Campbellford ON to Hastings ON


Today Katie got to open the door on a lock.  


The true queen of the locks.   Soon she'll be a federal Canadian employee with a pension and a generous retirement.  I can just smell it. 

Tomorrow the locks go on 'short hours' opening at 10:00am and finishing their long grueling day at 3:30pm.   I don't know how the govt employees can work such a long day.   Lol. 

Needless to say our travel day will be affected by these extraordinary hours...  We are trying to time it so we have a long drive in the morning before we reach out first lock.   That extends our way a bit.  It would also be nice to hit our last lock about 3pm and have a decent cruise after they close - perhaps reaching the next lock before tying up for the night.  

That will probably work - at least tomorrow.   

But this is about today....

We started the morning in Campbellford early unloading our bikes and going for a bike ride.  First we visited the suspension bridge over the falls a mile or so south of town (down a dirt trail).  Fat tire ebikes are awesome for something like this.  


Katie wasn't so sure about this .. but she did fine.   It didn't swing like a rope bridge.  Nothing like the bridge missing slats made of rope I had to cross over a chasm in Indonesia in the side of a volcano.... But I digress....

After the bridge we went for a trail ride.  Katie did not approve of its awesome terrain.  It appears the trails here vary from awesome to insane.  One of the ones I picked was the latter.  Tree roots, big rocks, mud, slippery things.... And sufficient vertical sections.  



We learned to walk our ebikes a bit.   The mosquitoes enjoyed us.  We must be delicious.  

Back to the road and a visit to the grocery store.   The bakery is closed (it's Sunday) so we bought butter tarts (the local specialty) at the store.    Meh.  Not great.  Little pies should be awesome.   These... Ok but not enough for me to eat the whole thing.  If it were cherry or chocolate or banana creme... It'd be gone.  
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Speaking of chocolate.  Worlds Finest Chocolate used to make Canadas chocolate here.  They sold the factory to a Chicago conglomerate but I think they still make the chocolate bars here...


Anyway the chocolate outlet was awesome.  We could buy a 1lb brick of Worlds Finest Chocolate bars for $5.89 Canadian.  Yea, about the price of a single bar at a fundraiser.   And we aren't talking the little bars they sell now.  The original size.  


This is a score.  I should have bought more....


There are a ton of hydro plants here and the water is really moving over the dams and through the plants.  They make millions on the power generation... Not so much on the lock fees.  Our one way passage for a 47ft boat through all 45 locks was about $250 Canadian.  Still, that's $250 more than ALL of the US locks combined.  The US locks are all taxpayer funded as they are built for commercial shipping purposes.    They aren't all used for that purpose anymore.... But that was the original intent.  


We passed through five locks today.   Four locations - because one was a double lock (two lift sections) again today.  


We finished our day in Hastings ON.  It's a nice little town with a few restaurants.  It's also on the snowmobile trail.  


The snowmobile trail here has a moveable bridge over the river - but it's left open during the navigation season (kersplash if you try to cross it). 


The trail is a nice multi-use trail.  We rode our bikes on it for several miles before returning. 


The hills here aren't small. They burn down the ebike batteries quickly.   It's hard to take a picture of a hill...  It just looks like a field.


Did I mention the chocolate was inexpensive?  Queen Anne chocolate covered cherries.  The big box.  $1.99 for the box (Canadian).  That's like $1.50 US. 

Nebo says we went 19.2 miles today.  Five locks. It sure seemed longer.  We cruised for hours.    Of course with a speed limit of 10 kilometers per hour (6.2mph) that's gonna take a while....  The entire canal is basically a no wake zone where you can push the rule a little when there are no boats or docks that can be damaged by a wake..  
 
Tonight we are in a marina.   (Thus another blog day).  I think tomorrow we will also stay in a marina for the power and the wifi.  It's just easier when cell phones and cell data are so limited.  








  

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