Tootling Along the Trent Canal System

How can you tell we aren't in a hurry, well, its easy, we've been out 2 weeks, and haven't gone anywhere.

Ok, not completely true. We are sitting in Buckhorn tonight, and I am not really sure where that is other than it is north of Peterborough somewhere. Cute little spot though, we went for lunch, had ice cream, picked up a few essentials, and did some boat chores. Pretty much a typical day on the Trent.

We were actually doing pretty good, but between meeting up with my father and helping our Son buy his first house, we ended up sitting around Peterborough for a week. In fact we made the trip up to Lakefield with our guests, but had to turn around and go back to Peterborough the following day so that I could catch a bus and go do a home inspection for our Son. So we spent some time chasing our tails, but at least we got to spend some time anchored out in Little Lake, downtown Peterpatch.(local slang for Peterborough). That was really nice.

Other than that, its been a pretty peaceful trip so far. We've eaten too much, and drank too much, and eaten and drank too much of the wrong things, but that's what vacations are for, right? And this sure feels like a vacation after building two houses over the last too summers.

So we got out of Trenton and pushed ourselves in the first day all the way up to Campbellford. Unfortunately we missed the last lock into town and got stuck at the bottom of Rainy Falls. A good 5 km walk from Captain George's. It was a blistering hot day, we traveled for 10 hours, but we weren't going to give up George's fish and chips over a little 10k walk, so off we went. I said to Serena on the way there that I hoped they didn't have the air conditioning cranked, because I didn't think my body could take it, and we needn't have worried, because it was broken, and it was hotter in the restaurant than it was outside. Not really what I was going for.

The next day was a mix of sun and rain, and still more heat. The lock staff got us through in record time, and I dropped Serena off in town so that she could make the trek up the hill to her doctor for a emergency booking. She had gotten poison ivy while we were home, and some of it was around her eye, so she was a little nervous, with good reason. The appointment was quick, antibiotics in hand, she swung by picked up her sister and we were gone. Its always nice to have new person to boating on board, because their experiences are fresh, and we get to see through their eyes how cool this life on the water really is. Serena's sister Sherry left us in Healy Falls, and we carried onto Hastings to take a day off and recuperate from too much travel in too short a time. We always do it, we always pay for it, and we can't figure out why we keep doing it. I'm sure there is a psych paper in there somewhere.

In the slimy lock walls, you get to write things, like your boat name. Or your cousin's phone number, "for a good time call." Kidding.....

Swing bridge at Campbellford. Built by the Engineers in Trenton, damned if I can't remember the name of the unit, my memory is not what it used to be, and I was the goalie on their hockey team. Anyway, we used it on the way to Captain George's. Remember, fish.......

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Hastings was a bit of a crap hole. And I really should be nicer since my cousin, not the one "for a good time call", has a cute little restaurant there, most of the people are really good. And there is a little bit of everything there. But; there are enough people on the bottom of the evolutionary scale to make the place seem somewhat inhospitable. And the fisherman, wow, is there a lot of fisherman hanging around the lock, the bridge, the dam, just everywhere. I will admit that I am a tad bit biased, as my wallet was stolen out of my car here several years ago, but when a man walks up to the tree next to your boat, in the day time, in the park, and pisses on it, while you sit in the cockpit, then maybe its just a little too much. Especially when the "open" lock washrooms were only 40 yards away.

Peterborough was much nicer. We had intended to stay out in Rice Lake for a couple of days to do some fishing, kayaking, and relaxing, but the weather man, plus a planned date for visitors in the Peterpatch changed that. As schedules and weathermen always seem to do. So off we went, making the 8 hour trek up into Little Lake. 

Until Peterborough, the trip was pretty unexciting. Vita did not do so well in the first 18 locks, bucking and kicking so bad that both Serena and I now have man sized calasus and boxer sized bruises. But we'll recover. I'll do a post at some point on tips and hints for the canals, because the Rideau is different than the Trent, and all the locks in the Trent are different from one another. 

Peterborough and beyond you start running into traffic, lots of traffic, big traffic, little traffic, houseboats up the wazoo, and traffic that don't know how to drive a boat. You meet tour boats, like the one above, and the Canal monster the Kawartha Voyager. You start to watch the morning jockey for position, as everyone tries to get into the first lock of the day. It is quite the parade. And not everyone finds it that funny. Serena and I just laugh our heads off, whether were in the middle of it, or just standing by sipping our morning coffee. It really is a must see. But I am sure that the laughing gets to some of the other boaters. But like everything else in life, if you take it too serious, you'll be on a short train to cookoo land. So the gates of the lock open, and everyone wants to be first, the lock master starts playing a good ol game of boat Tetris, and the boaters start playing that fun game of bumper boats.

And attitudes run the gamit. We saw people that were afraid to have anyone in the lock with them, because they might scare the gelcoat on their boat, to people who smashed and banged, and didn't care. Most of the rental houseboaters were afraid that they were going to smack into someone else's boat. No worries that they were going to look bad, that was a given. They were all just trying to mitigate the damages. Lets face it, no matter how good you are, driving a houseboat is like driving a bus with no steering and too much power. But, if you take it all in, and try not to stress the little things, then life is good.

The lift lock at Peterborough was really neat. It is one of the items on our bucket list. A smaller item for sure. But right up there with finishing the Rideau, or the Trent, or growing our own raspberries to make wine with. Did someone say wine?

It's a very quick ride though, in, up, out, or down, or in our case travelling through 3 times before we got out of Peterborough. 

With a 66 foot lift though, and being rather open, I am surprised that I didn't have an issue with the height. I can't seem to figure out what triggers my fear of heights. I know a 8/12 roof will do it every

time.

The fountain in Little Lake Peterborough. They turn the lights on at night for a little show.

Jockeying for position, You go ahead beside the houseboat, no, you go, you were here first. Actually, I think we'll wait for the next lift, yeah, good idea. Let the houseboat go up with the sailboat.

Hey honey. We going up Samwise.

We left Peterborough, finally for good, no schedule, no plans. It was a slow day up to Young's point, as Serena was a little under the weather. She had the 750 ml flu. So I pulled over mid day and let her have a badly needed 2 hour nap.

After that our intentions were to drop the hook in Clear Lake for a couple of days to let off some steam, and get back on track. Well, we have never been up here before, and what we realized quickly is that there is a lot of rock, everywhere. Trying to find an anchorage that was not a big rock pile was pretty much impossible. The chard would say 17 feet deep, but the bay would be 60 feet. I guess that there was probably a rock in the bay that came up to 17 feet, but how to find it, and how to get an anchor into the top of it is beyond me. So we enjoyed a meandering cruise up through Clear Lake, and Lovesick Lake, till we got to Lovesick Lock. A gorgeous little spot with no fisherman, and no riff raff, unless you count the raccoons. Even the lock workers have to boat to work, because there are no roads. Lovesick was a treat, and I am going to stop here, because we did some fun things, had some interesting encounters, and I don't want to ruin it before I get the You Tube video posted!

Vita back to one six.