MISQUAH — Labor Day weekend is the last reliable heavy-traffic weekend on the Chain.

The resorts still have guests. The campground has reservations. That does not contradict Loon Ridge losing most of its family-week guests Sunday: the long August stays emptied out, while Labor Day brings a shorter three-day refill of couples, golfers, repeat guests and families making one last run at the lake. The weather, if it behaves, will put boats back on Big Pelican after two quieter weeks. The public landing will look like July Saturday morning and like September again by Monday evening.

The Sheriff’s northern substation will have an extra deputy near the landing from 7 to 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, mostly to keep the approach clear and to explain, again, that a boat can be made ready before it is backed into the launch lane.

Loon Ridge manager Renée Fontaine said the resort is roughly three-quarters booked for the holiday weekend, heavily weighted toward couples, golfers and repeat guests rather than full family weeks.

“It is a weekend now, not a season,” she said.

No-wake rules at the narrows remain unchanged. Life jackets remain less useful under a seat. The loons remaining on the lake are juveniles and are less predictable around boats than the adults that left.

Tim’s Bait & Liquor will open at 5 a.m. Saturday through Monday. The Martinez truck returns to the landing Thursday and Sunday and to the brewery Friday and Saturday, which is a schedule Mateo Martinez says makes sense only after one has lived with it.

The water is still warm enough to swim and cold enough to make a person reconsider the decision once fully committed.

This is the last weekend I will write “summer traffic” without quotation marks.

Use it well.

Then give us the lake back.