After a peaceful night on the Campbellford wall, we left early so we could be the first through the next lock. We ended up at the lock behind a boat that was single-handing (going by himself) the Loop for the second time. We went through a few locks with him throughout the day.

It was a long day of cruising from Campbellford to Peterborough, with seven locks along the way. We would have loved to stop at so many of the cute little towns along the way, but the timing didn’t work out for us.

The lock just before Peterborough is different from the rest–it’s the original limestone walls, and they angle out from the bottom. This made for a slight challenge to reach the cables around which we hook our lines. It was nothing our boat hook couldn’t handle, and the lock tenders are always willing to help. This lock was probably the smallest one we have been through, so far.

Also significant about this lock is that the locktender told us what we should do in Peterborough. He insisted we should try poutine, and we should try poutine at The Whistle Stop Cafe.

We arrived in Peterborough to find a giant fountain geysering in the bay. Initially, we thought it was a firefighter arch thing and we thought we were intruding on some kind of celebration. Or maybe we were the celebration? No, that wasn’t it.

We pulled into the fuel dock for some diesel. The fountain, we were told, was in large part a gift from GE, which formerly had a large plant in Peterborough. The gift was in honor of the city’s bicentennial. The dock hand told us it was the largest of its kind, and we believe it because we’ve never seen anything like it.

There’s something nice about fueling up when you can’t immediately do the calculations in your head. Diesel is sold in liters in Canada, and in Canadian dollars, of course. And we knew we needed about 100 gallons. Fuel was $2.56 a liter, I think, and boy did those numbers spin. We were a tiny bit appalled when the machine timed out because we had met the pump’s maximum amount. But they just write that number down and get the numbers spinning again. We just tried to put out of our minds the calculation from liters to gallons to dollars. We learned the final number when we received the alert from our credit card that the amount had been charged. Oof.

We were given a slip at the end of a T-dock on a gated dock. Peterborough has a nice marina, and we were glad to be there. It’s right in town, and there’s a lot to see and do.

Since my very first Looper Lifestyle event, I have been looking forward to going through the Peterborough Lift Lock. It’s Lock 21, and it’s the most famous lock on the Trent Severn. I remember the first time I saw pictures of it, and I searched YouTube for videos of it in action. What a beautiful piece
of engineering this lock is! I showed a video of the lock to my dad, who said, “I want to see that!”

When we go through a lock, there’s usually very little time to stop and look around. We are usually manning the lines and keeping the boat still against the lock wall and away from other boats in the lock. And in the Peterborough lock, we would be sprinted right up 65′ in under two minutes! So, it was important to us to try to go over to the lock and check it out beforehand to fully take it in.

We walked about 1.7 miles from the marina to the lock. It was closed when we arrived, but like all locks on the system, we could just walk right up to it and check it out. There was a small family there and one man who was using the lock’s stairs to prepare for a hike in British Columbia he was planning to do in
the fall. He stopped to share some of the history of the lock with us.

We took a lot of photos, starting at the bottom of the lock, walking up many stairs to the midpoint, and then walking all the way to the top. We tried to imagine what it was like for the workers who built the lock and wondered what they would think of the town that had built up around it. Owen kindly gave me a few moments to miss my dad, who didn’t get the opportunity to see us go through the lock.

When we were finished, we walked back into town to go to that Whistle Stop Cafe the lock tender had told us about. We walked in the door and were greeted by a giant menu with over 100 versions of poutine! What?! The server was thrilled to explain poutine to us rubes. She was aghast that we didn’t know what peameal is. Owen ended up ordering a peameal poutine, and I ordered a chicken thai chili version. The server seemed disappointed that I wanted to try just the classic poutine to get the original experience, so I bumped it up a notch.

Oh boy.

We both ordered small meals, and we were full by the time we finished. They also had butter tarts, so we bought a few different flavors to take home. These were made with shortbread instead of a flakier crust, and they were so good!

We rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and took a meandering walk back to the boat. We strolled through their Millennial Park, where we learned that Peterborough was named for Peter Robinson. No relation, we think. We were surprised at the number of homeless people we saw and evidence of drugs in the area. We never felt unsafe, but we did see a dog-walking woman who seemed initially frightened of a homeless man who confronted her as she walked by. He ended up just offering a friendly greeting and small talk.

This was around 8 pm, and we were walking through a park, not on the main street. Both were busy with people, so we were not afraid. The downtown area is really cute, and it would have been nice to see it open during the day. That wasn’t in the plans for us this time, but Peterborough is a town I’d like to
explore more.

We went to bed excited for the next day: the day we’d take the boat through the Peterborough Lift Lock!