The start of the Trent Severn - Trenton to Campbellford - May 24th, 25th and 26th

Thursday, May 24th


The start of the Trent Severn.  Today we did six locks and tied up at the lock wall in Frankford.  All the lock masters were so friendly and very helpful.  They would answer questions and provide a lot of information.

Bye bye Port Trent Marina.

The bridge starting the Trent Severn waterway.

Our first lock!  Mark and Christine on S/V Harmonic, 33 Hunter lead the way.  We arrived just before opening at 10:00 am and tied up at the blue line.  We walked up to talk to the lock masters.  They said that lock two was cleaning debris out of the water so we would not hit it so it would be a little longer before they would open and let us go through.

I asked if I could try turning the crank that controlled the lock gates and they let me!  Very easy to move.  They said that it's hard to get it started but after it starts it's easy.

Lock master Lucas gave us some maple syrup from his family's tree forest. He also told us that if you sniff the maple leaf image on their money, it smells like maple syrup.  Sure enough, it did!  Each lock has one summer help job working with the main lock master.  The requirement for this summer job is that you must be a student.  This is a great opportunity for these college kids.  During the slow season (now through July) if they are missing helpers,  the student lock workers will drive to the next lock before we'd arrive to help the lock master. It's called "chasing the lock".

 

 

  

Lots of geese and several had babies.

 

 

All tied up for the night at the Frankford lock wall.

Friday, May 25th - Frankford to Campbellford

Lock Seven park is under construction and it was only a pass through (no docking).

Teak has made herself right at home!

Nice homes along the shore.

Swoons

How would you like to walk these stairs?

Too much current coming in for me to hang on so Josh took over.

Flight Lock (Two locks together)  You go into one, they fill it and open it, you move to the next one and they close it, fill it then open it.

 

This is something you do not see in the states anymore.

Saturday, May 26th - Campbellford

The morning started off with a walk over the bridge to the Farmer's Market.  Very small market with not many items for cruisers.  Off to the Chocolate Factory Outlet Store we went!  No tours, just a store and... yes, we bought some chocolate.  Yummy!!!!!  It was a nice morning walk.

The squirrels here are a black color.

Two more boats came in last night.

The Chocolate Factory Outlet Store

We were told that the Chocolate Factory Outlet Store used to own this factory and give tours but they sold it to this company and no tours now allowed.

I wanted to go to the local suspension bridge but no one would do the 3.5 mile walk with me so I decided to go alone.  I had a great walk!

Look closely!  Yes it is a Full Service Station.

Ranney Gorge Suspension Bridge

This is to prove that I did it!

 

After lunch, I started working on updating our blog.  Uploading all my photos takes time using free WiFi.  Nothing more for us to do here so we decided to head to our next lock and stay on the wall so we can go through first thing in the morning. 

As we were leaving the boat to go to the grocery store I saw a guy swimming towards our boat.  He asked if he could use our stern ladder to climb out.  He was on the other side of the river and saw a squirrel in the water and jumped in to save it.  Yes, he was bitten by the squirrel. The town only had ladders on the side of the river that he jumped in on.

After we got back from the store it looked like a storm was heading our way.  Our plan to move on to the wall did not work!  The rain decided to come and it poured!  Two other boaters came through the locks and tied up during the rain.  We have three boats now heading to the locks tomorrow.