My dad isn't lazy, but it's fair to say he takes leisure seriously. And slowly. To him, driving a motor boat (with a perfectly good motor) through a no-wake zone is relaxing. I, on the other hand, go white-knuckled if I have to drive a boat (with a perfectly good motor) at speeds too slow to pull a skier. Still, when he suggested we take a lazy ride on the Muskingum River, I agreed. After all, it's his boat. I threw in the skis, just in case.
We began our journey in Zanesville, just over the famous Y-Bridge, not far from the home of legendary writer Zane Grey. (As an aside, Zane named himself after the town, not the other way around.) The Y-Bridge itself is worthy of a stop. Rebuilt in 1984, the unique and serviceable structure sits in the center of downtown Zanesville.
The banks of the Muskingum are invitingly underdeveloped. We pulled into a nondescript park entrance across from Tandem Locks. (There are two locks together here, hence the descriptive if not imaginative name.)
There's no speed limit and no size limit for boat motors on the Muskingum (I mentioned this to Dad more than once), so water-skiers and other speed demons zoom along the stretches between the locks and their dams. But oh, those pesky dams.
They really slow things down.
To avoid going over the falls (and that's too exciting even for me), you have to watch for the orange buoys that signal the entrance to each of the old locks. Maneuvering into a lock takes time. Often, you'll wait for several other boats to join you. That takes more time. Eventually, the lockkeeper closes the gate. Manually. And there you wait, literally locked in a box, which will take you (slowly) to the proper water level. Like a time-machine, it takes you back a few years in the process. There's something oddly comforting, something almost soothing in the process of having yourself raised or lowered ten or twenty feet in one of these locks.
You can't do a thing to speed up the process.
Neither, it seems, can the lockkeeper. He turns and turns and turns the wheel, which grinds the gate closed, which releases the water, and then he walks (usually slowly) back to the other gate, cranks it open, and finally releases you with an unhurried nod or wave.
The Muskingum River Parkway stretches through three counties (Muskingum, Morgan and Washington) before the Muskingum River flows into the Ohio. In 2001, the lock system here was recognized as a National Civil Engineering Landmark, just like the Golden Gate Bridge. The original sandstone walls of the locks still stand. There are cracks in the old wooden gates, causing them to leak a bit, but it's part of their charm. Today's cracks seem to allow room for a bit of history to seep through, along with the water. The eleven locks, ten dams, and 5 bypass connector canals that comprise this lock system from Zanesville to Marietta were completed in 1841.
We began our journey in Zanesville, just over the famous Y-Bridge, not far from the home of legendary writer Zane Grey. (As an aside, Zane named himself after the town, not the other way around.) The Y-Bridge itself is worthy of a stop. Rebuilt in 1984, the unique and serviceable structure sits in the center of downtown Zanesville.
The banks of the Muskingum are invitingly underdeveloped. We pulled into a nondescript park entrance across from Tandem Locks. (There are two locks together here, hence the descriptive if not imaginative name.)
There's no speed limit and no size limit for boat motors on the Muskingum (I mentioned this to Dad more than once), so water-skiers and other speed demons zoom along the stretches between the locks and their dams. But oh, those pesky dams.
They really slow things down.
To avoid going over the falls (and that's too exciting even for me), you have to watch for the orange buoys that signal the entrance to each of the old locks. Maneuvering into a lock takes time. Often, you'll wait for several other boats to join you. That takes more time. Eventually, the lockkeeper closes the gate. Manually. And there you wait, literally locked in a box, which will take you (slowly) to the proper water level. Like a time-machine, it takes you back a few years in the process. There's something oddly comforting, something almost soothing in the process of having yourself raised or lowered ten or twenty feet in one of these locks.
You can't do a thing to speed up the process.
Neither, it seems, can the lockkeeper. He turns and turns and turns the wheel, which grinds the gate closed, which releases the water, and then he walks (usually slowly) back to the other gate, cranks it open, and finally releases you with an unhurried nod or wave.
The Muskingum River Parkway stretches through three counties (Muskingum, Morgan and Washington) before the Muskingum River flows into the Ohio. In 2001, the lock system here was recognized as a National Civil Engineering Landmark, just like the Golden Gate Bridge. The original sandstone walls of the locks still stand. There are cracks in the old wooden gates, causing them to leak a bit, but it's part of their charm. Today's cracks seem to allow room for a bit of history to seep through, along with the water. The eleven locks, ten dams, and 5 bypass connector canals that comprise this lock system from Zanesville to Marietta were completed in 1841.
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