Boreal Access

5/14/08 - When I opened the store this morning, I glanced at the schedule taped to the window sill and got a small shock. This impressively large spider is a wolf spider. According to Wikipedia, wolf spiders live mostly solitary lives and hunt alone. Some are opportunistic wanderer hunters, pouncing upon prey as they find it or chasing it over short distances. Others lie in wait for passing prey, often from or near the mouth a burrow. It's a good thing Cindy didn't find it or we would have had to administer CPR to both Cindy and the spider. - Bill

A wold spider inspects the store schedule.

5/13/08 - Our summer crew members are starting to arrive. - Bill

Matt Hartmann is returning for his third year at Sawbill. He's been accepted at Creighton Medical School in Omaha, but plans to defer for a year to travel in New Zealand.

Sam Reynolds is a brand new crew member from Durham, North Carolina. He is a junior at North Caroline State.

Carl Hansen returns for his 18th year at Sawbill. He is the youngest of the third generation of Hansens living at Sawbill. He is graduating from Cook County High School this year, but also has completed his freshman year at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth under Minnesota's excellent Post Secondary Enrollment Option program. He is attending the University of Montana next year.

5/12/08 - We have first hand reports now that all the lakes around Sawbill are ice free except Brule and Winchell. Based on a report yesterday from a wilderness ranger, it sounds like Brule will go out today.

Fishing reports for the opener were pretty good. Everyone caught fish. A group staying here at the Sawbill Lake campground before leaving on a canoe trip this morning caught several walleyes and a large bass right from the canoe landing.

Ed Dallas, Sawbill's poet laureate, had heart bypass surgery six months ago, putting him on the sidelines for awhile. He is feeling well enough now to start composing his unique haikus again. Here are a couple of samples:

fishing opener
beside the trout lily
an empty creel

levee break –
Bad River’s harmonica
moans the blues

5/10/08 - Sawbill Outfitters is recommended in the June issue of Outside magazine! We haven't seen it yet, but people tell us that we're mentioned favorably on page 42.

Today is the opening day of fishing season. No reports yet. Due to the late spring, it is a quiet opener, with just a handful of hardy canoeists venturing out. It appears that all the lakes around here are ice free except Brule and Winchell. They should be ice free by the end of today or tomorrow at the latest.

Aaron Browning stopped by today on his way out on a week long canoe trip. Aaron makes fine laminated wooden paddles for sale. You can see his handiwork at his website: Boundary Canoe Paddles. - Bill

Sorry for the lousy picture. Our trusty digital camera has been screwing up about 80% of the pictures we've been taking and the new camera arrived just after this was taken.

5/9/08 - We marked the end of an era here at Sawbill when three big norway (red) pines that have been standing sentinel to our canoe yard came down. One of them was sort of "in" the driveway and had been hit by cars so many times over the years that it was entirely girdled around it's base. The pine next to it was attacked by a pileated woodpecker this spring (see 4/20/08 entry below). The woodpecker removed so much wood that we were afraid the towering pine would snap off in the next wind storm, crushing a building, vehicle, pile of Kevlar canoes, or all of the above. As we contemplated cutting down these two damaged trees, we discovered serious rot in the base of third nearby red pine.

All the large pines on our property are roughly the same age. They sprouted following a huge fire in the 1890s that extended from 12 miles south of Sawbill all the way up into Canada. Fire ecologist Bud Heinselman estimated the size of that fire at nearly 3 million acres!

We were very sad to see the trees go, but every living thing reaches an end sometime. Sawmills won't take logs that have been in a developed area for fear of ruining there saw blades on imbedded nails, so we will burn the trees in our boilers. - Bill

The canoe yard just before the three trees came down.

Two down and the third is just beginning to fall.

5/8/08 (Sunset) - The Sawbill crew opens the 2008 Beach Club less than 24 hours after all the ice left the lake. - Bill

Moments before the first swim of the year.

