A "light" day at the locks

By Denise Janus

Today is what we jokingly call a ‘light’ day, because we only have to paddle 20 miles.  We went through locks six and five, barely by the seat of our pants.  After researching it we thought the rest of the locks were open from 7 a.m. to 3:40 p.m., but we could not find anyone at lock six and the posted hours were 12:30 p.m. until 8 p.m.  Luckily someone came and got someone to operate the lock for us -- whew!  They alerted lock five about us and we went through that one with ease.  Along the river, we saw a  rope hanging over the water. It seemed to be begging us to swing from it, which we were more than happy to oblige. After about an hour there, we finished up the day and canoed to the Taratum bridge and took out.  We got back to the hotel, swam some more, then went to eat in Pittsburgh.  We’re all really excited because tomorrow is our last paddling day! Woo hoo!  After dinner we went to bed for a really long day tomorrow!