Lock 8 to Hickory Island

Paddling the Trent-Severn Waterway:

Lock 8 to Hickory Island Loop, Trent River

written by The Land Canadian Adventures. Read more by The Land.

Your Route:

As you strike out for Hickory Island, be mindful of boat traffic. One of the beauties of paddling such a small vessel is that you can afford to duck in close to the shoreline without bottoming out! Hickory Island is just about 2km long so once you reach the north eastern tip you can explore the island’s wetland, likely avoiding the larger boat traffic that you might otherwise encounter if you visit the Blue Hole since this is a popular (deep enough) spot for the house boats and yachts touring the waterway to anchor.

The Secrets in the Hills

Setting off into Bradley Bay along the Trent River, you have to imagine: what was this water like 400 years ago? 11,000 years ago? Archeological finds indicate occupation of this region as early as 9,000 BC. More recently (but still eons ago!) the Point Peninsula people left a series of mounds in the area, including the more well-known Serpent Mounds on Rice Lake along with the lesser-known LeVesconte Mound overlooking Percy Reach - just east of Lock 8, in fact, if you look back to north shore. These mounds are generally attributed to the Hopewell and Point Peninsula cultures from approximately 2500-1500 years ago. The LeVesconte site in particular revealed the remains of at least 61 people along with several panpipes - some silver and some copper.  

As I picnic at the east end of Hickory (picturesque dead tree limbs for anchoring), I wonder what folks would have enjoyed as a shoreline lunch here in days gone by. You can find American Cornmint in bloom in July and August. This species native to North America can be used to make a soothing cup of tea (from a handful of freshly picked leaves, or a teaspoon dried).

Apparently when Samuel de Champlain came through here in 1615, he stayed on an island with a family of Mississauga Natives that were producing salt there. From a saltwater spring!? I’d like to imagine this was Hickory Island… but, not surprisingly, we couldn’t find any sign of such a spring. A salt spring was considered to be quite a gold mine before the days of refrigeration since there were no ice coolers back then in which to throw your catch of the day. Many folks chose to salt their fish and meat to preserve them and being inland meant that salt was not as easy to come by.

At the edge of The Land Between

Bradley Bay on the Trent River marks the Southern edge of The Land Between - the ecotone that is a transition zone between the Canadian Shield to the North and the Saint Lawrence Lowlands to the South. 12,000 years ago, Bradley Bay would have been close to the north coast of the Champlain Sea which drained when the St. Lawrence River eroded its channel past Quebec. In most places there is a maximum of 15cm of soil cover which makes for a rather delicate habitat. But The Land Between is home to a great number of species including ⅓ of all of Ontario’s turtles! If you’re lucky, you might quietly sneak up on a sunbathing Blanding’s Turtle. Another resident of The Land Between is the Golden Winged Warbler and you might find this songbird at the edge of forests or even around swamps, marshes or bogs like the one nestled right in Hickory Island. At the south east side of Hickory, keep a keen eye on the top of the tree line for a huge bald eagle’s nest.

Excerpt from "To the River Trent", Dr. James Haskins (Frankford resident in the 1830s and 40s)

Green thy banks, with budding groves

Bordering the meadows fair;

Still thy shore the cedar loves,

Shoots the tam’rack high in air.

Cedars white, and alders grey,

Circling many a lordly pine;

Giants oaks their forms display,

Firs whose silv’ry leaflets shine.

Some things have changed along the way but the poet’s words still ring true as you paddle along Bradley Bay.