My favorite time to be in the Q is the last two weeks of August into the first week of September. Next to no bugs is great, especially on the portages and at night by the fire. The cosmos puts on a pretty good show with meteors, the fishing is pretty good and I generally don't see many people. I time my trips so that if I'm in the park during Labor Day, I'm at least two days from an entry point, which really helps with seeing few people. Last year I got to see the colors start to change which was pretty cool.