The Last Days of Summer

The telephone has been ringing with folks hoping to squeeze the most they can from the final hours of an Adirondack summer. Some highlights from the past eight days:

Children fall in love with the red eft, the terrestial form of our most common salamander. (In another few years, this tiny guy will turn olive-green and spend all his time swimming in the pond's shallows.)

While bushwhacking to discover all the evidence of a large beaver colony on the shores of a wild Adirondack pond, both adults and children are equally challenged by the "Beaver Trivia Game."

And for couples, there are mountain hikes for those peak romantic moments.

So what makes me happiest as summer winds down? Just watching folks "light up" and come together in their experience of wildlife and wilderness.