9/6/2008 - Moose sighting: Elisha Polomski just wrote us to share this account and photograph from her BWCAW trip with Jeffrey Thieret in August. "The fellow in the attached photo hung out snorting and chewing grass all day long at Elton Lake! When we woke up the next morning he was still there, seemingly unafraid of our presence!" she wrote. What luck! The pair also heard wolves howling at night. Elisha said they had a great trip, they just wished it could have been longer. - Lee

Not often do you get to see a moose up close, let alone a bull with such great antlers.

9/3/08 - Thanks to a good soaking in the last week, campfire restrictions in the BWCAW have been lifted as of noon today. Campfires are now allowed in the wilderness area. From the Forest Service website: "Visitors are urged to use extra care with campfires, and as always, they are encouraged to use gas or propane cook stoves to reduce impacts to the Wilderness."

9/2/08 - Special thanks to all the returning crew members who stopped by Labor Day weekend to lend a helping hand. Adam Hansen, Laura Greensmith and Jasmine Hanson pitched in, along with our guides Dave Freeman and Amy Voytilla. It's great to see the old faces and take time to catch up, even if we find ourselves working holidays! - Lee

Jasmine helps Frosty stuff and fold calzones for dinner.

Adam slathers the sauce on his famous kabobs.

Laura doing her nightly store cleaning duty.

9/1/08 - Chris and Adam Seitz, father and son, came up from the Twin Cities for a canoe trip last week, leaving us with a funny memory from their trip. They found an abandoned football (quickly nicknamed "Wilson") at their Sawbill campsite their first night here, and decided to take it along on their trip to Burnt Lake for a little something to do in the downtime. Upon arriving at camp, they had another idea.

Chris explains, "At our site on Burnt Lake the tall trees were getting the best of our arms trying to string our bear ropes. Adam grabbed 'Wilson' and attached some parachute line that was left behind at a camp site on Kelly. And there you have it. 'Wilson' became our new launching device. Very accurate with good distance."

Chris also says if anyone sees "Wilson" in this update and wants to reclaim him, he'll gladly return the football upon request. Thanks Chris and Adam! - Lee

Go deep! Adam Seitz prepares to launch "Wilson," his bear rope projectile.

Nice recovery: Chris and Adam Seitz picked up the orange cord on Kelly Lake and the football at Sawbill. They ended up using them both to help hang their food pack.

8/31/08 - My brother Todd and my nephew Devin came up to Sawbill for a week of camping and fishing. They live in New Jersey and it was Devin's first time in the Boundary Waters. Todd hadn't been here in over 15 years and the last time he came he and his wife only caught one fish. I joined them for the first couple days and showed them a few of my favorite spots. After 6 days they came back smiling and full of fish stories, having caught dozens of fish, including the largest walleye Todd has ever caught, and Devin's first northern pike! It is easy to see why family canoe trips can quickly become a cherished tradition. - Dave

Todd and Devin with a nice walleye they caught near Sawbill.

Devin shows off his first northern pike.

8/29/08 - Crew member "Tiny" Tim Rinden recently stopped by the pictographs on Fishdance Lake during a personal trip and took pictures. Tiny was paddling with friend Bill Cook. The guys went up north to Little Saganaga, southwest toward Fishdance and headed back toward Sawbill, stopping along the way. Tiny said they had a great time and four days of enviable August weather out there. - Lee

Tim posing from the bow seat in front of the Fishdance Lake pictographs.

Tradition says these pictographs were left by native tribes many years ago. Can you make out the images?

Tim and Bill relaxing at a long-sought campsite.

8/26/08 - Ruthie Hansen, photographer extraordinaire, was here for a brief visit last week and took this cool picture of Roy, Deputy of Outfitter Security, riding in the beautiful Seliga wood and canvas canoe. - Bill

Roy on lake patrol. No terrierists were detected on this day, but the little island on south Sawbill got a good barking.

8/25/08 - Whoops, I failed to include the dates of the Passport In Time project on the Sawbill Guard Cabin. They are September 8-12 & 15-19, 2008. - Bill

8/23/08 - Passport in Time (PIT) is a volunteer archaeology and historic preservation program of the USDA Forest Service (FS). PIT volunteers work with professional FS archaeologists and historians on national forests throughout the U.S. on such diverse activities as archaeological survey and excavation, rock art restoration, survey, archival research, historic structure restoration, oral history gathering, and analysis and curation of artifacts. The FS professional staff of archaeologists and historians will be your hosts, guides, and co-workers.

On September 8-12; 15-19, 2008, come help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the CCC at the historic CCC-constructed guard cabin at the Sawbill Lake Guard Station. Set above the shores of scenic Sawbill Lake, the NRHP-eligible guard station is a testament to the days of remote station work carried out by Forest Guards. The CCC boys at Sawbill Camp F-10 constructed the log cabin with saddle-notching for the Superior National Forest circa 1936 using the standard Forest Service plans. The cabin remains in use by the Superior National Forest to house seasonal wilderness crews. With your help, we will restore the windows this year, by removing old caulking, cleaning and replacing broken panes, re-caulking, and repainting the frames.

