Tuesday July 29: Frankfort – lock 7

After three great days in Campbellford, a rainy morning Monday made for an early afternoon leave time. We were able to travel albeit in jeans and jacket to drive from the flybridge.

The plan originally was to travel the next five miles through five locks (a double at Ranney Falls and then 3 single locks – the Trent is continuing to rapidly drop to the level of Lake Ontario!) then continue for another 12 miles (1 ½ hours) to spend the night at the lock at Glenn Ross.

Plan B was to stop after 4 miles and 4 locks. The wind had picked up – it was getting just plain nasty! No rain but when there is a one foot chop pulling into a lock, you know it's time to stop for the day :-)

By the time Steve had the coleman out to cook dinner, the winds down below the lock had fallen off nicely. We were the only boat to spend the night.

This turned out to be one of the best stops! Nothing around but the house at this lock is one of the few remaining original lockmaster homes on the canal system. These were the homes that we saw at every lock back in the 50's. I recall one of the lockmasters bringing my family fresh raspberries in the morning when we spent the night!

Back then the lockmaster asked and recorded the name of the boat and the number of people on board. They were always quite taken aback when the response was “seven aboard” (on that 21 foot boat).

Many informational displays were here – they are usually very interesting and these were no exception. The first had information about what it was like to be a lockmaster in the 1920's. You may want to right click and select “open in a new tab” to be able to read this.

Part of the house is open for viewing – this is a small sitting area on the second floor overlooking the lock.

Other information concerned the Archaic people that lived in this area between 5000 – 1000 BC and the Mound Builder who lived here sometime during 0 – 500 AD.

Long before the Trent Canal was built, the waterways were being used for travel – just lots of rapids that needed to be portaged around. Good thing I didn't live then – I would have NEVER made it!

Anyway, we were up and on our way by 9 yesterday. Only 2 locks and 25 miles to our destination of Frankfort. Small town, breakfast place and power at the lock as an added plus. Bonus of a library that I didn't know was here!

The Trent River is really pretty in this stretch and widely varied as to width. Lots of wildlife including two pairs of swans. Only the second and third pair this year that we've seen.

 

So we're tied here with four other boats for the night. We are still seeing a few boats working their way to Georgian Bay on the way to Chicago and the rivers south. But most have already passed through as it's getting late in the season for those wanting to complete the loop before it starts getting cold at the north end.

Think we'll stay another day …..

 

Sunday July 27: Time to Move on from Campbellford

We've been docked here at Campbellford for the last 2 nights and it's probably time to leave.

Hard though. Power, great showers, internet on the boat. This is a pay for two nights, stay three so for free, why not spend an extra day?

Laundry is done, shopping completed, meeting new people - check. All is done.

You can see Guppy as the first of 3 boats on the town dock wall. Strongest internet is by the office :-)

It's been a very enjoyable few days here - except for THE BRIDGE (from which the picture above was taken).

Seems as though everything is "across the bridge" - or ATB.

Breakfast place? ATB. Chinese restaurant? ATB. Thrift store? ATB. Farmer's market? ATB. Well, you get the idea :-)

Bikes were the only way for me to go!

First score at the thrift store was a very nice broiler pan for the toaster oven. Sadly ... it didn't fit. So Steve is headed back tomorrow to just buy the whole toaster oven and donate our old one.

Nice farmer' market -

The best though was the ride along the Rotary Trail that led to the Ranney Falls suspension bridge. The first part was along the main highway south to the double locks (we'll go through those first thing tomorrow).

The bridge itself was pretty fun. Seemed to be somewhat disturbing to have nothing below for some folks though. Especially for some of the dogs we saw walking - plus it had to be hard on the paws!

 Once we crossed the bridge (pushing the bikes of course) we continued onto the path through the Ferris Provincial Park.

Interesting background: 500 acres left for public use by the Ferris Family. It's no longer a provincial park but is kept up by volunteers - one of whom we met today. A wonderful person - she invited us to return on Tuesday as she leads a one hour hike through the property.

