July 18
Pretty much all the loopers stayed at the Campbellford walls
for another night. It might have been
the buy 2 nights dockage get a third night free offered by the local Chamber of
Commerce, or it may have been the
weather forecast that was calling for rain (which never materialized) or
it may have been the lure of one more
morning of fresh Doohers Bakery goodies.
Thursday evening we had 21 Looper boats lining both sides of the town
wall and the Chamber folks said it was the largest crowd of loopers they ever
had at one time. We knew this would be
trouble. Simply too many boats departing Thursday for our next stop – Hastings. The lock just past Campbellford opens at 9
am and boats were already lined up so made a bakery run and waited until 9:30 to cast off. Drove the mile or so to the lock only to see
the first lockage still unloading at the
top, 3 big boats ahead of us who would
fill the next lockage, and more boats lining up behind us.
Queuing up to enter lock 13
By the time we got in the lock at 10:30 with 4 more boats the lockmaster asked what was going on – he
had 7 boats pass through all of the
previous day and on his third lift of the morning had already now locked a
dozen boats with more waiting. That lockage at least set a pace for everyone
and the future locks were more consistent.
We transited locks 13 through 18 with the double lift 16-17 (up 54 feet)
the only real one of interest.
These double locks can eb a bit intimidating
Martha enjoying a refreshing water spray
Having
done so many locks now through the Erie,
Oswego and now Trent Severn they’re all starting to just look the same and we’ve
got our system down to a science. At lock 15 the Park Canada attendant was
frantically on the phone with upstream lockkeepers since everyone was heading
to Hastings – just the natural next stop and the only real town between
Campbellford and Peterborough. We were
told the wall there was full and would be better off tying to the wall at the
top of Lock 17 but once we got there decided to push on. If the wall was truly full there were a few
options for anchoring just past the town.
Everyone had to raft up in the locks to get through
In true looper fashion, knowing more boats were coming the boaters at
Hastings all jostled around and pushed tightly together to make room for the
final 3 boats tying to the wall. It was
a long hot day (mid 80’s!!) so after a shower to clean up a group of us went up
to McGilleys Grill and Pub and tried the
locally brewed Gilley’s Lock 18 Lager.
Pretty good stuff.
Journey for July 18
July 19
Off the wall at a little past 8 and already behind the pack
headed for Peterborough. This is a 20
mile open water run across Rice Lake and then a long meander up the Otonabee
River to Lock 19. The lake run was
fabulous with a SW breeze hitting our nose. Very light chop but mostly felt
good getting the breeze on our faces as a heat advisory is in effect again today.
Open waters of Rice Lake
Otonabee River
As soon as we turned off the lake and into
the protected Otonabee River the wind abated and the humidity took over. It’s a picturesque river – with the way it
meandered and the mostly flat lands it reminded us of the Waccamaw River but
without the tannin stained water color. Mostly natural with occasional gatherings of
river cottages. Spotting wildlife was the main pastime with some interesting waterside sightings.
Osprey
Blue Heron
Cows ???
"Da Boys" doing wild things on the bridge.
Lock 19 is only an 8
foot lift and a smaller lock but also one of the oldest. Rather than concrete it has walls of cut
stone. The original gate and valve
mechanisms are still in use but it all works a bit slower. Peterborough is just
past the Lock and as we approached we could see it was full. Thankfully we had made reservations but our
original slip assignment was off by itself away from the loopers in an
unsecured area and in water too shallow for our draft. After some discussion they said come look at
this potential slip on B dock and see if you think it’s too tight. I counted off 16’ against our 14.5’ beam and
said ‘We’ll make it work”. The
dockmaster had staff positioned all around.
Apparently he’s seen his share of boating mishaps but he gave
outstanding directions as we eased down the fairway, spun it around and backed in flawlessly. We’re here through the weekend. Farmers market tomorrow for sure. There’s a couple of great museums, lots of good
restaurants and pubs , a band pavilion in the park next to the marina with a concert Saturday night. We’ll probably hike over to watch the Lift
lock operate a few times – the highest lifting one in the world and over 100
years old. Mostly glad to be in a marina
for the weekend with shore power to run the A/C as the heat advisory remains in
effect.
Journey for July 19
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