Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Hastings, Ontario

We awoke to a beautifully  quiet and calm anchorage by the Hagues Reach lock wall on Monday, June 30. 



We  were very glad we stayed here after the hectic day of locking we had the day before.  Jonny went for a bike ride first thing in the morning.  He rode into Campbellford and brought back butter tarts from Dooher’s, the highly regarded bakeery there. Butter tarts are a big thing in this neck of the woods and now we can see why.  They are delectable little sugary pies with a delicious flaky crust and a filling that is somethin like what you would find in a pecan pie.  Most of them are plain but some have raisins or pecans. Yum!

We went through our first two locks of the day right after we left our lock wall.  The first of them was one of the tallest we’ve seen and the design (really water stains)  looked like a huge piece of modern art!



Locks 11 and 12 are at Ramey Falls.  We tied up ther to explore huge suspension (pedestrians only) bridge that spans the river there. It was quite impressive!  





There was a lot of construction next to it because they are building a new dam there. 



We arrived in Campbellford, a slightly larger town than most in the area and worth exploring. When we tied up at the town dock we saw Laurie and Bob from Miss Behavin who we had gone through locks with the day before.  They had stayed over at the lock wall. We were glad we hadn’t, our location was so much nicer.  







Walking over to the bakery, we bought more butter tarts and one of their famous salted caramel doughnuts (there was a line when we arrived)!  Everything was delicious and we assuaged our guilt in buying more tarts by deciding to freeze some of them.



Resuming our cruise, we went through two more locks.  The lock tenders take pride in the flower gardens they nurture on their grounds.



It started to sprinkle as we were in lock 14.  Lynn tied up her line and scurried through the boat to get rain jackets and close the windows.  As soon as we left the lock it started to rain harder until it was pouring buckets as we were making our way across a wide open lake.  We were under quite a storm and one that had not been forecasted at all!  As we arrived at lock 15, it started to let up.  The lock tender came out to tell us that we would have to wait for her to run the lock for two cycles in order to empty it of the deluge of water that the rain produced!  So we hunkered down for a 30 minute wait.

So we continued on our way going through three more locks (a total of eight for the day).  We arrived at the town of Hastings at 5:30 and stayed at the lock wall right behind Change of Pace with Terri and Jeff. After chatting with them for awhile we wandered into town for the fish and chips that was recommended by several of the lock tenders.  The town was pretty good sized but nowhere near as attractive as Campbellford.

Jonny was nursing his knee because he had slipped and twisted it on the aft deck ladder while we were in one of the locks.  We took it easy that evening icing his knee and pumping him full of ibuprofen to try to prevent it from swelling.

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