent the night on the lower side.   One of the final locks is called the Big Chute and is not a lock at all.   It is actually a marine railway and lifts boats out of the water on slings and transports them over land down to the next level.   If there was a primary goal on this entire trip it was to enter the Georgian Bay and North Channel on the north side of Lake Huron.   This area has been described as the best cruising in the entire world by veterans.   The area is part of the Canadian Shield which is characterized by granite with a thin layer of soil or gravel with coniferous trees growing out of the cracks.   Some of these rocks date to the origin of this planet, some 4.5 billion years.   The scenery is spectacular but we actually found Georgian Bay to be somewhat uncomfortable because the channels through the rocks are often narrow and the penalty for inattention to navigation could be a bent prop or worse.   We actually did bump the bottom once but came away with no damage.   When we were in Elizabeth City, NC we met a fellow on his boat that lives here and he invited us to call him when we were in this area.   We anchored at Beckwith Island and he and his wife, who is a native Ojibwa Indian, came out to pick us up in one of his boats.  They took us to shore and then drove us to a restaurant for lunch and then the grocery store.   The Ojibwas experienced somewhat the same treatment from the government that American Indians did.   They were shuffled onto three remote island reservations as refuse and expected to expire.   As it turned out they survived and now struggle to hold on to their heritage as young members of the tribe move away the the native language becomes obscure.