5/17/13 – Our long time friend Ben Harris has recently completed his course of studies to become a Certified Massage Therapist. For at least the next couple of weekends, we’ll be experimenting with having Ben provide chair massages on the deck of the Sawbill Store.
Ben’s mission is to help BWCAW visitors of every kind in moving from soreness and limited movement into relaxation and freedom of motion, so that they can travel and camp at their fullest comfort and ability.
Ben will be here from 8 am until 4 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. His rates will be $1/minute for a 5 to 60 minute massage. He will also offer group rate discounts.
Ben will welcome walk-in clients or you can reserve a time for a massage by contacting Ben directly at Portages End Massage, 218-226-8418 or PortagesEnd@gmail.com.

5/16/13 – Yesterday was an eventful day, combining the official opening of the Sawbill canoeing season with a red flag fire danger day. Today is a perfect spring day with clear blue skies, calm winds and temperatures in the 60s. Fortunately, no fires started yesterday in this area and it sounds like some rain is on the way. Now that the ice is gone, it would be nice to see some greenery. – Bill

Sunset on Sawbill Lake as seen through a lacy ice remnant. Photo by Luke Opel.

5/15/13 at 7:45 PM – Finally, Sawbill Lake is officially clear of ice. It happened around 5 PM this afternoon. Off the top of my head, I can only remember two other years when it went out later than May 15th. – Bill

Sawbill crew member and unemployed Ice Measurement Technician, Leif Gilsvik, triumphantly holds the envelope full of cash that he won by correctly guessing this year’s ice-out date. He plans to buy a new home for his mother and some liquid refreshments for his fellow crew members.

5/15/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn. Almost half of the ice is clear of the south end of Sawbill Lake. Several canoe parties have crashed their way through to the open water and have not come back, so it is opening up. In the face of warm weather and brisk winds, surely it will go out completely before the end of the day. – Bill

Panorama of Sawbill Lake from the canoe landing featuring the black ice.

An undistorted shot looking west from the landing.

5/14/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: too slushy to measure. We’ll post the news here as soon as the ice is gone. – Bill

Roy, Deputy of Outfitter Security, inspects the dwindling ice looking south from the Sawbill Lake canoe landing.

Looking north on Sawbill Lake at 10 AM.

5/13/13 2:30 PM – We just got word from the Forest Service float plane that Polly and Phoebe Lakes are open. The pilot judged that Sawbill is “close.” The route from Kawishiwi to Polly Lake should be fully open now. Tomorrow should be the day for many BWCA Wilderness lakes to lose their ice. – Bill

5/13/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 5″. The Sawbill Lake Ice Technicians say that the lake is very slushy and the ice looks “watery.” We did have a 1/2″ of new skim ice form last night, but that is melting fast. Best guess is that Sawbill will be out tomorrow or the day after at the latest.

Sawbill Lake from the canoe landing at 10 AM this morning. Photo by Carl Hansen, © Hansen International Productions
Baker Lake is open, but as of yesterday afternoon Peterson (the first lake north of Baker) was still iced in. We got the Peterson report from our first canoe rental customers of the season.

Brother and sister, Dan and Sonja Burseth are the first Sawbill canoe rental customers of the 2013 season. Sonja works at the Lincoln Park R.E.I. store in Chicago.
Kawishiwi Lake is fully open as viewed from the canoe landing. I just issued the first permit of the year to a solo paddler heading in at Kawiwishi. It is pretty safe to assume that Square and Kawasachong Lakes, north of Kawishiwi, are open too. Polly Lake usually is a couple of days later than Kawishiwi. – Bill

Crew member Luke Opel holds up a chunk of honeycombed ice. Photo by Carl Hansen, © Hansen International Productions

Crew member Joe Daniels holds up a stick with last night’s skim ice still attached. Photo by Carl Hansen, © Hansen International Productions

5/12/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 11″. Take heart though, the wind seems to be taking a toll and there was noticeably more open water this morning. One more cold night tonight and then the warm weather is due. – Bill

This was the scene this morning. Snow on the ground and the glacier in front of the store building. All the new snow melted quickly (although the glacier will probably last until June). Today is cool, but sunny and windy

5/11/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 10″. Progress is happening in spite of cool temperatures.
Baker Lake opened up yesterday, but we don’t know if the lakes north of Baker (Peterson, Kelly and Jack) are open. A warmer forecast after the weekend should do the trick for most of the lakes near Sawbill. – Bill

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about possibly paddling around the edges of the lake. As you can see, that is not yet possible.

Sawbill Lake is getting darker, even on a cold, cloudy and blustery day like today.
Here is the latest edition of the Cook County West End News from WTIP, North Shore Community Radio.

5/10/13 – Today’s Sawbill Lake ice report: 13″. Not much progress since yesterday due to a cold night last night. It looks like melting will slow down during the weekend and then return with a vengeance early next week. – Bill