8/6/07 – Following North Country tradition, the Sawbill crew held its own version of the recent dragon boat races that were held in Grand Marais. After store closing one night and before the sunlight retreated from the sky, four teams raced from the forest service dock to the canoe landing on south Sawbill Lake. Teams were announced a half an hour before the race, so the four-person groups rushed to strategize and hyped up with matching face paint. My team painted our faces white and put red paint on our lips, eliciting such comments as, “You look like creepy mimes,” and making me feel like a reject from the casting tryouts for the Oscar winning film “Memoirs of a Geisha.” The team of Tess Dornfeld, Patrick Nash and Cindy Hansen with author and Sawbill friend Andrew Keith steering won, finishing in just over four minutes. The victors won bragging rights and first dibs on a share of a dragon boat themed cake made just for the occasion, while the losers swamped their own canoes in the shallows, argued about possible cheating and swam to shore with the capsized boats in-tow, our face paint dripping like sore-loser tears. -Lee