Day 137 to Peterborough, ON

      We left the wall at the Littlefield Lock promptly at 9:00 am to begin our journey today. We had a short wait at the gate, but it gave me a chance to get a picture of the Savage Arms Company plant on the town side of the water (photo at right). If we make it all of the way to Peterborough, we will have 7 locks today... The Admiral called yesterday, and we can have a dock today if we get that far. Our original reservation was for tomorrow, but with the rainy weather today we might as well slog along to Peterborough if the weather and locks cooperate.

      When we checked the forecast again this morning, it still does not include adverse weather like lightning or high winds. The rain will be uncomfortable, but at least it is not cold. The photo at the left shows something of my restricted view from the helm out through the windows. I am steering, which I often do in the rain rather than use the autopilot. I need to pay close attention with the thick haze and steering keeps me focused.

      We did not share a lock all day, and we only passed two boats total at all of the locks, and they were both going in the opposite direction. The photo at the right is the campus at Trent University, and it appears that we went right through the campus. There were three pedestrian bridges, which must be fun in snow and/or ice. It was too bad that the weather was bad since the Trent campus is supposed to be know for its architecture.

      We had about four swing bridges today, and the one in the photo at the left was not included in the count since it has obviously been out of service for a long time. The railroad tracks have even been removed, and there were small trees actually growing up through the bridge...

      The highlight of today's trip was the Peterborough Lift Lock, which is the second and last of the lift locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway. The lift is 65 feet, which makes the view from the top both awesome and scary. In the photo  at the right we are approaching the lock with both gates in the up or closed position. The red lights are both lit, which indicates that we, of course, do not have permission to enter. The yellow arrow points to the left indicating that we will ultimately enter that lock. The left lock is in the up position, but it is difficult to see yet in this view.

      In the photo at the left the gate is down for us to enter when we get the green light. After we enter, the gates will come back up behind us. Gates is plural because there are two gates. One will stay in place to act as a dam for the water above. The other gate forms part of the lock or "box" that is filled with water and will carry us down 65 feet. Now you can see that the other gate is still closed because the lock for it is down at the bottom.

      The photo at the right shows us in the lock with Lucky Us securely tied to the side. The view out the front over the bow is awesome! It looks very much like we are flying. At this point we are inside the lock chamber with the gates behind and in front of us in the closed position. The entire lock will now move down, and it is balanced so that the other lock will move up at the same time.

      The photo at the left shows the two locks passing each other at the halfway point. The lock on the left is going up while we are going down. At the top of the picture you can see the two lock gates that are fixed at the top of the lock. They are both holding back the water at the top, and they are hinged at the bottom so that they can rotate down (away from the viewer) when a lock is in the up position.

       In the photo at the right our lock is now in the down position. Before we can exit the lock, the gate in front of Lucky Us must be lowered. The photo is looking back over our stern, and you can see the gate through which we entered at the top. The dark wall has what appears to be a window with bars on it. In fact it is a window, and on the other side of the window is a road carrying traffic from one side of the lock to the other. The stairs on the right side of the photo also lead up to the road from the lower level of the lock. Most of the locks have a bridge from one side to the other, but this lock is so high that they just built what amounts to a tunnel into this wall of the structure.

      In the photo at the left the gate in front of us has been lowered, and we are in the process of exiting the lock. This view is also looking back over the stern of Lucky Us. You can see the other lock on the left is in the fully raised position. The locks are "balanced" not by a lever arm but by a huge piston under each lock, and you can (barely) see the black, round piston under the lock in the up position.

     We are still several miles by water from our destination, but in straight line distance we are only a mile or less from both downtown Peterborough and the marina. The photo at the right shows a canoe on the lock wall advertising the canoe museum at the visitor's center, which is just up the hill. It is actually a modern fiberglass canoe painted to look like a historic birch bark canoe. They offer tours to as many as 18 people (who actually pay) to paddle the canoe for a short trip. What is unique about the trip is that they paddle into the lock and take a trip up and down in the lock. Must be quite a thrill as well as maybe a bit scary (?)!

      The Ashburnham swing bridge is our last bridge for the day. It is unique in my experience in that the bridge is off center on the rotating mechanism. Usually the swivel is in the middle so that the bridge is balanced. In this case, they have added concrete weights to the short side to balance the bridge. Anyway, I did a double take at the off centered nature of the bridge, but it does work as was demonstrated for us in a couple of minutes.

      The last lock for today was the Ashburnham Lock with a drop of only 12 feet. Once again, we were the only traffic, and they were waiting with the gate open for our arrival. Since the Peterborough Lift Lock, there has been a wide bike path and park on the right side and a highway scenic route on the other side. The tourist bureau advertises land travel routes to follow the canal and see the locks in action. The view on the other side of the lock is of Little Lake where our marina is located out of sight off to the right.

      As if we were not already totally soaked from all of the rain, they have this huge fountain that shoots water 50+ feet into the air in the middle of the lake (photo at left). The wind carries the spray from the fountain virtually across the small lake and more importantly, into our path. Just what we needed...

       The last photo shows our destination at Peterborough Marina. The Admiral was already making plans for a nice hot shower, which I might add she well deserves. She spent a lot of time out on the fore deck handling lines at locks, which was a nasty job today. The larger white building on the left is the marina office. Out behind the office is a large covered stage and a several acre area for spectators. Most Wednesday and Saturdays in July and August they have free concerts there with an audience of from 8 to 12,000 people. We already have plans to go see "Hotel California" there tomorrow night. They are an Eagles tribute band that is billed as "They don't imitate, they duplicate". Now, that is going to be good music!