7/15/09 – I caught this walleye on Sunday evening on an area lake. I hooked into it and I immediately knew it was not another 12-inch walleye. It made a few runs which made me think it could be a decent northern, but the fact it was staying down toward the bottom made me hope it was a large walleye. After about a five minute battle I got it within landing range, but naturally I did not have a net. After two missed attempts I was finally able to land it with my hands. I was lucky enough that someone was on shore with a camera and able to snap some photos. My main concern was getting the fish back in the water, which I was able to do quite quickly. The fish was 28 inches long and I’m guessing in the 8.8 pound range. Fish of my dreams! – Brian

Thanks Britt for taking this photo for me.

7/12/09 – Curtis Wyland sent us these photos from a trip he took in the middle of June with his friend Corey. The pair were fortunate enough to get a few snapshots of wildlife on top of having some great fishing. – Brian

Nice picture of a moose wading in the shallows.

Looks like Curtis had a rare opportunity to get up close to a moose in his kayak.

Nice smallie.

A snapper basking in the sun.

7/11/09 – I just returned from a wonderful six day canoe trip with my oldest daughter, Ruthie. Ruthie lives in Chicago now, where she teaches at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. She hasn’t forgotten her canoe tripping skills though, so we completed a large five day loop from Kawishiwi Lake up through Malberg, and Alice to Fraser Lake. From there we headed through Wisini, Kekekabic, Knife, Amoeber (the requisite lake with a funny name – part of every good canoe trip), Cherry, Hanson and back to Kawishiwi through Gabimichigami, Little Saganaga and Makwa.
We had perfect weather, great fishing and many interesting animal sightings. It was a “busman’s holiday” for me, but it is still my favorite vacation. – Bill

Ruthie and I literally jumping for joy at the Kawishiwi Lake canoe landing moments before our trip began.

Fishing from a beautiful campsite on Gabimichigami Lake.

The reward for the hard work of fishing.

Early in the trip we saw a massive snapping turtle basking on a rock in the middle of the lake. Later we found this tiny baby snapper at the end of a portage. The little guy tried hard to bite me, even at it’s tender age!

Ruthie casts a long shadow across our tent site.

7/10/09 – Cassandra Wagner sent us these snapshots from her recent trip out of the Sawbill Lake entry point. Between good fishing and wildlife encounters, it looks like a memorable one. Thanks for sharing, Cassandra. – Lee

Cassandra Wagner and a nice smallmouth bass she caught on Kelso Lake.

Amanda Connolly hooked into her own smallmouth bass right at dusk on Sawbill Lake.

Bear crossing?

7/8/09 – Out hiking yesterday in the Superior National Forest, I came across a female ruffed grouse protecting its young. It became agitated as I approached on the trail, puffing up the feathers around its neck, strutting and flapping its wings, hissing and clucking. I snapped a few quick photographs and kept moving to avoid further fuss. The Minnesota DNR reports that spring drumming was up 44 percent over the 2008 counts, which it records as an indication of the overall population. That’s a good sign for the bird, and a compelling development for fall’s small game hunters. – Lee

Angry mother grouse.

A shot of the grouse, ruffled feathers and all.

The grouse, upon closer inspection, turned to run off the trail.

7/7/09 – Following up on the 1999 blowdown entry, I drove down the trail today to find a place where a clearing still showed damage from the storm. The pictures show how much the forest recovers from that kind of disaster over ten years. With sunny skies and temps breaking seventy degrees, it made an idyllic morning for a walk through the woods, yet a stern reminder of the destruction wrought by the forces of nature. – Lee

The tops of the trees broken off like matchsticks.

A few surviving white pines stand tall amid dead stumps and new growth.

7/4/09 – Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the devastating windstorm that hit the BWCA on July 4, 1999. Here is what we wrote and saw at the time:

7/5/99 – Things here are busy and a little hectic. We had a thunderstorm pass through here at about 2:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon, which lasted about a half an hour, with tornado-like winds and heavy rain. It took a lot of trees down and the Sawbill Trail was impassable until about 7 p.m. last night. There have been no injuries reported so far and all campers and Sawbill crew are accounted for. We are all a little weary, as this twist of events on the 4th of July has added more excitement to this normally peaceful place. It is events like this that bring to our attention, once again, to the awesome force of Mother Nature.

