Disclaimer: Don’t read while hungry 😋

So for the last few days we’ve just been chugging along as far as we can get each day. Wednesday we made it through lock 12 and went to check out a suspension bridge overlooking a small “waterfall” as they refer to it. I would have to challenge the use of the word waterfall, but whatever works for them.

Lock 12 is also the tallest double lock. You go up in one chamber, then immediately into the next and go up again.

We tied up along the wall between lock 12 & 13. In the park next to the wall was a giant Toony.

There was a particular place we were told we should check out first thing in the morning. So Thursday morning we headed to Dooher’s Bakery. We were the first ones there a few minutes before they opened but soon others arrived to wait also. They let us in and O.M.G! They had an abundant selection of the most delicious looking things. We walked out with blueberry and raspberry tarts, a vanilla cream donut sandwich, an apple cheddar muffin, a mini raspberry cheesecake, and fresh baked bagels with cream cheese. They were soooo good!

Apparently Canada is known for their butter tarts but they only sold them in packages of 6 and never having had them before I didn’t want to get that many just in case we didn’t care for them. As we walked back, our neighbor boat Tug Bussle had gotten 2 packages of the butter tarts and let us try one. AMAZEBALLS! I then half regretted not getting some aaaand we weren’t too far away we couldn’t go back. But I thought we’d better eat what we got and hopefully find another bakery along the way to get those later.

After the bakery we went to check out this chocolate outlet, the factory is right next door. They had barrels full of wrapped chocolate and a BOGO sale going on. So I also ended up with 2 1lb bags of mini salted caramel chocolate squares.

We decided we’d better continue on before we got any more treats. We made through lock 18, but the top was very full. We ended up rafting up with another boat for the night. They were from South Carolina and gave us a package of these specialty sesame seed cookies called Benne wafers, which were very tasty and we finished in a day and a half lol. Will definitely have to pick some more up when we pass through SC next Spring. There was a pretty neat fish sculpture we walked to see and had cheesecake for dinner 😄.

Friday we set off early as lock 19 was about 38 miles away. Going an average 6.5 mph that takes a while. We made it there and past to lock 21 at Peterborough. It was the largest hydrologic lift lock. So there are 2 chambers side by side, and instead of yours filling up with water to raise your water level, they add 1 foot of water to the other chamber which then falls and your chamber goes up. More like a scale ⚖️.

We made it to lock 23 and they said there was a pretty big back up at lock 24 so we decided to stay on the wall at 23. A bunch of the other boats we have met along the way were there also and we sat in the picnic area and had lock-tails.

Today we were aiming to stay at lock 30, but again, when we got to lock 28 we heard 30 was full already. Oh and apparently there is no lock 29. There once was, but then they replaced 28 with a larger hydraulic lock eliminating 29. Once we had passed Youngs Point the area became the classic lake side cabin scene. Dense pine wood forest with mini islands dotting the lake. We found a spot off the main channel, tucked between a few mini islands that was quiet and secluded to anchor out. We got there still early in the day so we spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing. It was a nice to just enjoy our surroundings and hang out. A break from just go go go.