The views along the waterway from the park are amazing. And how generous to donate the land - forever to be for public use.

One of the volunteer projects was to build a Chimney Swift nesting structure. Kind of fun since there was a nest of Chinmey Swifts in the fireplace at the farm when we were back this spring.

My brother Tom had zip locked the fireplace doors shut so no one would build a fire!!

Right click on the picture and select open in a new tab to be able to read the posted sign.

As has been the case in the previous areas where a falls would normally run, there is not enough water to run the lock, the power station and the falls, so it's the falls that has no water. Still fun to look at.

The rest of the road back was along wooded path. Most of which were an easy ride but others? Not so much!!

I was thinking of Matt with his new fat tire mountain bike - where was that when I needed one??

I just didn't think my little fold up bike was really up to the task of riding this path downhill over stones and roots!






Entertainment tonight was provided by one of the black squirrels in the area. I think my mistake was throwing out that first cashew :-)

But he/she was so cute :-)

Tomorrow we'll head out. Thunderstorm rolled through last night and due in again tonight.

Not bad though - rain at night. Sunny and nice days.... we'll take it :-)

Friday July 25: Campbellford on the Trent River

Since we left Lakefield last Monday, we've made our winding way south and east first on the Ontonabee River then Rice Lake and the Trent River.

Today we arrived at Campbellford. The yellow line is the travel we've completed the past week - the red is where we'll be by week's end. There is a well-founded rumour that there is a Country Music Fest in Trenton for the weekend!! Definitely my kind of place :-)

The lock just above Peterborough was a really nice place to stay. This is our second night. You can see the fountain in Little Lake in front of the boat.

We met a very nice couple, Sharon and Terry, who were returning from the Thousand Islands area - exactly where we are headed. They had a wealth of knowledge about the area - very helpful.

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of their Main Coon cat - really nice cat (I LOVE cats :-)) - all 26 pounds of him!! They have a second cat almost as big.

Kayaking was just kind of ok. There was a small creek off of Little Lake that went back about a hundred yards.

I tried to get Steve to go through the culvert (you know - clear the cobwebs!) but no way.

Reminded me of the spider scenes in Lord of the Ring!!

Only one lock Thursday and then a long run of 40 miles thru Rice Lake to Hastings. Kind of boring really but still it' easy travel in very protected waters

The lockmasters here had the cutest stuffed bear dressed in lockmaster's garb! Laziest worker I've seen at the locks so far :-)

River travel the last couple of days has been along either farm land or small grouping of cottages and home.

This doesn't appear to be the home of the wealthy commuting to/from Toronto but rather almost Ohio like country - complete with corn that is growing quite nicely!

Turtle sightings are common as the days have been cool but sunny. We finally even spotted a beaver hut off to the side of one of the marshy areas.

As we pulled into Hastings, we ran into Another Compromise again. First saw them in Lakefield. They are friends of Peter and Cheryl's that we had met last year. Nice couple.

The evening was quiet - I paid a visit to the local coffee house for internet. Seems our new phone had died - trying to deal with that has been interesting but I think will have a good outcome. I'm sure delivery service from Wendy will be involved somehow!

We were on the blue line (waiting dock for anyone wanting to lock through) before the lock even opened. Some days it's good to get an early start.

The best thing about longer running times? Steve seems to always find things to do :-) Me? I would just read or play game.

Steve washes windows!

Actually it just is amazing to me that we have been on this boat for almost 6 weeks and it took this long for one of us to decide we were tired of looking out of dirty windows.

Oh well.

The lock travels today have been interesting as the Trent River begins to drop rapidly down to the level of Lake Ontario. This lock at Healy Falls is a double lock - each one dropping 25 feet.

The size of the upper doors are amazing (picture right was taken from below the locks) - especially when we are at the top of the lower lock looking back!

Many of these locks have a power plant next door generating green power. This time of year though there is minimal water at the lower end of the canal system so even though in the spring there would be some spectacular falls, the water just isn't there.

