Tuesday - Thursday, July 16-18, 2019

Campbellford, ON, City Wall

The night at Percy Reach, lock 8, was so quiet it was almost eerie! No traffic noises, no motors of any kind anywhere, no planes, not even much bug chatter! Just a silent, dark night. Then it became another bright, sunny morning, and it was warming up quickly.

We had previously planned to stop at Campbellford, which is after lock 12, for our second day on the TSW. Yesterday, the lock-hand who told us lock 6 was full at 1pm also mentioned that most lock walls at popular stops are full by noon, so don’t wait too long to grab a spot. So, even though we’d already done two of the locks planned for today’s travels, we decided we’d stick to our plan and stop at Campbellford, which happens to be a popular stop.

So off we went beginning our five-mile day through four locks while gaining 88 vertical feet. On the way we encountered a new type of locks called tandem locks. These locks have 2 lock chambers but only 3 sets of gates because they share the middle gates. The Ranney Falls Flight, locks 11 & 12, were set up this way. The middle set of gates is used as the top gate for one lock and the lower gate for the next lock… imagine the following (if you’d like):

Order of components:

Gate 1 (G1), lock chamber 11 (L11), Gate 2 (G2), lock chamber 12 (L12), Gate 3 (G3)

- G1 is open, G2 & G3 are closed

- L11 water level is at the bottom (we’ll call it 0 ft)

- L12 water level is at the top (48 ft)

- Boat goes into L11 and G1 closes (now all gates are closed)

- L12 pipes 24 ft of water down into L11 to bring it up 24 ft, so the water level in L11 = L12.

- G2 opens, boat moves into L12, G2 closes.

- L12 fills with water to 48 feet to make it the same as the next section of the channel

- G3 opens and the boat moves on its merry way!  

Done with our fun tandem lock imagination session!

The Campbellford municipal “marina” consists of the walls along the river as it runs through downtown. Power and water hook-ups are provided at these walls. We chose to tie up on our starboard side since the other side, close to the office, was almost full.  Most people stay here for three days because Campbellford has all the conveniences (showers, bathrooms, power, water, restaurants and groceries) within walking distance. Also, if you stay two nights, your third night is free, so we signed up for three nights.

Campbellford’s claim to fame is that a local artist, Brent Townsend, designed the polar bear side of the toonie. What is a toonie? It is the Canadian $2 coin. The $1 coin is called a loonie, due to the loon engraving that appears on one side. (Both have Queen Elizabeth II on the other side.) The lowest value bill (vs coin) in Canada is the $5 bill.

Aside from learning the local currency info, we tried a couple of Canadians’ favorite dishes:

1. Butter tarts! These vary by the bakery, but the ones we had from the hometown bakery, Dooher’s, were exceptional in every way – the crust, yummm, and the filling , mmm, mmm excellent! Butter tarts from the grocery store varied quite a bit, from just OK to very good! Sometimes you can get them with raisins or pecans or other nuts or even chocolate chips… Sue liked the pecan butter tarts best!

2. Poutine, also varies by the chef, but in general it is French fries with cheese curds, all covered with brown gravy. That is classic poutine, then there are many varieties with additional ingredients of every sort. We tried the classic poutine and both thought it was OK, but would not go out of our way to get it again – and it is in every restaurant! Whenever you order a meal that comes with fries, you are asked if you’d like gravy with it. Gravy seems to be the ketchup of Canada!

The Canadian Weather Service’s heat warning began with our stay in Campbellford, though it was only up to 38C (100F). We didn’t let that stop us from walking to the Beer Store! Ontario only sells alcoholic beverages at government run stores: the Beer Store (sells only beer, with a multitude of choices!) or the LCBO stores (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) which sell all varieties of liquor, wine and some beer. The beer store had a section for returns (each can/bottle that you purchase includes a small deposit that you can get back when returning them), an interactive display screen to check types of beer in stock, and the person who takes your order and brings it out of the warehouse to you and of course takes your money. Most of the beer is sold in what we’d call pint cans: 473ml. In fact, even some of the US beers came like that!

During our stay, we walked around town, had some ice cream after dinner, and listened from the flybridge to a band in the park across the channel one evening. The World’s Finest Chocolate (WFC) has an outlet in town too. If you’ve ever bought those fund raising chocolate bars – Campbellford is where they used to be made. Now they’re made in Chicago (and they aren’t as good as they used to be, according to locals), but outlet stores still exist throughout Ontario. The WFC outlet was only a block past the Beer Store, so it required a visit. (Yes, Sue bought some!) Other than our typical laundry, cleaning, groceries, etc, Brian got the dinghy down from the roof of the sundeck to do a final (hopefully) moustache removal from the bow of the boat. (The only way to clean the hull near the waterline is from a dinghy, or some other acceptable means of floatation.) Fingers crossed that any more mud & minerals in the water will not stain our bow again!