Ontario Travel – Peterborough:
Exploring Lakefield by Bicycle, Kayaking on the
Otonabee River, Dinner at Kubo Lounge and a Ghost
Walk of Peterborough
Accompanied by outdoor adventure experts Lloyd
Graham and his friend Clare from Pedal and Paddle,
I had spent the morning exploring Peterborough
by bicycle. Then we had left the city behind
and cycled northwards on the Rotary Greenway Trail
to Lakefield, a pretty lake-side village about 16
kilometers north of the city. Lakefield is most
well known for Lakefield College, a private boarding
school whose most famous pupil was Prince Andrew
who went to school here in the 1970s.
Downtown Lakefield, a very picturesque waterfront
village
To continue with the historic theme Lloyd took
me to the old train station in Lakefield which has
not seen any active railway travel for several decades.
Today, the 1881 train station houses the Lakefield
Station Book Shop, owned by David Glover, a real
enthusiast of old, rare and hard-to-find books.
David explained that the front area of the book
shop is the former waiting area of the railway station.
The Grand Trunk Railway equipped many of its rural
stations with Douglas fir paneling that had been
brought in from Western Canada. The original ticket
window is still there although it is now equipped
with a glass painting done by a local artist during
the 1980s when the train station was an art gallery.
David Glover, a rare and used book enthusiast, inside
the old Lakefield Train Station
Then we made a brief stop in the harbour of Lakefield,
where the trains would arrive with their Victorian-era
travelers, ready to transfer them on to steamboats
that would take them further north to Clear and
Stony Lake. These were the earliest days of cottage
country vacations. We continued to cycle past nice
waterfront homes into Lakefield and stopped at the
house of Margaret Laurence, a Canadian novelist
and short story writer whose most famous works include
The Stone Angel and The Diviners. Diagnosed with
untreatable lung cancer in 1986, Laurence took her
own life at her home at 8 Regent Street in Lakefield
the following year. By the end of her career, she
had become one of Canada’s most esteemed and
beloved authors.
The house of famous Canadian novelist Margaret Laurence
We had now pedaled for quite a while and were starting
to get hungry, so we cycled into the downtown area
of Lakefield and stopped at a popular local restaurant
called the Nuttshell Next Door which offers great
soups and sandwiches. My hearty broccoli and cheese
soup and veggie sandwich were able to restore my
strength for more bicycling. But now the sky was
turning dark grey and the rain was threatening,
so we hopped back on our bikes to get back to Peterborough.
Fortunately, about half-way into our 16 km ride
back, the sky cleared up and the sun returned, just
in time for our paddling adventure.
My delicious soup-and-sandwich combo strenghtened
me
Just a bit south of Trent University we got off
our bikes, and took three kayaks off Lloyd’s
truck which he had parked there earlier. The bicycles
went back on the truck and were securely locked
while we put our kayaks in the water. Lloyd and
his partner Clare are extremely experienced kayakers
while I on the other hand had only kayaked once
in my life, in a “whitewater kayaking”
experience on the turbulent Ottawa River that had
scared the living daylights out of me. Needless
to say, I chose to go mountain biking on my second
day of “kayaking” during this fear-inducing
weekend in 2005.
Lloyd gets the kayaks ready
Today’s experience promised to be much calmer
as we were going to paddle downstream the Trent
Canal and I was glad there was not a hint of whitewater
to be seen. I enjoyed paddling in the sunshine although
my experienced guides had to be a bit patient with
me. The paddling actually aggravated a shoulder
injury that I had acquired playing tennis, so as
time went on the paddling became rather painful,
but the serene nature environment on the Trent Canal
was still a beautiful experience.
Clare is a very experienced paddler; me not so much
The highlight of our kayaking experience was going
over the Peterborough Lift Lock, lock 21 on the
Trent-Severn Waterway. I had just gone over the
lock the day before on a sightseeing
cruise with the Lift Lock Cruise Company, but
I had no idea that one could actually go through
the lock on a kayak. I was really getting excited
to see what it would be like to traverse the world’s
highest hydraulic lift lock with a height of almost
20 meters (65 feet) on a kayak. To be certain, going
over the lock in a small kayak felt entirely different
than going over it in large sightseeing boat. I
would certainly recommend that anyone with a fear
of heights stay towards the back of the basin so
they do not have to witness the 20 meter (actually
very gradual) drop that takes about 4 minutes.
We are sitting inside the top basin of the Lift
Lock, waiting to get lowered 20 metres
Once back on the lower level I continued paddling
to Lock 20 which is a regular manually operated
lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway. We had to wait
until the water level had equalized and then paddled
out into Little Lake. My tennis injury was really
bothering me by now, making every shoulder rotation
rather painful, so I asked if there was any option
for me to stop my paddling a bit earlier. We only
had about 20 minutes of paddling left, and I would
have loved to continue but I figured it was better
to stop before I really wrecked something.
Nice view of paddlers on Little Lake
My expert guides Lloyd and Clare were very accommodating
and took me right around the corner to Rogers Cove,
a picturesque park, where I rested until Lloyd came
to pick me and the kayak up in his truck less than
half an hour later. I was really disappointed that
I could not finish my paddling adventure, but I
figured it was a bit safer to give my shoulder a
rest, especially since we had tennis playoffs coming
up.
A pleasant view of Millenium Park
But despite me wimping out, my bicycling and kayaking
experience had been awesome. I had seen some beautiful
neighbourhoods and parks in Peterborough, got introduced
to the picturesque village of Lakefield and enjoyed
the serene surroundings of the Trent Canal. I thanked
Lloyd for all his expert input and his patience
with this rookie paddler. Then I picked up my car
again and drove back to the Beacon by the Bay Bed
and Breakfast where I rested for a couple of hours.
My nice restful bedroom at the Beacon by the Bay
B&B
In the evening I headed out for dinner and dropped
into Kubo Lounge, a cool recently opened restaurant
right downtown on George Street. Owner Neil Quiano
gave me a tour of his chic and modern eatery and
indicated it is housed in a historic building and
even features an original mosaic from the 1800s
in the entranceway. Neil has more than 15 years
of hospitality experience now, which started when
he opened Cosmic Charlie’s Café, a
popular Thai restaurant..
Owner Neil Quiano in his chic eatery, Kubo Lounge
The cuisine at Kubo Lounge includes a mix of unique
mostly Asian dishes. I enjoyed my Artichoke, Feta
and Olives Tapenade, followed by Shanghai Spring
Rolls with Lean Pork and Vegetables, looking out
onto the comings and goings of Peterborough’s
main street from my nice window seat at the front
of Kubo Lounge.
My eclectic Asian-inspired dinner
Finally, my last evening in Peterborough included
a Ghost Walk in the historic Ashburnham district
of Peterborough. Our guide from the Trent Valley
Archives shared many ghost stories with us, about
the fatal 1916 explosion in the Quaker Oats Plant
and about many other haunted sites among the stately
mansions of Ashburnham. We even visited the Peterborough
Lift Lock around 11 pm, said to be one of Peterborough’s
most haunted places.
Our knowledgeable guide from the Trent Valley Archives
takes us on the Ghost Walk
It was close to midnight when we finished and I
had learned so much about Peterborough’s early
history and the trials and tribulations of many
of its prominent families. I fell into my comfy
bed at the Beacon
by the Bay B&B, looking forward to meeting
the owners tomorrow before heading back to Toronto.
The Peterborough Lift Lock, one of the city's most
haunted places
