end of summer

Most years, we rent a canoe once or twice a summer, or something like summer. Usually we go to Concord. This year was the pandemic, and Arthur has had a frozen shoulder starting in December, so paddling seemed unlikely. But his shoulder has improved a lot, it was at least 70 degrees F, and it was a weekday morning, so we thought it might not be very crowded. I worried when we saw how packed the parking lots were at the national park and near the Alcotts' house, but when we arrived the river had only a few other folks on it. The rental boat house had made a few adjustments for sanitation. We headed off, still masked (this is me we're talking about), even though after we turned off onto the Assabet we were the only people there. We weren't the only creatures, though. We were sort of playing tag (at a slight distance) with a blue heron, who was following the same water route as we were. After most of a year of drought (with a little relief lately), we were expecting a lot of shallow areas, but mostly it was fine. We made it farther down the Assabet than we expected, turning around when it looked like it would be tricky (albeit possible) to navigate any further due to downed tree parts. Click and enlarge the first photo to see what I mean.