The osprey chicks are growing up rapidly - almost as big as the parents now.

It's so nice to see the number of osprey now in the areas along the waterway. For so many years, it  was a rare day that we even spotted on soaring more less nesting.

Same for the loons.



Prize for the "lock of the day"? The third lock at Healey Falls. No need to go to Niagara Falls for a view of a great waterfall - just lock through at the back of the lock! Check out the video below :-)

I wasn't sure they were ever going to be able to empty the lock with all of the water coming over the back lock gate! But they did and we were off to Campbellford.

Wednesday July 23: Enjoying Peterborough

After a quick breakfast, it was on to the lift lock. First lockage of the day begins around 9. It takes a few minutes for all of the lock personnel to be in place.

Steve is in his customary place on the bow with the boat at the very front of the lock chamber.

Along for the ride with us is a couple from Michigan – Lois and Tom. They had stopped by the top of the lock last night and were hoping to see it in action. Sadly the lock had already closed – but if they came back in the morning, they would be welcome to ride through the lock with us.

They actually came! It was pleasant chatting with them. They were on a short vacation to the area (mostly to visit grandchildren in the area) and taking in some of the sites.

After the 90 second ride down the lift lock, we tied up to the wall just below. The liftlock museum was our goal – they have a movie about the building of the Trent Canal along with some very nice exhibits of liftlocks from around the world.

These locks are really the engineering marvels!

Why is it that these water parks were never around when our kids were little? They would have LOVED these things!!

This particular water park is very close to where we ended up spending the night – at the next lock down the system. So we traveled a whole ¾ of a mile yesterday! It's a great place for the night – the bike path actually runs across the lock door!

A ride to downtown Peterborough was hot but nice. Found the library with very slow internet (even on their computers) so we opted for Tim Horton's and their free wifi. Of course we felt obligated to buy something …. chocolate covered boston crème donut.  

Hard to go wrong with the combo (and a reasonable amount of saturated fat to boot :-))

Monday July 21: Peterborough Liftlock

Finally – we have left Lakefield! It was going on 11 am until we finally got moving. One last breakfast out at Debbie's, one last trip to the grocery store, fill the water tank, unplug the power cord and off we went – all of a mile to the lock around the corner!

It was a good omen for the 5 locks ahead that the first one was open and waiting for us.

It's been a nice last few days with bike rides and kayaking from the marina. Steve was on the hunt for more red raspberries now that he knew exactly where to find them.

Success :-)

Another nice bike path runs around the point across from the marina. It also borders the marshland near where we kayaked a few days ago. Nice path – with nice homes and an invitation to rest!

Hopscotch boards drawn on the bikeway reminds me grade school. On nice days we played hopscotch and on rainy days we played jacks in the gym. Fun to see again!

Gone is Hamblin's – restaurant and ice cream. We hear it's being turned into an Irish Pub. Weird. Doesn't seem right somehow ….

But the original steamship pavilion is still here. Moved down the way a bit but still here. Memories: my Aunt Janie sitting on the steps sicker than a dog after drinking the water in Bobcaygeon (this was in the late 50's). Guess she missed that memo :-)

The trip down the Ontonabee River is very quiet. Narrow waterways with locks every few miles. Five in all.

Timing was pretty good and it wasn't a terribly hot day so it was quite pleasant.

The plan was to tie up at the top of the lift lock for the night. Not the nicest park or anything but likely we would be the only boat there (and we were). Very quiet peaceful night.

Based on the reaction from the lock personnel, I don't think many boats stop for the night here! We wanted to actually stay below the lift lock but weren't allowed to. Apparently the short canal between the liftlock and the next lock is fed only by an overflow drain and if it would happen to get plugged up with seaweed, the water in the canal would drain – leaving us sitting in the mud!

It was a good plan that actually worked!

Steve made yet another great dinner – this time shrimp on the grill! It might have been lobster it was so good :-)