Today was bright and sunny, but a little on the cool side. It was 56 when we woke up this morning, but did make it up to the high 70’s later in the day. We went through 6 locks today so now our grand total is 88. During the locking at Healey Falls (Locks 16 and 17) we experienced something new for us. There was a boat locking down in Lock 17 and our boat, plus one other, was locking up in Lock 16. Then the lock gate between the two locks opened and we passed each other -- us into Lock 17 and the other boat into Lock 16.
The last lock of the day was Lock 18 at Hastings. As we were locking up, it was amazing to find that we were right in the heart of downtown. Usually you have to walk a ways to find the town. We parked on the wall after locking, right behind the LCBO (Liquor Store) – how convenient!
We had a quick lunch onboard and then went out to explore the town. While locking through we saw the Canadian Loopers, Carole and Michel on Emotion so we went down to visit them for awhile. We then walked to the Redtail Paddle Factory and picked out a paddle (see the link to the Redtail Paddle Company under favorites) to be engraved with the boat’s name, Great Loop and the dates (Linda’s Birthday present). We will be able to pick it up in the morning. Gerry also stopped by the local bait/fishing store and picked up a fishing license along with lures recommended by the locals. It will be interesting to see if he can catch anything and, if he does, what we will do with it!
While visiting with Carole and Michel earlier we had made plans to meet them for dinner so around 6:00 we walked to Banjo’s and ate (dinner was good and very inexpensive). Then back on the boat, we had drinks and shared some of our chocolate haul from the day before with them.
Linda gave Carole some input on how she was doing our blog while Michel and Gerry told each other lies (talked about fishing). Michel also divulged his secret recipe for cooking fish caught up here in the North Country. Sorry, we can’t share.
Tomorrow (Linda’s birthday) we hope to get an early start and go all the way to Peterborough.
The lockhouse at Lock 13 - Campbellford
Approaching Lock 14 - Crow Bay
Approaching Lock 15 - Healy Falls. Today was a good day locking. We never had to tie up and wait on the blue line. All the lock gates were open and waiting for us.
Let's see .... how many lockmasters does it take to monitor the water flow?? Seriously, these guys (and gals) are very helpful and they certainly know what they are doing.
Lock 16 and 17 - Healy Falls - It's a long way up
When the people at the top saw me taking pictures, they started waving, so I took another one closer up. Later they came by to talk with us. One lady asked if it was scary being way down there at the bottom. They were very interested in hearing about our trip.
Locking through Locks 16 and 17 in both directions. We were coming up while the boat you see on the left was going down. The gate in the middle was closed. Then once we were both at the same level, the gate opened and we switched locks.
We are cruising through the Trent River. These are some of the sights we saw.
Cute little bridge over a small cove
Bed and breakfast with tons of flowers
Small house with a "bunkie" by the water. We want one of these!!!
Boat house with a painting of a boat on the front
As we locked up in the Hastings lock instead of finding just the lockmaster's house, we found the town of Hastings ..... right there!
Monk's Vineyard on the wall at Hastings
The restaurant where we ate.
There are flowers everywhere in this town. This was at the local general store.
An almost full moon (think it's tomorrow night, but it might be cloudy so we took a picture tonight)
No comments:
Post a Comment