It's the end of the season for boaters along the Rideau Canal.
Parks Canada has announced the end of the 2016 navigation season. It officially ended at 5:00 p.m. Monday.
While it's another sign of the inevitable arrival of winter, it does mean preparations for the upcoming skating season can begin.
Workers will drain the Canal and install skating huts in the coming weeks, before the cold weather sets in.
The last skating season along the Rideau Canal Skateway was the shortest on record. Skating did not begin until January 23, 2016 and the Skateway officially closed on February 25 - only 34 days later. The Skateway had to be closed for 16 of those 34 days due to unseasonably warm weather, meaning there were only 18 official skating days on the Canal last season.
The season before that saw 59 consecutive skating days.