While not every summer business is closed yet, those that are still open are open only on weekends. Some will finally close by the end of September and the rest will celebrate their ‘last summer’ day on Columbus Day.
The traffic has fallen off quite a bit, even on this weekend. The beaches are empty during the week (though still open). The number of boats out on the lake are not what we’ve been seeing, meaning it’s mostly we locals plying the waters. Boats are already being pulled from the water and prepped for winter storage, with most of them belonging to summerfolk. Summer cottages and camps are being closed up. In a few more weeks our restaurants and pubs will see few folks ‘from away’ and it will be mostly we locals at the tables and counters. (We tend to shy away from our favorite eateries during the summer, letting the summerfolk spend their money and fill the coffers of those eateries. Or at least that’s what we tell ourselves.)
We’ll start to see the Leaf Peepers arrive towards the end of the month, the folks from away (in some cases from overseas) coming to enjoy the fall foliage. There won’t be the number of those folks here that we see during summer, a small blessing.
The leaves start changing here around the last week of September/first week of October at the earliest, but folks will be staying here and traveling up to the North Woods and North Country to view the fall colors until they appear here. (It’s one reason the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout doesn’t get pulled out of the water until after Columbus Day – the fall colors seen from the lake can look spectacular.)
Regardless, my summer really doesn’t end until my boat is out of the water.