The path starts to narrow.

Fall wheels in on swallows wings and croaks of great blue heron. It is still August, but the signs are there. We had paddled in the Connecticut Lakes high in Northern New Hampshire last week while it was still summer. Now we were back in home territory, paddling through a ten-foot high tide at 5:32 p.m. and sniffing the change in the air.
We take the inner route around Hog Island and finally our kayaks are too long to make it around the narrowing twists and turns and we hop out and pull them across the marsh and back into open water on the other side.
The colonial ghosts are still asleep at the Choate house, but a modern family walks up the path to the summit where Richard and Mine Crane, donators of Crane Beach and Castle Hill, are buried overlooking the Castle Neck River. People are zooming around the marsh in motorboats, one jet ski, one sailboat, two kayaks, a family is at the duck hunting shack – the first time in 15 years we’ve seen anyone there.
Everyone is doing last-minute summer water excursions, like cramming for a deadline. But, no worries, lots of good paddling days ahead, as we look forward to September’s second summer. Enjoy!