Number of openings: 10

Special skills: Carpentry and painting experience helpful but not required

Minimum age: 15 years old; under 18 with a responsible adult

Facilities: Free camping for the volunteers at Sawbill Campground, adjacent to the guard station, pit toilets, potable water; general store, showers; hotel facilities available along the North Shore of Lake Superior near Tofte

Nearest towns: Tofte, 20 miles; Grand Marais, 47 miles

Application Form.

8/23/08 - Our staff guide, Dave Freeman, sent us the following post:

Kim and Ian Vander Hoeven sent me a couple of photos of smallmouth bass that they caught on our recent trip. We base camped on Flame lake, and fished Smoke, Burnt, Kelly, and Peterson. We let most of the fish go, but we kept a couple to eat. At one spot we landed eight 14 - 20 inch small mouth in a matter of minutes and lost a bunch more. Plus, I had a huge northern pike rip a foot long smallmouth off my line. It was one of the most action packed 30 minutes of fishing I have had in a long time.

We also had some unusually friendly loons swim after our canoe. One loon in particular swam after our canoe several times and actually ran into my paddle. The only thing I can think of is that it was chasing bait fish that were startled by our canoe. - Dave

Ian Vander Hoeven with a nice bass.

Mother and son enjoy fishing success.

8/20/08 - As of tonight, campfires are banned in a large portion of the BWCA Wilderness. The banned area includes most of the area around Sawbill, Baker, Brule and Homer Lakes. All of the area north and east of Sawbill is in the ban area. The ban area extends west of Sawbill through Phoebe Lake along the Lady Chain route. There is no ban out of the Kawishiwi Lake entry point until you get north of the Kawishiwi River just above Malberg Lake. There is a map available showing the restricted area (large file). - Bill

8/20/08 - For this year's installment of guys' night out, the Sawbill men made an eating tour of a few of our favorite spots around Grand Marais (imagine six hungry PacMans frantically racing for pellets). First, we listened to live music and had dinner at The Landing on Devil Track Lake. We then headed to Sydney's Custard for a sweet treat, but a few of us couldn't resist their top notch gyros. After that we walked to Sven and Ole's pizza for the legendary Meat-Zah. Needless to say, we came home feeling fat and happy. Thanks for a restful night out, Bill! - Lee

Here's the whole gang waiting patiently for food at The Landing.

Sven and Ole's was closing when we got there, so we took our pizza to go. Here we're loitering on a Grand Marais street corner, about to dig in. Marc took the picture, and Carl was across the street catcalling teenage girls.

8/16/08 - The Siebenmanns, long-long-long-time Sawbill customers (45 years!), brought along a special guest on their annual trip this year. Shogo Okada, 22, Yokohama, Japan, got his first glimpse of wilderness when he accompanied Fred Siebenmann III, Fred Siebenmann Jr. and Welden Blum on a Boundary Waters canoe trip through Brule Lake. Okada, an undergraduate pre-law student back home, is in the United States on a year long ESL exchange program, and is staying with the younger Fred's family in Portland, Ore. Six months in, he's already visited Yosemite National Park, toured Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, skied and snowboarded Mt. Hood, in Oregon, whitewater rafted (with Fred III as his private guide) on the Deschutes River, in Oregon, and paddled the Boundary Waters. Who knows what the remaining six months have in store? - Lee

Fred Siebenmann Jr., Welden Blum, Fred Siebenmann III and Shogo Okada (left to right) take a well-earned break in the canoe yard after their trip.

8/15/08 - For those of you who haven't seen the aftermath of 2006's Cavity Lake Fire for yourselves, here are two photographs I took on my recent trip into the Boundary Waters. The fire started on Cavity Lake, off the Gunflint Trail, and spread all the way to the area shown below, just north of Little Saganaga Lake. Paddling and portaging through the burn area was an eerie reminder of the power inherent in undeveloped ecological systems, and an amazing look at a near-wasteland of charred tree trunks, burned-white granite, and new green brush growing up between. - Lee

Imagine That: A few years ago this gurgling stream off the north end of Little Saganaga Lake would have been rushing out from the cover of trees.

Notice the hint of purple wildflowers along the green brush on the floor of the burn area. Signs of healing, indeed.

8/14/08 - Tom Bittinger, a long time canoeist from Owatonna, Minnesota, sent the picture below from his recent canoe trip. Not only did he catch two nice bass, he caught them on one lure at the same time. Now that is good fishing. Thanks Tom.

Tom calls this his "30 inch" small mouth - a 14" and a 16". Both posed cooperatively for the picture and were returned unharmed to the water.

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