Days 100 & 101...Merrickville to Burritts Rapids Lock, Ontario

SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JULY 7 & 8, 2012

     It rained a lot last night and this morning.  I walked around town a little before we left but didn't see anything that was open.  When we started out at 8:20 a.m., it was pretty cloudy.

     When we moored yesterday, we were going in the wrong direction.  To get us going in the right direction, we just turned the boat using the lines and not the motor.

     We passed under the railroad bridge.  The stone supports were interesting.

     I know I've already shown you loons and talked about them, but I can't pass up showing you two of them together.  Don't forget to enlarge any of the pictures if you want more detail.

     We went through our first lock of the day.  Clowes Lock (Lock 20, down 7 feet) is the first of three locks that work together.  If you start through one, you must go through the other two.

      The next two locks worked in conjunction with a swing bridge.  Upper Nicholsons (Lock 19, down 8 feet) and Lower Nicholsons (Lock 18, down 6 feet) were almost identical.  You couldn't tell the lock houses apart.  Darryl at the second lock assured us that since our mast was down, we would fit under the next bridge.  We took his word for it and kept going.

     We went through a fairly narrow cut on our way to the bridge.

     As we approached the Burritts Rapids Swing Bridge (10 feet), we reduced speed in case we did hit.  Darryl was right.  We had no trouble at all.

     We reached the wall at Burritts Rapids after traveling 6 miles in a little over one hour.  We have traveled a total of 1818 miles.

SUNDAY, JULY 8, 2012

     Across the street is Lock 17 Bistro.  It is a combination restaurant, laundromat and pay showers.  We made use of the restaurant and laundromat but not the pay showers.  Too much money for too little water.  It was a busy restaurant since it seemed to be the only place to eat for miles around.  

     Gary watched part of the car race on one of their TVs, but we left before the karaoke started.  Karaoke is not our thing.

     There were a bunch of men and women in canoes that set up their tents beside the lock.  They were very self-sufficient.  We told them we were glad they were going the opposite way or they’d probably pass us.