Paddles and Packs

Kayak the Trent-Severn Waterway: Campbellford to Percy Reach

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Want to kayak the Trent-Severn Waterway? This article shares more about navigating the locks from the vantage point of a kayak.

This has been one of our favorite kayak trips of all in Ontario, and we think it should be on every Ontario paddler’s bucket list! Read on for more about what to expect when you kayak the Trent-Severn Waterway from Campbellford (Lock 13) to Percy Reach (Lock 8), or visit our Where to Paddle page for links to more great kayaking destinations in Southern Ontario and beyond.

Small boats in a big lock. What a unique perspective on this marvel of engineering: it was incredible to be at water level as the water was drained from the locks to lower us down to the exit water height.

Our Recommended Trip

Put In: We launched at Lock 13, located at 6199 County Road 50 RR 4, Campbellford. K0L 1L0. (44.19111, -77.47114) This lock is just on the north side of Campbellford. There was a small gravel parking lot that we managed to find a spot for car and trailer in, but there is also a grassy area beside that people sometimes park on to unload. The boats were launched from the sloped concrete walls a bit further back from the vertical walls of the lock channel. This wasn’t the easiest launch, as there isn’t a dock or natural gradient to help stabilize a kayak. We opted to launch people stern first and slide them into the water. The last person had to get in with one of us already in the water helping to stabilize their boat.

Lowering the boats into the water involved a steeply angled concrete wall about 4 feet down to water level. By trial and error, we ended up angling the kayak stern first, with the guys supporting it while the kayaker lowered themselves into their seat and then the kayak was lowered down to water level on the ramp. We helped stabilize the last kayak from the water for the paddler to get in.

Take Out: We continued through Lock 8, located at 26 Lock Point, Seymour Twp, Ontario. This was a short distance from Ferris Provincial Park, and we left a car here in the morning. When we arrived after passing through lock 8, we took our kayaks out around the end of the point, which offered a sloped boat launch with concrete paving stone ramp (44.235592, -77.781858). Please note – the locks do close, so you need to make sure you arrive at your exit spot on time, or you will be forced to portage around the lock to continue (and some locks cannot be portaged). Check the Parks Canada website for the hours for the locks, as they are dependent on month and day of the week.

Parking:  Both locks had free public parking and we had no issues with our trailer in either spot.

Trip Length: 5-6 hours, approximately 11 km, including 6 locks. Your pace will depend on the boat traffic using the locks and whether or not you have to wait for others to exit the locks before you can go in. We hit a relatively quiet day in mid July 2023, and the lockmasters did call the next lock ahead of our departure from each, so we didn’t have to wait. We definitely had the fact that we were a group of 8 kayakers in our favour, as they were willing to operate the locks for our group each time without any major waiting.

Cost: Parks Canada charges a lockage fee per kayak to traverse the locks. They have single lock option, day passes, and season passes. We opted for the day pass as we were only paddling for the day but went through six locks. In 2023, the fee was $1.75 per foot of boat, so most of our boats were $21, no tax. Lock 13 did not sell the passes, but let us through without them, and we picked them up when we arrived the Locks 11/12 station in Campbellford. There was a small community park with a boat launch here that I exited from and walked over to the Lock Station to pick up all of our passes. They accepted most forms of payment, and we were back on the water within minutes.

​Degree of Difficulty: Intermediate, due to presence of other marine traffic and requirement to navigate past dams. Overall, this was gentle paddling; the water was calm with a light current through most of our paddle on the Trent River. There was a stretch between Locks 9 and 10 where we hit a larger body of water with power boats, but they were respectful and we stayed close to shore as we traversed. All along the waterway, there are hydro power generation stations with dams. There were floating barriers installed by these stations, but one is advised to be cautious due to the unpredictable currents in these areas when the stations are in operation.   
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Recommended Gear

Life jackets and all Transport Canada required safety gear are always a must.  Sunscreen and sun hats are definitely recommended when you’re on the water.

You should always consider the conditions on the water, your capabilities, and your kayak before deciding whether to venture onto a busy waterway frequented by larger boats.  Choppy conditions, heavy marine traffic, or low visibility are all factors to consider.
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Kayak the Trent-Severn Waterway

Stretching 386 km, and connecting the Bay of Quinte in the St. Laurence River to Georgian Bay off Lake Huron, the Trent-Severn Waterway consists of 37 conventional locks, 2 flight locks, 2 hydraulic lift locks, and a marine railway.

The waterway is open from mid-May until mid-October, and National Geographic calls it “one of the finest interconnected systems of navigation in the world”. According to a Parks Canada brochure about this National Historic Site, “this is one water route you won’t want to miss – and boaters from all over the world agree.” While we enjoyed a day trip in a quiet stretch with a high density of locks (6 over just 11 km), Parks Canada’s website offers suggestions for additional 1, 2 and 3 day paddling routes, and it is possible for an experienced kayaker to cover the entire waterway with enough time!

History of the Trent-Severn Waterway

The entire water-way has a National Historic Site designation from Parks Canada, and the locks are all operated by Parks Canada staff. The integrity of these historical lock structures is amazing, and one can’t help but marvel at the industrious engineers who designed and built this technology that was finished more than a century ago!

In 1615, Samuel de Champlain became the first European to travel the waterway during the fur trade era. This area of Upper Canada was settled by British and Irish immigrants in the early 1800’s, as mill towns were established and lumbering began.

The construction of the first lock in Bobcaygeon began in 1833, but the entire waterway wasn’t completed until 1920.

