Peterborough ON to Youngs Point ON


We left the lift lock wall early this morning.  We inmediately came up on a rotating bridge that didn't open until 10am.   It opened for us and we rode the tiny trench that took us to the Trent University complex. 


This ditch is narrow...


No way you could pass two boats in it.  The depth of the canal now drops from 12ft to 6ft as well.   That's not a problem as long as they aren't wrong and we are in the right place...


The first lock we came to was closed and they told us we would be there a while.  Apparently there was a cruise ship coming south.  Cruise ship?  Yes.  A river cruise.  So big the front of the boat actually folds up to make it shorter so it can fit in the locks! 


No room to spare.  


Not much room when he came past us tied to the wall either....

Then we got to share the lock with a houseboat.   Our boats overlapped in the middle.  Fortunately our boat has a point in the front so it's not as wide up there.   

One lock they asked us to go first.  That caused issues because we are wider in the back and we were about 2ft from their boat while the water was rising. 

Did I mention the channels are narrower here?  We are now in the Canadian Shield.  This is a mammoth area where the glaciers supposedly scraped all of the top soil off of the bedrock exposing very old rock.  

From this point forward there are no soft groundings.  The bottoms are unforgiving and the construction of the channel was harder - therefore shallower and more narrow.  Often boats will have to wait for others to come through the other way to pass....  (At least big boats ..)

Six locks today.  Only 14 miles... But they were brutal miles.  Close quarters, slow boats in the way and pretty much all no wake zones.   It was as beautiful as anything we've seen on the loop though ...


Now we will start a pattern I think.  Less rivers.  More lakes.  So there aren't the big hydroelectric dams, less current to contend with, and more open spaces before each lock between the lakes.  

Of course their idea of an 'open' lake is a little different than ours.   As one lock master put it 'We aren't very original with our names.  If it's called Stony lake, there's a reason...  Stay in the channel.'

Until tomorrow....  Tied to the wall just upstream of Young's Point lock....  That will give us the ability to move some in the morning before the locks open at 10am.   




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