5/8/08 - Here is the latest lake ice information from the Forest Service pilot:

ICE STATUS as of 1530, Thursday, May 8, 2008

ICE FREE:

Alpine
Banadad
Brant
Crocodile
Cross River to Long Island
Iron
Jap
Little Saganaga
Missing Link
Moon
Ogishkemuncie
Portage
Round
Sawbill
Tucker
Two Island

SOME ICE REMAINING

Alton
Cherokee
East Bearskin
Flour
Frost
Hungry Jack
Kimball
Little Trout
Meeds
Mink
Seagull (especially on western end)
Swan

FROZEN

Bearskin
Birch
Brule
Clearwater
Davis
Duncan
Elbow
Gabimichigami
Gaskin
Gillis
Greenwood
Kemo
Loon
Mayhew
McFarland
Musquash/Misquah
North Fowl
Pine
Poplar
Rose
Saganaga (quite frozen, according to the pilot)
South Fowl
Trout (east of Kimball Lake Campground)
Tuscarora
Winchell

The pilot feels that things will change quickly with the exception of the
eastern side of the Gunflint Trail (Clearwater, Greenwood, Duncan, Pine,
etc).

Judith A. MacCudden
Information Assistant
Gunflint Ranger District
Phone: (218) 387-3200
Fax: (218) 387-3246
email: jmaccudden@fs.fed.us

5/7/08 - The ice is out on Sawbill Lake! The official date is May 6th as the lake was essentially ice free by sunset last night. I will try to get out for a paddle this evening to check out Alton Lake. Usually, Alton, Cherokee and some of the larger lakes keep their ice for a few days after Sawbill goes out. - Bill

A small amount of residual ice is blown in by a stiff north wind. Most of Sawbill Lake is ice free.

Extremely high water brought this unexpected driftwood visitor to the canoe landing. Once the ice melts, it should migrate down to the mouth of Sawbill Creek.

5/6/08 - There has been good progress in ice melting over the last two days. The ice is now too degraded to even bother drilling a hole. It should go out on Sawbill today or tomorrow at the latest. Roy Wonder, our clueless Deputy of Outfitter Security, decided that the skim ice near the shore was plenty strong enough to hold a terrier. He piled in head first and took an impressively deep dive through the thin ice. He climbed out by himself and acted like it never happened. - Bill

Black ice on Sawbill. Today is warm and windy with thundershowers coming later in the day. This may be the end of the ice!

5/4/08 - After another chilly night last night, the lake ice measured 9 inches thick this morning. The sun is shining brightly and some of the smaller lakes are starting to look quite dark.

I went up to the end of the Gunflint Trail last night to play for a dance with my band, The Splinters. It was a celebration of the Gunflint Green-up, a community effort to recover both physically and psychically from last year's gigantic Ham Lake forest fire. 400 volunteers planted more than 50,000 white pine and red pine seedlings. The weekend included a dinner, dance and the Ham Lake half marathon that traces the route of the fire for 13.1 miles along the Gunflint Trail. It was great to see a community celebrating their resiliency after a devastating disaster. It was also impressive that they had the energy to dance after planting trees all day. - Bill

I am warily drilling the daily test hole (notice my one foot in the canoe). It turned out to be plenty strong enough to stand on (9"), but I didn't want a chilly surprise!

The official measurement.

Open water around the island.

Phoebe worries about the two humans that are literally walking on the thin ice.

5/3/08 - 8 inches of ice remains on Sawbill Lake. It rained all day yesterday followed by 2 inches of fresh snow overnight.

We tried to work inside yesterday, but the day before I saw a parade of wildlife on my daily run. First, a cow moose with her son, both looking pretty ratty as they shed their winter coats. The little bull was reluctant to yield the road, so I got quite close. His antlers are about 4 inch stubs. Just a bit further down the road I saw a sharp shinned hawk and moments later a ruffed grouse in full mating display. The hawk may have been looking to take advantage of the grouse's bravado.

A mile or so further on, I spotted a fox hunting for mice in the dead grass alongside the road. The wind was blowing toward me and there was water running in a nearby ditch masking the sound of my footsteps. I stood 20 feet away and watched him forage through the grass. He was a beautiful cross-fox with a black belly and feet, a black triangle on his back that accented his black tail. His face was red and his body was mottled grey, red and black. Eventually he turned around, saw me, and was gone in a graceful flash.

Finishing out the wildlife extravaganza was a woodcock performing his spectacular high-flying mating flight.

Don't let the pictures below scare you too much. As I write this in early afternoon, most of the snow has already melted. The forecast is for one more chilly day and then turning very warm and sunny. I still think the ice will be out by next weekend. - Bill

Just another typical spring-like morning at Sawbill.

This gives me a strong urge to wax my skis.

The snow covered twigs make a beautiful abstract pattern.