I guess at long last I should wrap this trip up!
The town of Arnprior is located just a bit south of the juncture of the Ottawa and Madawaska Rivers. We took a road in town north until we reached the point where the Madawaska actually enters the Ottawa. Way out in the Ottawa River is a tiny island on which is located the modern lighthouse which I believe is referred to as a Claymore Tower. These markers have been used to replace some of the lighthouses where a navagational aid is still deemed necessary. They have either red or green tops. Not the best photo but you can get the idea.
At this point we returned to the Quality Inn which was located just over the bridge. I.O. opted for a nap and I opted for a nice cold beer in the “backyard” of the hotel which was a lovely parklike area which sloped down to the Madawaska River. I spoke with a couple who docked their boat and came up to the hotel. There is no
lock here so you can’t travel between the rivers without a portage arrangement.
Dinner that evening was in the hotel, very good and very reasonable.
After breakfast the next morning we headed for home but we had one more place to check out. While it’s not a lighthouse it was part of the reason for this particular trip.
I won't bore you with the details except to say that when planning this trip I noticed that a slight detour would take us to a town called Westport.
Just a couple miles out of town there is a place called Green Shingle Lodge. I was curious to see it again as I had spent time there as a child, as a young bride and later with my kids. Thankfully it hadn't changed at all and is still run by the same family, the McCulloch's, after all those years!
The lodge and cabins are located on Wolfe Lake, on the Rideau Chain of Lakes and the setting is lovely.
After chatting with some folks there and taking some photos we hit the road again to Gananoque where we picked up 401 and headed east returning to the 1000 Island Bridge.
As we crossed the bridge I spotted another Claymore Tower!
We stopped for lunch and got home around 3:30pm, just about a half hour before the Northeast Blackout!
The only downside to this trip was the back trouble I picked up, Canadian Back Spasms - sure blame the Canadians, eh???
I’ll conclude by saying that while the few lighthouses we saw will never rank up high on the “best known and frequently visited” list, it was fun finding them and traveling to some parts of Canada that we hadn’t been before.
Traveling in Canada continued to be somewhat of an adventure as even a copy of the latest roadmap is no guarantee that you will have an easy time as most of the folks we encountered assured us that we must have an old map when we referred to the route #’s on the map! Everyone was, however, very friendly and helpful.
While the exchange rate is not as favorable as it was even a couple of months ago we found most prices to be reasonable, excluding taxes which are really high, around 15%. If you choose to have alcohol with your meal it gets taxed twice!
I must express my thanks to Michel Forand of Ottawa who provided me with advance directions and advice. Also to Jeanne Charlebois of the Township of Champlain who provided information on locating the lights at L’Orignal. And also to Jeremy D’Entremont for the Lighthouse Database on the LHD website. Without the database I wouldn’t have known of the existence of the Ottawa River lighthouses.
Bob 
