Day 148 - On to the Big Town of Peterborough

It was 48 degrees when we got up – brrr!  Fog rose from the land and water but burned off quickly in the bright sunshine.  We worked on the blog, downloading pictures and posting a couple entries.  The internet has been excellent at every port in Ontario; computers, iPad, phones all connect easily and work with good speed.  The US marinas have some catching up to do!

We pushed away at 10:26 am and continued 6 miles up the Trent River to Rice Lake, which is 20 miles long and 3 miles wide.  It is named for the wild rice that grows around the shores.  By now it is in the 60’s, sunny with a few patchy clouds and I have my shorts on.  The winds and water are calm, but as usual, the Captain has to be very mindful of shallow spots.  The “shore scape” is similar to the day before, small cottages and resorts.  The fishermen are out as well as some pontoon boats – a few have camper tops.  What we have not seen are sailboats, really since we left Lake Ontario, except for a few small ones.

Rice Lake is surrounded by Indian history and the Hiawatha have a large preserve here.  Serpent Mound Park has a dock but the water is too shallow for us.  Although the channel is marked to the south side of the lake, between the shore and Margaret Island, Captain Randy went to the north as his charts showed deeper water there.  He also kicked up the speed, slowing for small boats of course.  The lake has many small islands with names like Grasshopper, Cow, Sheep, East Grape and Fig. 

 

At noon we enter the Otonabee River and see more cottages and some farmland.  People were out on their small boats and wave runners.  I saw 3 turtles sunning themselves on a log but was not able to get a very good picture.  We passed Campbelltown, a small river community with some new large homes on the hill.  A small resort and RV park was at the foot of the Bensfort Bridge.  There were some type of "float bikes" at one of the docks.  A narrow winding section of the river followed to Wallace Point, another RV park and boat launch, where I saw a family with the parents in a canoe and the two young children paddling away in their personal kayaks. 

 

We were getting close to Peterborough and saw planes coming into the airport.  Heron were standing close to the shore all along the river.  Telephone Point has 2 marinas, the last stop before Peterborough.  We entered the lock at 2:45 pm and were out by 3:00 pm.  Peterborough Marina is on a small lake close by and we docked at 3:12 pm.  There is a fountain in the center of the lake and there were paddle boarders – the first I have seen in Canada!  Easy Water stopped here too. 

 

Peterborough was named for an Irish settler who led groups of his countrymen, who were escaping from the Potato Famine, to this land.  The marina sits in Del Crary Park, right downtown, next to the Holiday Inn.  We took a walk into the town of 76,000 and found a lot of empty commercial space.  A small enclosed mall has a few clothing and music stores, a fast food court and a bank.  There are few restaurants and we decided to head back to the Holiday Inn’s Riverside Grill where a blues band was scheduled to play.  We ran into Millennium Park adjacent to the river.  It is a park with riverfront trails dedicated to “First Nations”, aboriginal Canadians, mostly of the Ojibwa Tribe. 

 

 

No tables were available at the Riverside Grill, where boats were rafted off to hear the music.  We had pizza on the boat and could hear the band just fine.  We don’t know who they were but frankly, the music was ok at best.  At least there were people around and we didn’t feel so lonely.