AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Burritts Rapids Ontario to Merrickville Ontario

Jul 7^th – It was a hot muggy mostly cloudy day with low winds and a late day thunderstorm. We left the Burritts Rapids lock and headed 6 miles through 6 locks and parked at the Merrickville Ontario town dock which is operated by Parks Canada. We’ve decided to stay 2 nights to avoid the weekend boating traffic plus it looks like tomorrow has a high chance of thunderstorms. When we arrived we walked through town and stopped for treats … I had a Tiger Tail Ice Cream cone while Maria had a Pecan Butter Tart. Later in the afternoon we were hit by a thunderstorm with high winds and a heavy downpour. Afterwards the sun came out for a bit and overnight we were hit by a thunderstorm as well as a couple heavy downpours.

Jul 8^th – It was a warm day with a sun/cloud mix and moderate winds. The Merrickville town dock is full with weekend boaters and others are trying to get on the dock. I’m glad we arrived yesterday before the major weekend boating traffic began. Another Looper, “Total Eclipse” arrived yesterday afternoon when the rain was about to hit us. We went exploring for a bit and checked out the Merrickville ruins which were interesting to walk thru. Apparently we’ve been told that Merrickville was in the running to be the Capital City of Canada and the choice of Ottawa surprised everyone. During the day I also decided to check my sea strainers and luckily I did since I found a large pile of weeds, most likely from the Burritts Rapids dock which was in a weedy area.

Jul 9^th – It started as a warm sunny day with lots of rain in the afternoon. We decided to spend one more day in Merrickville so we could check out the large Car Show that was hosted by the town. We were amazed at the size of the show as well as the large crowd that showed up to view the vintage vehicles. Just as we finished the last section of the show it looked like it was going to start raining thus we headed quickly back to the boat. Just as we arrived in the boat it started to pour. The rest of the day was off and on rain thus we decided to watch some Netflix series to pass the rest of the afternoon.