Good Morning!! Today is OUR day to traverse the Peterborough Lift Lock!!  Wayne is not as excited as I am.  He didn’t go to the Peterborough Lock before hand to check it out.  He just read in a guidebook that they call it “The Tub“.  You go up into the air.  “No big deal”say the man who really doesn’t like heights. hahaha

I am sure these folks at Lock 20 – Ashburnham – feel neglected.  They get no press.  But you have to get through lock 20 before you can go into the infamous Peterborough Lift Lock.

Here we go!  Approaching Lock 21.  We will be entering the right “tub” and will get a great view of the country side.  How exciting!  There will be a couple of other boats on the lift lock with us.

The back gate closes and the locking pins are placed one at a time.  What would happen if all the water fell out of the “tub” on the way up??  Would we just settle on the bottom of the tub or go with the water??  Did I tie up our boat tight enough to the cable?  Why am I thinking these things?  Thanks to the crew of Nearly Perfect for pointing out the possibility!  Rarely happens, but it has.  Great!

The golf course looks pretty good from this view.

All done in a matter of minutes.  There were 2 boats in the lock with us.  One went on toward the next lock.  The second one turned around to go down again!!  We should have done that.  The whole trip was over with before we really had a chance to savor the experience.  Wayne kept his head down and watched the steel supports really closely.  He didn’t get any pictures.  Nor see the beautiful view I had.

Almost anticlimactic.  We really need to do another lift lock.  Wait…there is another one up ahead, we heard.  Wonders never cease.

7 locks today.  Onward for the next 5.  Yes, we count the lift lock as one of the locks even though we really didn’t do much.  The swing bridge up ahead is usually open since it works with the locks.  I thought the rope swing was a nifty idea.  I remember those days when I used a swing to fall into cold river water.  Great fun for kids.

The next several locks will be really close to one another.  I might as well stay on the bow and wait.  Hey, up ahead….what is that in the water??

There are geese in the water way.  I start talking to them.  Out of the way!!  Really, you need to move or we will run over you.  I am waving my arms… out of the way!!!  Like they can see me and understand my gestures.  🙂  They really look unconcerned, don’t they?  Maybe it is the engine noise.  They finally made a decision to go back toward the side they came from rather than go across to the other side.

We apparently are still in the city of Peterborough because the Peterborough Rowing Club members were out and enjoying the day.

An interesting twist to the bridge support.  Is this physics at work here or aesthetics?

Let’s focus, folks!  We have 5 more locks to do today.

A half mile and we are at Lock 23….

Lock 24 came and went.  Up another 12 feet.

The surrounding area has turned rural.  We saw several large farms in the distance.  Reminds me of the large farms we saw in Pennsylvania area.   Large barns and supporting buildings.  Huge tracks of land.

As we were waiting for the boat to come out of the lock, I was able to take in the surrounding area.  The houses along the Trent -Severn waterway have lots of flowers in full bloom.  Great color.  The different kinds of trees dotting the landscape dazzles the senses.

 

141 feet UP in 7 locks today.  We were lucky to go through the last several locks with just one other boat – the crew of Sequacious.   Makes locking easier when there aren’t lots of boats to worry about as the water swirls the boat to and fro.   All of the locks have names I should note.  I posted the map of the lock system which shows the number and name.  I think we just use the numbers because secretly we are subtracting from 45 the number of locks we have left to go through on the Trent-Severn.

We stayed at the Lakefield Marina.  7 locks and the day was done!!   When Wayne was napping I got an ice-cream and enjoyed a friendly chat with another Looper.  Off to the Beer Store around the corner.  The dock staff told us if we visited the Beer Store, then we have seen the town!!  Yep.  Just had to get that MGD while I can!!  in Canada, no less.

Kids enjoying themselves on their way to the beach across the river.

Sunset in Lakefield, ON.  Only 19 more locks to go.