Saturday, July 20, 2019
We departed Hastings Village Marina at 9:45am for our 38-mile trip to Peterborough. There was only one lock today, within our first mile, so the day’s vertical change was only 8 feet. The first 6 miles of the journey continued along the Trent River, then we entered the 20-mile long Rice Lake. The lake is very shallow in places, so it was important to pay close attention to the navigation aids (channel markers). We traveled 13 miles on Rice Lake before turning onto the Otonabee River to continue our Trent Severn Waterway voyage.
The sun was out all day and it got extremely hot. Warnings had been issued by the local weather service predicting the heat index could reach 104-114F. In Canada they use the term “humidex” which Sue decided she likes better than “heat index,” and their temps are always in celsius, so during the day we saw humidex warnings that varied from 40 – 45C! While Bo was loving the calm water, he was not very happy with the temperature situation in the flybridge.
Our journey took us past the usual assortment of summer homes and cottages on the shoreline with a few sightings on small islands. The numerous cottages limited our speed to 6 mph to minimize our wake, so it also slowed our progress. The area was becoming more rural with farm fields and even some cattle enjoying a swim in the river (see photo). A few miles later we came across a couple paddle boarders. While it is not unusual to see canoes and kayakers on the river, it was a surprise to see two people on paddle boards this far away from any towns or locks. As we got closer, we could see that the woman had one large dog on her board, and the man had two large dogs on his board (see photos). I can’t even image trying this with Bo.
Docking options in Peterborough were limited due to a music festival happening over the weekend. We ended up tied to a wall next to a riverfront restaurant behind a Holiday Inn. The dockmaster assured us that the restaurant would close by 9pm. The good news was it made for an easy decision on where to eat that evening. The bad news was we would not have any electrical power to run our AC and we would have people walking by our windows during the day (causing Bo to bark at every new voice or movement). We could have turned on our generator to power our AC, but that have subjected the restaurant patrons on the outdoor patio to the generator noise and exhaust fumes. Instead, we took a couple walks around town, had dinner and then fired up the generator to cool off after the restaurant closed. We needed a good night’s rest to be ready for the famous Peterborough Lift Lock in the morning.