We spent a few days in Trenton, Ontario, and enjoyed our first Canada Day! It’s a lot like July 4th, but without the blue. Just the red and white. We went to a town celebration that included a car show, craft fair, petting zoo, speeches from politicians, food, and music. The night ended with fireworks.

During the week, I walked to the first lock on the Trent-Severn to buy our waterway pass. The process was easy peasy and could easily have been done the day we got to the lock on our boat. But the people there were fantastic and fun to talk to, so we chatted for a bit. I also got to watch four boats go through that lock together. It sure looked like a tight squeeze, but it worked just fine.

Owen worked during the week, so we enjoyed our dinners at restaurants including all-you-can-eat sushi, Tomasso’s, and a chicken and rib place. Believe it or not, we managed to avoid ice cream during our stay. We stocked up on groceries at the store we could see from our boat!

By Saturday, it was time for us to head out. We left the marina with one buddy boat, and we picked up another on the way. The three of us went to the first lock and lined up at the blue wall, ready to go. The lockmaster came to the blue line to talk to us, and he asked about the dimensions of our boats. He decided it would be best for us to tie up first, have another boat raft to us, and the third boat would enter the lock behind us.

And that’s how we did it. TWELVE TIMES! That’s the most locks we have done in a day. After the first lock, we had a “we’re the show” exit, but we all got the hang of it pretty quickly and made good time getting into and out of the locks pretty efficiently.

The locks themselves are pretty cool. The first several (almost all?) run the way they did a hundred years ago. The doors are opened when workers manually turn giant cranks to open each door individually. The water flow is driven by hydraulics. The workers were unfailingly kind and friendly.

As we got farther in, a couple of the locks had power doors. Locks 11 and 12 were unique. They are two locks that share a middle door. So the first lock took us up about 24 feet. The doors opened, and we moved right into the second lock to move up another 24ish feet. That middle door was so impressive! In order for it to work, that door had to be at least the 48 feet of the water level change in height. It was spectacular. It was one of those moments I missed my dad so much. He would have been so impressed!

That last lock dumped us out just a mile from Campbellford. From there, it was easy to find a place for ourselves on the city dock. The starboard side of the river has 50 amp power, and the port side of the river has 30 amp power. We decided to use our 30 amp tonight (cheaper!), so we left our 50 amp locking buddies and sat on the opposite sides of the river.

In one of the Looper Rendezvous meetings, we were told to dock by the toonie monument. We scanned the wall for the giant toonie and couldn’t see it from the water. So we docked where there was room (with help from awesome neighbors!), and guess what we immediately saw? We were about 20 yards from the toonie–hidden behind a tree!

We had a quick dinner of pulled pork because we were starving. Then our boat buddies invited us for dinner. Oops. We arrived as they were getting their food, and then we went to an ice cream store for dessert. Our Canadian friend told us that Kawartha ice cream is the way to go. We went. He was right!

As far as city-wall-on-a-river docking goes, it’s pretty peaceful. We’re in a park that seems busy, but calm. The water is beautifully flat, and the bugs are just starting to get annoying as I type this sentence.

It’s been a pretty great day!