I had a bit of a tough time letting go of summer this year. It just didn't feel long enough. I'm not sure why 
that is, given that I took more chunks of time off than any other summer of my adult life. Let's recap: in July, I went to Superior, to Isle Royale, for a week. In early August, I went back to Superior, to LSPP, for another week. And *then* I ran away to Central America for two weeks. That's four weeks of outdoor activity! That takes some clever working late for a while to build up enough brownie points / accomplishments to get away with it (that, and combining every long weekend of the summer with a trip!)
But still, I didn't feel like I got *enough*. I can only assume this is because I had no classic Georgian Bay trips. I consider it a "classic" if it's sunny, I am barefoot most of the time, and I go swimming more than twice a day. Georgian Bay in July and August, really - and during that time I was either on the big cold lake (which was no longer cold by the LSPP trip, but not exactly Georgian 
Bay temperature either) or the tropics (where it was just hot). Furthermore, the last few years have misled me into believing that September is like summer without the hot nights and with fewer bugs - as in, September is the best time. Crisp nights, warm water, tomato harvest... easy to let that be my favourite month (assuming one ignores the reality that it is also one of my more stressful work months, an inevitability of working in a university setting).
Sarka and I had precisely two days for a quick trip: by September, you no longer have enough daylight on a Friday to drive up to the Bay after work, launch, and paddle somewhere. Thus, the weekend after labour day, we decided to drive up really early on Saturday and have one night out. Sarka had a particular spot in Massassauga in mind, and it was a 20 km or so paddle from our put-in at 12 Mile Bay, so we had to get moving early in order to have enough time for those other end of summer rituals like swimming one more time.
We hadn't really counted on a fierce headwind for most of our stretch, but that didn't stop the wind. Sarka, however, has recently become a much faster paddler, so I was shamed into not whining about the wind and just paddling. And what do you know, we made it to the intended site in record time. Unfortunately, once there we were greeted by an entire bag of garbage, considerately collected and placed on the picnic table. It looked like it dated from the long weekend before, some of the people who took that boating magazine's advice to only use disposable everything. We left for another good site Sarka knew. And by the time we got there, I was anxious to use the last of the warm sun for that end of summer swim. But eek! The entire little bay that the campsite was on was filled with big "cruiser" boats (please note, this was a bay designated as no overnight anchoring by the park, and there was an overnighting bay just around the point...)
We stayed anyway. But wow. No fewer than ten boats within shouting distance, and they buzzed among them with their little zodiacs. Even worse - and we didn't realize this until after dark - they had taken over the campsite directly across from us and installed spotlights in the trees! They had a generator and everything! Our little campfire seemed like a birthday candle in comparison (we simply turned so we were facing north and 
wouldn't see the boats).
In the morning, the generators on several of the big boats were going. The one right in front of our site spent half an hour emptying bilge water into the Bay. I had little fantasies of a snorkel and an auger. Hey, I'm all for multiple users and let's all get along, but I draw the line at deliberately ignoring designated non-motorized use and going against even my silly magazine's low-bar environmental guidelines. It's pretty difficult to find *any* place on the Bay to get away from motorboats, about the only place where it should be assured that I know is in within designated park waters. Grrrrr.
Other than that, though, it was a lovely trip. We got ourselves very disoriented on the way back, but that means we pulled out on some anonymous rock and Sarka discovered a cranberry bog and the berries were almost ripe. That was truly cool. But in a way, the trip felt like it had the worst of summer (the motorboats always in our faces) without the best of summer (I swam, but it was out of sheer determination, not because it was warm enough).
How can I already be longing for summer on the Bay when it's only October now?