9/14/11 8:30 am – Well, we are still here and the forest is still green here at Sawbill, at least for the time being. Even though the wind was blowing straight from the fire toward us yesterday, the rain showers and colder temperatures kept it from moving toward us in any significant way. This morning, the wind is strong but blowing the fire and smoke away from us. We received another .12″ of rain last night and the temperature is 36 degrees this morning. As I write this it is actually snowing lightly. This is all good news for our surviving this fire in one piece.
The Pagami Creek fire now stands at 100,000 acres. The Forest Service tells us that they expect the fire to stay relatively calm through the next few days of cool, damp weather, but if it drys out and warms up it could grow again. All the Superior National Forest around Sawbill is closed for camping, except they are allowing people to camp on Brule Lake only. There are no reports of injuries and no structures have burned.
Here at Sawbill, we pumped more than 50,000 gallons of water on our property through our sprinkler system. More updates to come. – Bill

Map of the Pagami Creek fire. Sawbill is on the far right. The fire made it almost to Hazel Lake on the Lady Chain route. The south shore of Polly and Kawaschong Lake (just north of Kawishiwi Lake) burned. Otherwise, no other canoe routes in the Sawbill area have burned.