8/31/24 – As many of our long time visitors are aware, Sawbill is owned and run by the third generation of Hansen family. I (Clare) and my husband Dan took the helm from Bill and Cindy in 2016, and promptly started raising up the fourth generation here at Sawbill. One of my favorite parts of my job is sending out family groups with multiple generations sharing the experience and building core memories. This year I thought, shoot I need to do that with my own family! My kids, Kit (8) and Sig (5), have been on many canoe trips, but never with their grandparents. A quick search on recreation.gov and a phone call to Cindy and we zeroed in on the Granite River.
Day one found us loading up two cars and headed up the Gunflint Trail. Although we don’t live far from the Gunflint as the crow flies, driving to the end from Sawbill takes about the same amount of time as it does for us to drive to Duluth! We dropped off one car at the Saganaga lot and then headed for our put in on Magnetic (via Gunflint Lake). Sig spent the first part of the day scheming which cabin he would buy when he was a grown up. Paddling past motor boats and cabins was a new experience for these Sawbill kids!
We spent the day paddling at a leisurely pace across flat calm waters with the sun on our backs. The Granite River is a lovely stretch of some gently moving water broken up by short but rocky portages along side some beautiful waterfalls and rapids. We were accompanied by several eagles and a host of turkey vultures on Clove Lake. We even watched one eagle knock another out of the air and into the water! We enjoyed lunch on one of the more scenic portages before making our way up to Gneiss Lake where we planned to camp for the night.
We made camp on a west facing site on Gneiss so as to fully enjoy the stellar sunset. Much swimming was done and many smores were devoured that evening as we all settled in to our camping routines. It had been almost 20 years since I took a camping trip with my folks – I could hardly believe I had let that much time slip by! All of us are lucky to have friends who are family that we love to canoe trip with, so while we’ve all been spending a lot of time in the BWCA we seemingly forgot to do it with each other.
Our second morning welcomed us with water somehow even calmer than the day before. The kids were anxious to be paddling again right away so Bill took them out on the glass like conditions while Cindy and I enjoyed our coffee and packed up the campsite. Kit was thrilled to have her Pop Pop instructing her on some new paddle strokes while she steered from the stern. Sig was excited for a chance to practice his paddling from the bow, too. The kids paddled Bill all over the lake for over an hour before it was time to load the packs in and head out for our next destination, Big Sag.
We made good time thanks to Sig and Kit serenading us with many renditions of non-traditional paddling songs (Queen was featured heavily) and elected to paddle through our regular lunch hour to get to a site on Saganaga for the night. We ended up on a site on Oskenonton Island with a gorgeous red pine stand and great swimming rock. Sandwiches and swimming were on our agenda after a hot day of paddling! Bill and Kit spent the afternoon fishing from the canoe, while Sig collected feathers around the campsite. After much discussion of Leave No Trace principles and deliberation on his part, Sig made the tough decision to leave the feathers behind for others to enjoy – a big step for a 5 year old.
Our last morning was spent with more swimming followed by the long paddle down the Sag corridor back to our car at the lot. We topped off our few days of adventure with lunch at the Angry Trout in Grand Marais, always an excellent choice. We all left feeling like this was truly a charmed trip. Everything seemed in our favor and we all felt immense gratitude for the ability to sneak in this quality time together during our busiest part of the season. I think we’re all committed to making sure we don’t wait another 20 years to do it again!
Clare