The Lock

I mentioned in the previous post that Scott and I went from Lake Monona to Lake Mendota this past weekend in the old fishing boat named Martha.  To do so required that we pass through a lock because Lake Mendota is 5 feet higher than Lake Monona. 

To get to the lock we had to travel down a somewhat lengthy channel.  Well, actually we first had to find the channel.  That took a little time as we putted along the perimeter of Lake Monona looking for it.  And then we saw this light and sign.  We had arrived at the right place.

A permit is required to pass through the lock.  And a $5 fee.  Scott had taken care of this on line the night before, so we were all ready to go.  Down the channel we went.  It was lovely and so peaceful on a Sunday morning.  Birds singing.  Crickets chirping.  Calm, quiet waters.  A place to exhale.

There were jogging/biking paths along the channel and a number of bridges that crossed over it.  We would later learn that we passed underneath 10 bridges on our way down the channel to the lock.

The entire channel is no wake, so it took us a while to motor down it to the lock.  That was OK though.  The slow pace matched the sereneness of the trip.

This is what the lock looked like as we approached it.

We would have to motor into that open area to the right.  They would then close a big metal door and we would sit in there as water poured in and lifted us 5 feet.  In the next shot, we are getting closer...

And closer.....

And then we were in and down the big metal "door" went.  Next shot is looking back towards the direction from which we entered the lock.  You can see the big metal door and one of the bridges we passed under to get to the lock.  And you can see Scott too.  Cute boy.

 
While we waited for the water to raise us up (takes 4 1/2 minutes), this nice fella who was working the lock came out and chatted with us.  He had an appreciation for our "classic" boat and outboard.  (we prefer 'classic' rather than 'old'.  sounds a little sweeter rolling off the tongue.)

Next shot is the big metal door opposite of the one where we entered.  This door would open up and let us out onto Lake Mendota.

And here it goes, opening up...

We're out onto Lake Mendota!  Lake Mendota is the biggest of the 4 main lakes here in Madison.  It's 10,000 acres in size.  That's a big lake.  Downtown Madison is on an isthmus, so you can see the Capitol building from Lake Monona (previously posted a picture from that vantage point), as well as from Lake Mendota (pictured below).  Not sure if you can see it, but there is a big park right along the water.

University of Wisconsin- Madison is situated right along Lake Mendota as well.  It's a nice campus.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of it.

Lake Mendota is a popular spot for sailboats.  This is what Scott and I saw when we first came out of the lock.

Hard to see in that picture, but we counted nearly 30 sailboats out on the water.  We got close to a couple.

We didn't stay out on Lake Mendota too long.  We had already been out for several hours and we were quite a long ways from where we had launched in Lake Waubesa.  We needed to call it an early day because I had to work the next day and Scott resumed classes as Monday was the start of fall semester for him.  We had to wait to go back through the lock.

When the door opened, this big a** boat came out.  Dang. That thing could run us right over in our little old fishing boat.

Back through the lock and back down the channel we went.  This is the view as we were about to exit the channel back out onto Lake Monona.  The whole trip through the channel is so lush.

So, that was our big boating day this past Sunday.  We'll travel through the lock to Lake Mendota again another day when we have more time.  We at least wanted to get the flavor of it.  Now that we know what we're doing, we'll definitely do it again before the boating season is over for this year.