Thursday, July 13 - The Lift Lock!

Thursday, July 13 - The Lift Lock!

Boats started lining up long before the 9:00 lock opening.  We drank coffee and watched the fun! 

The boat tied up behind us had warned us that there would be lots of boats that were rentals and people had no idea how to drive them.  She was right!  While boats were waiting to get into the lock, this little boat passed them and pulled right up to the gate.  They were Japanese and had trouble communicating with the lock staff.  There was a little yelling, but the lock crew did a great job and got them tied off.  They came into the lock after us, so we got to watch the show again!

From our first Great Loop meeting, we have been looking forward to the Peterborough Lift Lock.  It is the world’s night hydraulic lift lock at 65 ft.  It works like a balance bea scale.  You drive into a rectangular chamber shaped like a giant sheet-cake pan.  Parallel, but 65 feet up is an identical chamber wit 330,000 gallons of water weighing 1500 tons.  When the upper chamber is fill with an extra foot of water (130 tons), the increased weight forces it to to down while the lower tank rises on its piston, boats and all.

Here are some pictures from our experience.  It was amazing and very exciting! 

After a short ride through Trent University, we locked up again and resumed our travels on the Otonabee River.  I love to see farms along the river.  They look so scenic. 

We went through two more locks very easily, then came upon this one with lot of boats tied up at the top.  In the very narrow waterway, this houseboat came toward us, then turned around, taking the whole channel, and parked. 

Scenes along our last stretch of the Otonabee River.

Now Katchewanooka Lake.  Love these names.  Notice the grass along the edges of the channel.  It’s a wide lake but very shallow.

Adirondack chairs are EVERYWHERE in Canada.  And they almost never match each other or the house.  This was a rare exception.

We stopped for the night at Island View Resort and Marina in Young’s Point, ON.  It was a rustic and scenic RV “resort” with space on the gas dock for two transient boats.  We were all impressed with the young man in the picture.  He was the owner’s son and a very hard worker.  There was a really nice restaurant building that had been empty for two years.  The marina guy told us had “pulled in” over $600,000 per season. Anybody looking for a seasonal business?