After a quiet night on a sketchy dock it was time to move on to Merrickville hoping to get a spot on the wall above the lock. Our first lock was about 4 miles down the river. The weather was beautiful and the countryside was covered with old farm houses and teenagers traveling on kayaks as part of a summer camp program. They would paddle all day and camp at night with a goal of about 100 miles. They would either portage around the locks or join us for a free ride up the lock. We were Running with “Bone Voyage” for the day. The locks were old school style with the operators turning mechanical wheels to open and close the locks and valves. Among these duties the lock operators handled the maintenance of the property around the lock to include painting and groundskeeping.
We arrived at the Merrickville Lock by noon but there was not any room on the lower or upper wall but we were directed to a spot on the north side of the dam and tied up for the night. We walked to the downtown area and had a great lunch at The Goose and Gridiron Restaurant, a cool old school place from 1856. The town was small loaded with lots of antique shops. We had docktails along the south wall with several loopers until a freak storm blue through and made everyone scatter. On the way back to the boat there was a loose boat heading to the dam that had dragged it’s anchor with the high winds. I and several other boaters lassoed the boat and secured it for the owner. It was a miracle that it floated between all the moored boats without touching one.
After all the excitement it was off to the boat for a good night’s sleep.