‘He Found Purpose Up Here:’ Gunflint Trail Community Mourns the Loss of Trail Center Cook
Jan 22, 2024 08:24AM ● By Content Editor
By Joe Friedrichs for Paddle and Portage - January 21, 2024
Editor's note: This post has been republished with permission from Paddle and Portage, a new Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness media company founded by Joe Friedrichs. You can find more information about Paddle and Portage at https://paddleandportage.com/ or here. To view the original story, visit the Paddle and Portage website here.
GUNFLINT TRAIL – Jeff Knaeble became the unofficial barber and hair stylist for a collection of mid-Trail residents during recent years.
“He cut the hair of a woman who was in her 80s who lived up here. He cut his brother’s hair. He cut his own hair,” said Marlene Knaeble, Jeff’s mother. “He just liked helping people out like that.”
The 80-year-old woman Marlene referenced is Judy Sturgil, a longtime employee at Trail Center Lodge and restaurant. Sturgil was among those gathered Sunday afternoon at Trail Center to reflect on the life of Jeff Knaeble.
Jeff died in a snowmobile accident on Poplar Lake Thursday, Jan. 18. He was 39.
It was a somber scene inside Trail Center Sunday morning. The restaurant was more or less closed, though a few patrons did come in from the wind and cold. Snow whipped across the Gunflint Trail in ominous circles outside, but once the stories of Jeff started to be shared, the eyes of those talking became alive, while others swelled with tears.
“He found purpose up here,” said Bob Knaeble, Jeff’s father. “This was the place that mattered more to him than anywhere.”
That place, of course, was the Gunflint Trail.
Seated at the table with Jeff’s parents were his younger sister, Heather, and his younger brother, Josh. Jeff’s parents, Marlene and Bob Knaeble, along with Heather, arrived from the Twin Cities once they were informed of Jeff’s death. Also present at the table in Trail Center was Christian Semon, Jeff’s best friend and outdoor adventure companion.
“We were always up for an adventure,” Christian said.
Christian shared stories of the duo camping at nearby Moss Lake, on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, for an extended stay during their early years living on the Gunflint.
“We woke up one morning and there was like 3 inches of heavy, wet snow,” he said. “We were like, ‘okay, we’re doing this.’”
The news of Jeff’s death early Friday morning shocked the Gunflint Trail. By Sunday morning, the mood was still heavy, but it was more reflective and somber, Christian said.
“We’re talking more,” he said. “It hasn’t really hit me yet, maybe. But we’re just talking more about it, and that seems to be helping.”
The owner of Trail Center, Sarah Hamilton, walked from the front counter and across the main floor of the restaurant several times while I sat at a table for nearly an hour with Jeff’s family members and friends. Hamilton said the emotions were still too raw to share much information, but the plan is to keep the business moving forward. The restaurant is not likely to be open for breakfast in the near term, she said. Jeff was the main line cook during breakfast hours at Trail Center. In addition, his brother Josh and friend Christian also work behind the grill. They’re not ready to start working. Cooking in the same place where Jeff has worked for the past six years will be challenging, all parties agreed. They need time.
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Jeff Knaeble first arrived to the Gunflint Trail in 2016. He worked for a summer at Windigo Lodge (now called Poplar Haus), and essentially fell in love with the area. His blue-green eyes were welcoming, and indeed Jeff had a magnetic type of draw toward people. That first summer on the Gunflint he met a waitress at Trail Center, and they would later marry. The marriage didn’t last, but Jeff knew he’d discovered the place he would likely spend the rest of his life.
“He wanted to buy property up here,” Marlene said.
Jeff was an enthusiastic advocate for the Gunflint Trail. He was all about the outdoors, his family said, but he also kept in touch with some parts of his upbringing in the Twin Cities suburbs, including the fact that his favorite restaurant remained Taco Bell. Mikey Mike, a hip-hop artist, was his favorite music as of late. He also liked heavy metal music on occasion, percussion and rhythm being something that made sense to his spirit.
FROM LEFT, HEATHER KNAEBLE, CHRISTIAN SEMON, BOB KNAEBLE, MARLENE KNAEBLE, JOSH KNAEBLE. PHOTO BY JOE FRIEDRICHS
TRAIL CENTER LODGE AND RESTAURANT. PHOTO TAKEN SUNDAY, JAN. 21, BY JOE FRIEDRICHS.
Hiking was Jeff’s favorite hobby, and he knew the local trails well. Several years ago, his sister Heather explained, Jeff promised that he would take the family to a “beautiful waterfall” when they came to visit. The waterfall, located near the southeast corner of Gunflint Lake, is a somewhat strenuous hike from the Crab Lake and Loon Lake area.
“Jeff kept telling us how easy of a hike it was,” Heather said.
Heather, who was pregnant with twins at the time, along with the rest of the family, found out that Jeff’s version of “easy” differed from their own.
“It was about 105 degrees,” Marlene said. “We were all hot and miserable.”
Jeff, meanwhile, seemingly loved every minute of the experience.
“He kept talking about plants and how beautiful everything was and all that,” Heather said. “I just kept thinking about how long it was going to take to get back, and if that was even possible.”