The storm was the worst in our history, with 80 mph windgusts violently uprooting trees by the thousands. After the storm passed, the Sawbill crew of 1999, including Laura (Ter Beest) Strubbe, Nathan Ter Beest, Eric Frost, Natasha (Warner) White, Adam Hansen, Laura (Smith) Greensmith, Anna Constance and Josh Bacscai, worked tirelessly to check on those people staying in the campground, and begin to clear the roads.

In front of the Sawbill store, a few days after the storm, the extent of the damage was evident.
Even after the storm passed, we still could not comprehend the total extent of the damage. A few days after the storm, we wrote:

7/7/99 – Now that we’ve had time to assess the damage from Sunday’s storm, we are counting ourselves very, very lucky. Although many trees went down here, in the campground and in the wilderness, it appears that no one in this immediate area was hurt. One family on the campground had two tents set up on their campsite. When the storm hit, they all dived into one of the tents. The other tent was totally destroyed when two huge trees fell across it moments later. Another group was driving over to Kawishiwi Lake with two canoes on a trailer. A large tree fell right across the trailer, destroying both canoes. Our worst loss here at Sawbill was our largest and most beautiful white pine, right by the picnic table in front of the store. It uprooted and fell just a couple of feet from our communication tower guy wires.
The Duluth News Tribune is reporting that 19 people were airlifted out of the wilderness with injuries. No deaths have been reported in the BWCA Wilderness, but a few of the injuries were severe.
– Bill

These stories are just a few among the thousands told by those who experienced the storm.
In the 10 years that have passed, the wilderness has shown remarkable signs of rebirth. Many exposed hillsides now bristle with new growth. More sobering, the BWCA has seen two massive wildfires–the 2006 Cavity Lake fire and devastating 2007 Ham Lake fire–burn through the blowdown area and beyond.
It’s hard to believe that 10 years have passed. It has been a truly remarkable period of destruction, change, and resilience–and a reminder that wilderness is a place all its own that does not always bend to human will. Through it all, so many of us continue to seek out wilderness year after year, occasionally humbled, but always inspired to follow our own path and see what lies around the next bend. – Adam

6/30/09 – June leaves me wanting more. On the way to town today I stopped for a few hours to fish for brook trout. After taking a few, I continued driving and found the roadside lupins in full bloom. With insect hatches and stormy weather, June sometimes makes the sunny afternoons of midsummer seem distant, but days like today make the meantime a thing to revel in, indeed. – Lee

A couple of young campers eye the brook trout brought back to the outfitter.

Two nice brookies.

Lupins: A view from above.

The Sawbill Trail packed with wildflowers.

6/29/09 – The Sawbill summer crew is here. We gathered in front of the outfitter for the annual crew photo the other day. Sixteen of us are working day to day now, and Jim and Rachel Ter Beest, campground hosts, will soon arrive from Nebraska. Returning crew members who showed up since the last personnel update are Caitlin Coomes, who is on her way to law school this fall at St. Thomas, in Minneapolis; Ellyn Phearman, who is between semesters at Luther College, in Decorah, Iowa; Tess Dornfeld, who this fall begins her senior year at Carleton College, in Northfield, Minn.; Marc Levoir, who is going to be a junior at Bemidji State University in north central Minnesota this fall; and Kari Anderson-Hermann, who has returned to the north country for another summer after spending the last year and a half traveling in New Zealand and working at a marine biology camp in Florida. Welcome back, gang. Looking forward to a stellar summer. – Lee

Homer, Sawbill’s golden retriever, presides over his ninth crew photo.

6/25/09 – Adam Hansen just sent along these shots from the crew’s annual lake trout fishing trip. Current and former Sawbill crew members unite each spring to goof off, retell old stories, and see who can find the biggest lunker. We’re going to keep the name of the destination lake to ourselves, but we’d like to let readers know that bragging rights for most and biggest fish this year go to Nathan Ter Beest, former crew member from Omaha, Neb. He caught four nice keepers across three days, and with the help of Adam and Josh, brought in a precarious but necessary load of firewood in their canoe on day two. Nice work guys, and great trip. – Lee

The gang gathers on the landing before the trip for a parting snapshot.

Nathan’s laker.

Nathan and Adam proudly hauling a load of sticks for the evening fire. Despite how it may appear, they had the bulk of the weight in the bottom of the canoe, in order to help keep it steady.