Tue July 17th – Peterborough to Buckhorn: Today was the day for us to have our turn going up the giant Peterborough lift lock. At first glance, the lock appears to be very intimidating due to its massive structure and vertical lift height, but, for us anyway, a closer inspection made it apparent that since we weren’t going to be pushed sideways or back & forth in the lock chamber by massive amounts of rushing water, like other locks, that the ride up from the lower river to the upper river should be very calm, requiring only minimal effort to hold Rickshaw steady once in the chamber. So, after making our way through a “normal” lock just after our marina and preceding the lift lock, we approached the lift lock with much anticipation and confidence that it would be a “piece of cake”, which it was. After being lifted up the nearly 70 feet to the upper river, the gate at the end of the chamber dropped allowing us to proceed further up the canal. We were now in the section of the canal called the Kawartha Region, which is a series of lakes (Clear, Stony, Buckhorn, Pigeon and Cameron Lakes) connected by rivers through marsh and forests. This area is a very popular summer vacation destination, evidenced by a lot of cottages, skiboats, rental houseboats, resort towns and small villages that we passed along the way. Since we had so far been in mostly rural and remote scenery in the Trent-Severn, we were looking forward to visiting a few of these quaint villages. In order to keep up our pace of roughly 30 miles each day, our “hoped-for” destination for the day was the small town of Buckhorn, which was 28 miles up the canal from Peterborough. By 3pm, we had
made it as far as Lovesick island and lock, which was 6 miles prior to Buckhorn, and considered stopping there due to the weather forecast for the late afternoon…high winds with gusts up to 35 mph, which we would have to deal with as we crossed one of the larger lakes in the region, the Lower Buckhorn. The lockmaster at the Lovesick lock told us that he had heard that the gusts were up to as much as 60mph, but so far we had experienced gusts that we estimated were more in line with the forecasted wind strength in the mid-30s range. With a slight amount of hubris and confidence in the capabilities of our boat, we decided to push the remaining 6 miles across Lower Buckhorn, which we did, wondering the whole time if we had made the wrong decision, because we were buffeted by the heavy winds all the way across the lake. After an hour,we arrived in the town of Buckhorn, and stopped along the lock wall just above the lock. We treated ourselves to a dinner out that night at a small restaurant, opting to sit
outside on the deck overlooking the lake and canal.
made it as far as Lovesick island and lock, which was 6 miles prior to Buckhorn, and considered stopping there due to the weather forecast for the late afternoon…high winds with gusts up to 35 mph, which we would have to deal with as we crossed one of the larger lakes in the region, the Lower Buckhorn. The lockmaster at the Lovesick lock told us that he had heard that the gusts were up to as much as 60mph, but so far we had experienced gusts that we estimated were more in line with the forecasted wind strength in the mid-30s range. With a slight amount of hubris and confidence in the capabilities of our boat, we decided to push the remaining 6 miles across Lower Buckhorn, which we did, wondering the whole time if we had made the wrong decision, because we were buffeted by the heavy winds all the way across the lake. After an hour,we arrived in the town of Buckhorn, and stopped along the lock wall just above the lock. We treated ourselves to a dinner out that night at a small restaurant, opting to sit
outside on the deck overlooking the lake and canal.
Rickshaw entering the lower chamber on the Peterborough Lock.
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Some beautiful nature -
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