While the family shared stories of hiking and Jeff’s countless adventures near the Gunflint Trail and the BWCA, the somberness that seemed so heavy seemed to lift, if only for a few moments. Christian, Josh, and Heather continually smiled and laughed as they shared story after story about Jeff. Hiking trips. Winter adventures. Adventures he would take with his golden retriever, Ava. Most of the experiences focused on Jeff’s passion for the outdoors. We also talked about the accident.
“We got the medical examiner’s report just this morning,” Marlene said.
Jeff’s death was ruled an accident. Blunt-force trauma was the reason he died, according to the medical examiner. It was 10 below zero the night Jeff had the snowmobile accident on Poplar Lake. He was heading home on a snowmobile when the snowmobile hit a rock, sending Jeff off the sled, crashing through the handlebars before he landed on the ice. Hypothermia was not listed in the cause of death, according to his parents.
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Resorts and other businesses up and down the Gunflint Trail held a collective sorrow when you entered them Sunday morning. At Loons Nest Coffee, just down the road from Trail Center, patrons were talking about the loss of a member of the Gunflint community.
“Jeff absolutely loved to hike,” said Carl Madsen, a co-owner of Rockwood Lodge & Canoe Outfitters. “I’d talk to him at Trail Center and he shared all the wilderness hikes he and Ava were doing, nearly every week.”
Three years ago, Madsen explained, one of Rockwood’s customers, Gary from Washington, DC, wanted to go on a long hike somewhere near the BWCA.
“So, naturally I thought of Jeff,” Madsen said.
Jeff agreed to take the East Coast tourist hiking, so long as Ava could join.
“We met at the entry point for Duncan and Daniels lakes and took a canoe, all three of us and Ava, across West Bearskin and Duncan lakes and left the canoe at the portage by Stairway Falls, between Duncan and Rose lakes,” Madsen said.
The group then hiked back to Rockwood Lodge on Poplar Lake, which is a distance of more than 10 miles, with some challenging terrain and vertical climb on both the Border Route Trail and South Lake Trail. Jeff kept morale high while Carl and Gary kept pace behind. The hike was an endurance contest to some degree, and Jeff seemed to love every second of it, Madsen said.
Although he’s most often a stoic individual, Madsen’s eyes swelled with tears on at least one occasion while we sat inside the Loons Nest reflecting on Jeff’s life. Madsen would occasionally pause and lift his red checkered Stormy Kromer hat from his head, pause, and then continue telling another story about Jeff. Madsen was wearing a grey, long sleeve shirt with his company’s name emblazoned on it, above the words “Gunflint Trail. Since 1926.” I took a long pull from my hot chocolate and continued to learn about the hiking cook from Trail Center. The reality is, for most people who’ve ordered hashbrowns or eggs over-easy from Trail Center at any point during the past six years, Jeff likely cooked the meal. I thought about this reality, and the fact Jeff no doubt had made me breakfast during that timeframe. Probably too many times to remember.
A few hours before I arrived to the Gunflint, the Loons Nest staff brought several dozen frosted cardamom rolls and a cardboard tray of coffees for Trail Center employees and for Jeff’s family, including several offerings of Jeff’s favorite from their menu: white chocolate mocha double shot of espresso with whipped cream. Poplar Haus, the day before, donated food for the staff at Trail Center and for Jeff’s family.
On a cold, windy, and otherwise rough Sunday morning, the very fabric of the Gunflint Trail community was on display. From Madsen’s tears to the generosity and support of neighboring businesses, this is “community” in the most tangible way. Time and time again, the Gunflint community is a place where hard times bring neighbors to the door with open arms or to lend a helping hand. It’s a place where people come to live because they don’t readily accept the “outside world.” It’s a place where people get one another’s backs when things go wrong. Jeff Knaeble was a member of this community. And he owed much of that sense of place to Sarah Hamilton, his parents said.
“I remember one of the first times we came up here to visit Jeff,” his father, Bob, said. “It was the off-season so most everything was closed. We pulled in across the road from the restaurant here where Jeff lived and Sarah came pulling up behind us going ‘Who are you? What are you doing in my staff housing?’ She was really worked up and we had to explain we were Jeff’s parents. And we’ve gotten along great ever since.”
Jeff’s parents, Bob and Marlene, both laughed reflecting on some of the early stories of meeting people like Sarah Hamilton.
“This is a special place up here,” Bob said. “It’s unique and it brings unique people to the area. Jeff kind of fit right in with all of that.”
Judy Sturgil, the “woman in her 80s” from Poplar Lake who got her hair cut by Jeff on occasion, walked in the front door of Trail Center not long after Bob shared his sentiment about the unique nature of those who call this area their home. Judy had baked a loaf of banana bread for Jeff last week, giving it to him as payment for her final haircut. She gave him the loaf on the day he died, not knowing it would be the last time she’d seem him alive. When Judy met Jeff’s parents two days later at Trail Center, she inquired about the bread.
“Judy wanted us to know about the bread and that we could have it,” Marlene said. “She wanted us to know that it was okay.”
A memorial service will be held for Jeff Knaeble in early May in the mid-Trail area. Friends and family and everyone from Cook County are invited to attend, his mother said.
