Fall color already?

Yesterday was a perfect summer day. Warm but not hot, clear followed by a cloudless warm evening. This morning dawned foggy and cool but by mid morning the fog had lifted and the sea breeze was strengthening. Clouds began to cover the sky heralding another evening of rain showers.

My clients today (two grown grandchildren with their grandfather) wanted to have the nature exploration trip but in a powerboat. Funny but my first thought when asked was to do this trip on the saltwater but luckily I listened to their interests and decided to do the trip on the Saint George River in Union. Because of the high water it was possible to travel almost all of my old half day canoe trip route in the Lund Alaskan including visiting the beaver lodges and other interesting things along the way. A great way to get the full measure of the local environment without having to paddle a canoe for three hours.

Today it was obvious that some of the trees have started to turn color. Not just the usual limb or branch here or there but entire maple trees are turning red. It looked like all of them were close to the river and are most likely under stress because of all the high water this summer. But still there it was fall color. On August 2nd? The color was most obvious in the stretch below White Oak Pond but there were trees turning between Seven Tree and Round Ponds as well.

To add to the indications of a coming fall the young alewives have started to head downriver and the largemouth bass were feeding actively on them in several locations as we passed by. I hope to have a chance to get back down there this week and give that fishing a try and get a few pictures to post here.