9/25/12 – This morning Tyler and Carl went out grouse hunting and came back with nine birds between the two of them.

The boys showing off their birds. These will make quite a feast! – Anna

9/22/12 –

If you look very carefully at this picture, you will see the first snow flakes of the season. It’s been cool and wet around here for the last few days, but warm sunshine is on the way. – Bill

9/20/12 – Here is last week’s Cook County West End News from WTIP, North Shore Community Radio. – Bill

9/18/12 – Our good friend and talented songwriter, Jerry Vandiver, has written another good canoeing themed song. “Me and Molly” is a celebration of canoeing with a dog. Jerry wants to create a slide show for YouTube, accompanied by the studio version of the song, featuring great pictures of canoeing dogs. If you have a picture for him, send them to jerry@paddlesongs.com. – Bill

9/14/12 – We’ve had two bits of Sawbill history, in the form of historic photos, walk through the door in the last two days. Here are two of the pictures:

Dennis and Karole Dejung,from Raymond, Minnesota stopped in yesterday with an envelope full of pictures taken by Dennis’ father Andrew when he was enrolled in the Sawbill Camp of the Civilian Conservation Corps sometime in the 1930s. This photo had a note on the back saying “Canoe on Sawbill Lake.”

Roger Dudero, from Minneapolis, dropped off a handful of old, black and white post cards that he sent to his parents from Sawbill Lodge in 1956. This is a picture of “Uno,” the wooden man who stood in Sawbill Creek and “made the creek flow” with his paddle wheel. He was a fixture for tourist photos for at least 20 years. We still have Uno, but he is retired from creek duty and lives, kind of creepily, in our wood shed.

9/10/12 – