Sunday 14 April 2024--The Rideau Canal lies in the bed of its namesake river for most of its course north of the Rideau Lakes. There are a few short canal cuts bypassing rapids or meanders on the way to Ottawa. For the last fifteen miles of its run, however, the river passed through a series of rapids and shallows, and dropped 36 feet into the Ottawa River in the twin falls that give the Rideau its name, rideau being the French word for curtain, which furnishing Samuel de Champlain thought the falls resembled. It was obvious that the last few miles of the canal would have to bypass the river in some way. Samuel Clowes, the surveyor who first laid out a route, proposed long canal cuts to the east of the river, starting just above the Hog's Back Rapids, seven miles from the falls. By rejected this and placed the canal to the west, partly because the cove where it now ends was more defensible, and partly because Clowes' route would have had to be cut through solid rock. There's a quarter mile of that above the flight of locks we saw yesterday, after which the canal passed through half a mile of beaver meadow before turning into a natural gully that required little excavation. A modest cut through a low ridge brought it into Dow's Great Swamp, a flooded portion of which is now Dow's Lake. From there it's a bit over a mile to Hogs Back. By intended to put three locks in flight there, but the land rises a short way from Dow's Lake, and he realized that moving two of the locks there, at a location now known as Hartwells, would save him a good bit of digging. It's to Hartwells I am going today. I looked at bus schedules for a while, but in the end decided to walk. It'll be a fairly long walk for my feet, which suffer from neuropathy or arthritis or both, depending on which doctor you ask.

I start west on Somerset Street, along to the edge of Chinatown, where I see a Chinese arch has been erected since last I was in the neighborhood (in 2010, in fact). I used to bring tour groups of Taiwanese to the Yangtze Restaurant, just beyond. Head south on Bronson, passing under the 417 and then over the canal. From the bridge, I can see the parkways on either side, first the Queen Elizabeth Driveway (named not for QEII, but for her mother), then Colonel By Drive. These roads replaced rail tracks; those on the Colonel By Drive side led to Ottawa's former rail terminal, now the Senate chambers, opposite the Château Laurier.

Hartwells is another three-quarters of a mile along the canal, past Dow's Lake. It's a pleasant enough site; the locks, numbers 9 and 10, are, of course, pretty much like all the other locks, and you could well give them a miss, if you weren't a mildly O/C completist who wanted to see all of them. The one notable thing here in the offseason is a small tour boat dry-docked in the upper lock.

Hogs Back* is another mile along the canal. Five or ten years ago, I'd have continued on along to see the locks there, but I'm pushing my limits already, so I walk back along the west side of the canal, passing the Dominion Arboretum and Dow's Lake. Cross Carling Avenue into Ottawa's Little Italy. A couple blocks along Preston Street, I pop into Pub Italia, a rather peculiar Italian pub (the only such I know of) which I have of course researched beforehand. It's a handsome place, all wood and stained glass. I had a friend years ago who wasn't much of a drinker and said going into a pub reminded him of going to church; he'd have had a point here. I sit at the bar and note the bartender and the two other customers sitting at either end of the bar are all women, and for a minute, until I see some other patrons, I think I've wandered into a Catholic-themed lesbian bar. That is an odd feeling. I nonetheless have no trouble enjoying a pint. The bar next door is called the Abbey--the mural above the entry shows three nuns hoisting tankards of beer. Must be the same ownership, no? I don't think I even want to see what that one looks like inside. I'm having visions of poor Sir Galahad at Castle Anthrax.

Head back toward the hotel, stopping first at Flora Hall for dinner and then at the Manx Pub for a pint or two, and a blether with the bartender. I've walked about seven miles today and my feet really hurt, but it was a good day.

*Canadian place names that include possessives usually omit the apostrophe, but it's not an absolute rule, and it's not always consistent. Thus it's Hog's Back Falls, but the Hogs Back lock site. Likewise, Dows Lake Pavilion is on Dow's Lake. I do my best to get it right.