Trenton, ON to Peterborough, ON

Day #631; Loop Miles to Date = 7,499

Happy Canada Day! We are in Peterborough, ON where the festivities for the Holiday weekend are in full swing. A street festival last night, a parade, concert and fireworks today...among many other activities. It's a big event for Canada...their 150th year celebration and they are making the most of it!

Sorry for the delay in blog posts, but we have not had WiFi service since Trenton, and only have very sketchy service now. So, we'll just give you a brief update, and hope that we can find a way to load some pictures shortly. We have about a million pictures to load, and we simply can't do it from where we are right at the moment.

On Monday, we left Trenton to commence our journey up the Trent Severn Waterway. The Trent Severn Waterway is Central Ontario's 240 miles of waterway utilizing 41 locks, a marine railway and 2 hydraulic lift locks. The highest point, Balsam Lake is 590 feet above Lake Ontario and 260 feet above Georgian Bay. For more detailed information on the waterway, click here. Our first stop was near Frankford, where we had planned to stop on the lock wall above lock #6, but this was already full by the time we arrived. However, the lock staff at the locks do a terrific job of informing you on your options up ahead of you for overnight stays. They phoned ahead for us, and we found that there was plenty of room at the bottom of the next lock, so we simply grabbed a spot on the wall below lock #7. It was peaceful, and quiet, and just right. There wasn't any town to speak of...BUT there was a small shop just across the road that sold ice cream. The owner was quite a character, and we learned of his enormous collection of all things M&M...literally 2,000 or more pieces of paraphernalia. Plus restored antique pedal cars like we had growing up. He was a treat to talk to, and the ice cream was phenomenal.

On Tuesday, our target was Campbellford, where we found their city wall to have tons of room. We stayed for 2 nights here, enjoying the small town atmosphere. We found some local eateries, a wonderful bakery (Doohers) and of course more ice cream. On Wednesday, we hiked back to the top of lock #12 to see it from the land. It is a double lock and was fun to see from a different perspective. There was also a suspension bridge there where we could enjoy some tremendous views from about 100 feet above the water.

On Thursday we transited to Hastings, a smaller town, where once again we found a peaceful lock wall to spend the night on. This one was a bit more turbulent, as the massive amounts of water being discharged past the dam next to the lock caused some bounces now and then, but still very peaceful.

Then on Friday, we made our way to Peterborough, where we had secured marina reservations months ago. This is THE big holiday weekend in Canada, so we knew it was going to be packed. Peterborough is also where the famous hydraulic lift lock is located, and we hope to hike over to it to view it from land before we see it up close on the water on Monday. It's really a unique experience to lock through here...but we'll save that story for our next installment.

So far, we've found the locks on the Trent Severn to be much friendlier than the Erie Canal. We have now completed the first 19 locks, finding them to all be small and manageable. All of them have cables to loop our lines around...much preferable to the hanging lines we had to hang onto in the Erie locks. We are on about mile 90 of the 240 total miles on this waterway and are loving it. It is beautiful, peaceful, and really enjoyable cruising. Certainly near the top of our favorite sections that we have traveled to date.

An interesting bit of information about the locks and lock staff (pictures will tell more of the story here.) For starters, most of the locks are manually operated. It is fascinating to think that they still use the same mechanisms that have been in use for 150 years or more. Also, much of the staff is comprised of college students who compete for these jobs each summer. The Canada Parks system has a rather rigorous set of criteria that students must meet in order to land one of these positions. And friendliness is obviously a key criteria! Each and every lock includes a cheerful conversation with one or more of the lock attendants, and it really makes the whole experience a delight.

So, for now, we are going to enjoy a festive holiday weekend, and hope that all of you have great 4th of July too. All for now...pictures to follow when we can figure it out.