9/20/10 – Current and former Sawbill crew members gathered this weekend to give Eric (Frosty) Frost a belated stag party. Frosty was married in June, but we didn’t have time for the stag party then. Traditional stag party activities were replaced by paddling, bird watching and story telling on Alton Lake.
We had a very close encounter with a flock of migrating white pelicans – the first time any of us had seen them in this area. We scared them up while out for a midnight moonlight paddle and they circled down the lake, then returned to fly just over our heads. It was so quiet that we could hear their wing beats clearly and the moon gave them a ghostly glow.
A few minutes later, three otters surfaced near the canoe and gave us a look-over. Again, in the intense quiet, we could clearly hear them making little squeaking and cooing noises to each other.
The party was capped off the next morning by a gloriously beautiful hike along the Laurentian Divide west of Alton Lake. – Bill

Frosty, Bill Hansen, Andy Keith and John Oberholtzer prepare to leave the Sawbill canoe landing.

At the Sawbill/Alton portage.

On the Alton/Beth Lake portage.

The boys contemplate a placid Alton Lake from the Beth portage.