Wed June 29: St Ours Wall to Chambly Lock #3 Wall

A long, but not hard, day from St Ours to Chambly.  A lot of sun & wind, and a strong current running against us, down to the St Lawrence.

Part way along we began to get close to the mountain (Mont in French, don't you know) we had been able to see from Montreal, Mont-Saint-Hilaire.   Just on the other side is an area we biked when we did the Eastern Townships of Quebec Tour with Discovery Bikes.  See how it's all just coming full circle! 

Quebec, being very Catholic, has kindly sprinkled a large number of Disney-ish spires around the countryside, to make for great picture taking.

 

Upon arrival at Chambly Lock #1, we followed the instructions and pulled up to the blue dock to await park staff. It's a 'flight' of three locks - you can see in the distance two sets of green canopies.  Each of those is a separate lock - #2 & #3.  Each of the three will lift us 10' up.

Cool Hand Luke greeted us - the park staff was made of ADORABLE and capable, young people.  Mostly women.  You can see her 'gear belt' consists of a coin purse, a tablet and a credit card charger, rather then a taser, gun, baton and pepper spray.  We immediately bonded over the fact that all female clothing needs to have pockets.  I love Canada.

From the top we look back down - now we are higher then little Chambly Lake.

This entire series of 9 locks is operated by hand, using the original equipment (all the locks are historical parks).  The park staff not only got us tied up properly in the locks (handing us the cleanest lines we have ever seen), but opened/closed the locks and adjusted the incoming water levels by hand.

INCLUDING hand cranking open the bridge at the top, so that we could pass through and onto our wall.

Bridge open...I don't know why, but it really tickles me to see a piece of road moved perpendicular for little old us.

We tied and prepared to enjoy the peace and quiet.  No hull slap, no Cirque du Soliel/bar music, no noisy roads.  Ahhhhh..

We are just across from Montreal - we could bike there in 3 hours, but it took us 2 days to get here.

After a lovely rainstorm, predicted by Mr Weather, we ventured out to see the sun set over the Chambly Basin (the little lake right before the locks).  Wow.  The steeple again adding drama.

I think we will stay an extra day!