3/5/25 – If you’ve ever camped at the Sawbill Lake campground, you’ve likely interacted with the residents of site 17 – the Sawbill campground hosts. Campground hosting is a unique chance to spend a season living in the Superior National Forest and interacting with the world’s nicest visitors (seriously, we are so lucky). Hosts work closely with us here at the outfitter, but operate on an independent schedule, leaving lots of opportunity for fishing, paddling, biking, berry picking, you name it.

The hosting season runs generally mid-May to mid-October, although we will consider folks who can only do a portion of the season. Job duties include daily cleaning and maintenance of the 10 outhouses, keeping occupancy records, and posting reservation tags. It’s a physical job, so applicants should be prepared to regularly lift 5 gallon buckets of cleaning solution and be comfortable walking on uneven ground.

Sawbill provides a golf cart and all the cleaning materials needed, as well as a dedicated office space. Hosts also have access to showers and laundry and some limited fridge and freezer space at the outfitter. Site 17 does not have electrical hookups, and hosts are expected to have their own accommodations (RV, popup, tent, etc).

If you’re interested, a full job description is available upon request at info@sawbill.com. You’ll find the application form here. We look forward to hearing from you!

-Clare

3/2/26 – Typically February and March boasts the easiest winter travel conditions. The higher and more direct sunlight slightly melts the top layer of snow while temperatures are still cool enough to freeze the sun-kissed snow into a durable crust (I’m sure there are more factors I’m not accounting for like wind). With the right snowshoes or skis you can often stay above the slushy fray lurking below, but if temperatures raise too much above freezing things turn to slop and before you know it you have frozen blocks of slush attached to your legs. Significant snowfall in February delayed prime travel conditions a bit, but sunny days and cool temperatures toward the end of the month shifted us back in the right direction.

Yesterday I broke out my snowshoes with the largest surface area and headed up the lake. The high topped out at 18° F which was perfect for maintaining the structural integrity of the crusty snow and just a whisp of a breeze made me glad I brought a buff along to cover most of my face. -Jessica

2/5/26 – In the thick of winter it can sometimes feel like paddling season will never come back around…

Until you get a delivery of 24 canoes fresh from the Northstar factory. They’ll be squirreled into storage the rest of the winter, but before we know it they’ll be coming back out to head on their inaugural canoe trip. -Jessica

1/13/26 – Sawbill is celebrating a momentous milestone this summer. This season marks our 70th year of business! To celebrate the achievement, we are cordially inviting all former crew and their families to return for a celebration. Mark your calendars for July 10th – July 11th folks! We’ll have an informal gathering at Clare and Dan’s backyard on the 10th as people roll in, and July 11th will feature a catered dinner in the canoe yard, a short program, and as much reminiscing and story telling as we can handle. If you haven’t seen the Facebook event invite, or if you don’t use social media, please send an email to Clare at clare@sawbill.com and I’ll get you looped in.

12/22/25 – The solstice really does feel like the official kickoff of winter around here.  Sure, there’s been snow for about a month, but not quite enough to justify breaking out the snowshoes or skis.  In the last handful of days, however, we tipped the scales to the point where it feels like you’re really stomping around in it.  The best!

To celebrate the occasion, I dug my snowshoes out of the basement and headed for the woods.  The weather cooperated perfectly with a total absence of wind and some of the bluest sky I can recall.  A moose had been out and about before me so I wasn’t the only one who had the idea of going for a stroll.  I followed their tracks for quite a while before they veered off toward a patch of tasty looking twigs.

I finished off my hike on the lake where the snow wasn’t quite as deep as the woods, but I was still glad to have on my snowshoes.  Back inside I made myself a cup of spruce tea from a handful of black spruce tips I collected along the way.  A happy solstice indeed.  -Jessica

12/16/25 – Alert! Alert! The snow is perfect for snow sculpting right now!

The forecast looks like temperatures will dip back below freezing the rest of the week in our neck of the woods, but central Minnesota might get another chance at snowball making conditions tomorrow. -Jessica

12/5/25 – I practice a healthy dose of caution when it comes to going out on early ice, which basically means I don’t (AKA I’m chicken). But, Yesterday afternoon following a number of days at or well below freezing, I walked out with relative confidence and measured a solid 10″ of ice.

As we all know/eventually learn, ice is never 100% safe, so proceed with caution. Especially in areas more likely to have current or animal activity. I learned the second lesson the hard way a few years back following a run in with my right leg and a snowed over otter hole. -Jessica

11/26/25 – Yesterday morning we lacked any snow to speak of, other than a few patches desperately trying to hang on. Cut to 1pm today and we’re up to 9 inches! This isn’t the case everywhere, however, as the wind is whipping the snow around, especially near the lake, doing it’s best to rearrange things as it sees fit. -Jessica

While taking the above videos at the canoe landing I felt like a camera person for the Weather Channel as my loose fitting jacket snapped around in the wind.

11/18/25 – Most mornings and evenings, as of late, I’ve been making a point to get down to the lake to see what the ice is up to. The report has been ever in flux from one day to the next. Just as it appears to be fully covered with ice, the next day rolls around with a stiff wind to break it all up.

Over the past twelve hours the weather has cooperated nicely with temperatures well below freezing and no wind to speak of, resulting in ice as far as the eye can see. Will it stick around this time? Only time will tell. -Jessica

11/12/25 – We now have a few refurbished canoes listed in the “used canoes” section of our online store. Dan will be cranking them out on a rolling basis throughout the winter.

Learn more about how we refurbish canoes by following the link to Dan’s blog post about the subject. -Jessica