Kayak the Trent-Severn: How the Locks Work

From a Parks Canada brochure, “A lock consists of at least one watertight basin known as the lock chamber. Vessels are raised or lowered by filling or emptying the lock chamber with the use of sluices (or valves). Gates open at each end of the lock chamber to allow the boats to enter and leave. The gates are operated by various hydraulic, electric, or manually operated systems.”

We loved that every lock we passed through was a bit different. While the sizes and designs of the lock chambers are fairly standard, each of the locks had different designs. Locks 13 and 9 were both manual locks, operated by the lock masters who manually walked the turn wheels to open the locks. Locks 11/12 at Ranney Falls were an impressive double lock, lowering us the distance of the Ranney Falls Dam (48 feet) and used electric gates.

When you kayak the Trent Severn Waterway, you may end up sharing a lock with other boats. You’ll be required to tie your boat up. We used a short piece of rope, loosely looped around the rubber lines that extend from top to bottom of the lock chamber at regular distances around the lock’s walls.

We used a short rope, looped loosely around the rubber lines that extend from top to bottom of the lock chamber at regular distances around the lock’s walls, when sharing a lock with larger boats. When we weren’t sharing the lock chambers, the lock masters let us float around in the chamber. We did hear from other paddlers that the chambers are more volatile when they are being filled to allow you to ascend the locks and that you might need to tie up when riding up the river – our route had us going down river instead of up so this wasn’t an issue.

Lock 13: Campbellford

We launched immediately ahead of the entry to the lock, gently setting each kayak down a steep angled concrete wall along the edge of the channel. While this was somewhat complicated and required multiple people to stabilize the kayaks, no one ended up wet, and there weren’t any better options anywhere near the lock that had easily accessible parking. We did spy some public boat launches with regular boat ramps further downstream, prior to Locks 11/12, so if you’re nervous, consider skipping Lock 13.

The rear gate for Lock 13 closes behind us as we tie our boats up to be lowered down.
Sluices are used to pump water out of the lock chamber, lowering the water level. You can see on the sides of the chamber how much water has been pumped out; the entire lock was emptied in about 5 minutes,
The lock’s front gates are opened. The pontoon boat is the first to exit, and then we’re on our way too!
The closed front gate at Lock #12, the first of the double lock bypassing Ranney Falls. This was taken from the walkway as I approached the Lock House to pay for our Lockage day passes.
Lock #11 at low water, with the closed rear gates for Lock #12. This double lock bypasses Ranney Falls, dropping or elevating boats 48 feet on the manmade channel through Campbellford Ontario.
A view of Lock 11 in the opposite direction shows that the water in the lock chamber is at the lower level allowing boats to exit onto the Trent River below Ranney Falls at the edge of Campbellford.
The juxtaposition of the manmade channel coming out of the Ranney Falls double locks (11/12) and the untouched natural beauty of the cliffs of Ferris Provincial Park on the opposite side of the Trent River. If you go turn left (upstream) coming out of the manmade channel, you’ll be able to kayak up past the park (to your right) and the hydro electric station (to your left), under the suspension bridge, and toward the base of the rocky falls which are apparently known as Sheep Wash. This photo was taken on our walk across the suspension bridge and over to explore the locks the day after kayaking.
Just to the left of the exit from the manmade channel, you’ll look upstream toward the Ranney Gorge Suspension Bridge located in Ferris Provincial Park. The edges of the gorge are tall layers of rock topped with pine trees, a very different view than the leafy tree-lined banks of the manmade channel through the town of Campbellford.
We kayaked under the suspension bridge, as pedestrians took our photos and we took theirs!
A birds-eye view of the Trent River from the Suspension Bridge, with Ferris Provincial Park to the left. It’s hard to believe that immediately behind the pine tree cluster on the right side of this photo is a giant water lock and man-made channel leading through town – this looks so wild and untouched!

My phone started to run out of juice with all of the photos and videos I took, so I don’t have as many photos from the rest of the day’s paddle. The novelty of the experience of riding through the locks didn’t wear off, and our 9-year-old (but fairly experienced paddler) declared it “the best kayak trip of all time!” Considering it came together as a last minute plan, we were grateful that the weather was beautiful, the lock masters were so accommodating of our big group, and the unknown details all worked themselves out.

As we drove home, I was already on the Parks Canada website looking at the other locks of the Trent-Severn, and making a mental note of some of the other stretches we’d like to try to kayak the Trent Severn Waterway on another future trip! Peterborough Lift Lock and the Marine Railway both made the list for spots we’d never even heard of but now can’t wait to experience!

We stopped for a picnic lunch at Lock 10. This lock had a floating dock at water level, which was at least 3 feet lower than the edge of the manmade channel. We climbed out and onto the channel wall, and then walked the boats along to tie them out of the way of the dock along the channel’s wall.

Our Accommodations

For this trip to kayak the Trent-Severn Waterway, we booked a campsite at Ferris Provincial Park, just a couple of hours outside of Toronto. Before we headed home, we took a quick hike to check out suspension bridge that crosses the Trent River, and got a completely different perspective of the Trent River from above. On the opposite side, we wandered down to the locks for a bird’s eye view of Locks 11/12 (Ranney Falls) and the lock chambers we’d been in. We weren’t lucky enough to see any boats in the locks while we were there, unlike those visitors who had watched us go through the locks the day before!

Additional Reading

Parks Canada – The Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site, with links to the history behind each of the locks, plus more details on lockage fees and operating hours, plus more suggested paddling routes for 1, 2 and 3 day options to kayak the Trent-Severn Waterway.

Outfitter Options

There are rentals available at Ferris Provincial Park

More Kayaking Destinations

For more trip planning inspiration, don’t miss our Where to Paddle page for links to more great kayaking destinations in Southern Ontario and beyond.

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