Integrity Cruise

Day 108: Peterborough to Young's Point, Ontario

Home

The Adventure

The Boat

About Us

Contact Us

Day 108: Monday, August 1st: OK, folks, this will be a day with lots of pictures. This is because we went through the famous (?) Peterborough Lift Lock. More about that later..

We got underway fairly early (for us) and immediately locked through Lock 20 at Ashburnham. Notice that beautiful dog (the owner is out of view):

Then we came to the Lift Lock. This engineering marvel was completed in 1904. It is the highest lift lock in the world, lifting/lowering boats 65 feet. It comprises two giant "tubs" on huge steel rams and operates like a hydraulic car lift in a service shop, except it uses water and the weight of the other tub to raise one tub. This is how it looks from the lower side:

Here is a sequence of pictures taken as the tubs raise/lower. First, about a quarter of the way:

Half way:

Three quarters:

And done. The whole trip takes about two minutes:

We took our turn and pulled into the lock behind a rental houseboat. This is looking back down the canal:

Looking forward you see, essentially, a dam:

That's the other tub up there on the left. The lock gates, as seen on the right open by swinging down, like a tail gate on a pickup truck:

There are runners in the side towers to guide the tubs and minimize wobble:

Just as we thought we were about to go up, the lockmaster re-opened the rear gate to let the tour boat in. This is the boat that stays next to the marina we were in:

Bill was not particularly happy about that:

Now we were ready to go up, and Bill's fear of heights took over!

At the top, Ruth had nerve enough to look back and get a picture looking down. Bill was hiding in the forward stateroom:

Now we were ready to depart and the houseboat prepped to leave. Note the view looking forward from our vantage point:

The tour boat was last out. They will go a few hundred yards up the canal and turn around and go back down. Note the view the skipper will have as he enters the tub downbound. You don't want to overshoot!

Here is a little aside subject. Boat wakes are not friendly things; the smallest of wakes bounce off the canal/creek/river banks again and again:

A short way further we re-joined the Otanabee River and passed Trent University. There was a sculptured bridge here:

..and some unique architecture:

Now for more locks. We went through at Nassau Mills:

Otanabee:

Douro:

After Douro a thunderstorm hit us so we donned foul weather gear and removed shoes & socks for the lock-through at Sawer Falls (yes, it is spelled that way):

Spelled funny, but that is their privilege:

Last lock-through was at Lakefield:

We moved onward and tied to the lower wall at Young's Point Lock. Maha Rani and Another One were there. Another One hosted happy hour (again). The interior of their 46 foot Carver is luxurious:

We planned to get up and be first through the lock tomorrow, so we turned in early.

Total locks traversed so far: 97

Position tonight: N44 29.267 W078 14.013

To return to our Main Page simply

close this window.