Ontario Travel: Discoveries in and around Peterborough

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• published: 01 Nov 2010
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My last day in Peterborough, August 6, 2010, had arrived and I relocated to the Beacon by the Bay B&B;, housed in a 100 year old stately home right next to Little Lake in Peterborough. After saying hello to the owners and dropping off my luggage, I embarked on the athletic portion of my Peterborough trip: a day long excursion by bike and by kayak. Lloyd Graham from Pedal & Paddle, whose company rents bicycles, kayaks and more recently a pedal boat, and his partner Clare took me on a guided bicycle ride from Peterborough to Lakefield. We started with the historic neighbourhoods around Little Lake, stopped at the old Peterborough Mattress Factory (which is now being turned into apartments), checked out the history of the Rotary Greenway Trail, rode through the riverside Campus of Trent University, searched for the Promise Rock (a former Scout Camp), stopped to admire water turtles in some of the marshes along the way and finally arrived in the picturesque village of Lakefield. After an informative stop at the Lakefield Station Book Shop, housed in the original Lakefield train station from 1881, we cycled by the waterfront and back downtown where we had a tasty and filling lunch at the Nutshell Next Door. Then it was back south again to Trent University where in the mid-afternoon we switched from pedaling to paddling. All three of us headed off in single-seater kayaks, although I have to admit that Lloyd and Clare did significantly better than me with the paddling. But I got the hang of it after a while, and enjoyed the gorgeous water landscapes that opened up in front of us. We even made it across the famous Peterborough Hydraulic Lift Lock in a kayak! I didn't know that that was even possible! After a brief but much needed rest at the Beacon by the Bay B&B; 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 eatery and indicated it is housed in a historic building and even features an original mosaic from the 1800s in the entranceway. Finally, my last evening adventure 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 Locks around 11 pm, said to be one of Peterborough's most haunted places.