| The Great American Loop #22 |
 Dave Bernheisel  Click on the link above for more information. Basically, Dave says, they're boating up the coast to NY, then up the Hudson to Troy, across the Erie Canal, through the Great Lakes, by Chicago, down the Mississippi, around Florida and home. No small journey, eh?
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Posted 07.16.02 On the Great American Loop
Going up aboard the Going There on the TrentSevern
(7.14) After Hastings we ran up to Peterborough, the big (maybe 50,000) town on the TrentSevern. The run was uneventful and not terribly attractive. Home for the night was Peterborough Marina, another of the marinas owned by the town in hopes of sprucing up the waterfront.
Peterborough itself was kind of dull & drab (at least the part we saw). That night at the marina they had a rock concert with 10,000 pierced, tattooed, trash throwing kids -- you may sense that this was not my kind of event.
After the concert, they had a show of lighted boats. They had six, open workboats about 20 feet long with a superstructure, made out of pipe, to make it look like a sailboat. The superstructure was lined with lights so at night, you only saw the lights.
Now we get to the subject line (going up), and one of the highlights of the trip for me.
This is the Peterborough Lift Lock; actually there are two on this waterway. Rather than a conventional lock, this lock has two pans of water, each about 160'X30'. The two are linked together hydraulically, so that when one is up the other is down.
Boats going down go in the upper one and vice versa. When it is set to operate, the gates close and they pump a little water out of the lower pan. Now the upper is heavier and starts to go down making the lower go up. And, up we went...65 feet! To me it was a thrill.
Are these unique to the TrentSevern? I don't know -- sounds like something the Germans would do, but I haven't heard of it, if so.
After the lock we continued up the waterway to Lakefield. a town of about 5000, and a very nice town at that. Walking around we were quite impressed. We decided that, to be impressive, a town had to have a nice library and no vacancies on the main street -- Lakefield qualified.
(7.15) After Lakefield the scenery went from OK to magnificent -- maybe even better than the upper part of the Rideau. There were lakes, islands (of all sizes), narrow passageways, waterfalls, and all nonstop. It was an easy run to Bobcaygeon, which is home for the night. Despite it being a warm day, I am making a batch of granola (bad on a hot day because the oven heats up the cabin even more), a staple aboard Going There.
As we watch Canadians, they obviously enjoy summer. They are all outdoors doing something -- swimming, boating, fishing, camping, etc., much more than we are. Maybe it's because their winter is so tough and summer so short that they have to squeeze every bit of use out of it.
That's it for now. We hope all are doing well.
Dave & Mary |
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