Navigating Shannon Brook/Balmoral Canal

[First Mate]

Exploring Moultonborough this week, we were wondering if one can safely motor a short distance into Shannon Brook in Balmoral with a pontoon boat. It sure seems shallow, even at full lake, but property owners have docks along it so we are curious.

Also, how hard is it to navigate the Balmoral canal? TIA for any information you can share.

[Juiced06GTO]

I was wondering the same thing. There are a few places for sale with docks and I was wondering how accessible they actually are

[Dave R]

Its obviously man-made and has boats in it already. It's a safe bet that it's navigable, otherwise those boats would not be there. Also, people don't typically go to all the trouble of digging a canal that's not navigable. Go out and explore, you have the perfect boat for it, trim up and go slowly if in doubt of depth.

[iw8surf]

Its obviously man-made and has boats in it already. It's a safe bet that it's navigable, otherwise those boats would not be there. Also, people don't typically go to all the trouble of digging a canal that's not navigable. Go out and explore, you have the perfect boat for it, trim up and go slowly if in doubt of depth.

Right? I wouldn't go exploring shallow areas in a inboard.... but pontoon trim it up and send it!

[kawishiwi]

Its obviously man-made and has boats in it already. It's a safe bet that it's navigable, otherwise those boats would not be there. Also, people don't typically go to all the trouble of digging a canal that's not navigable. Go out and explore, you have the perfect boat for it, trim up and go slowly if in doubt of depth.

If your boating season ends on Labor day I would guess access would be mostly ok. But when we had the record low water in late summer & fall a few years ago there were largely unusable SLIPS where I keep my boat. I would bet the canals were likely out of business then.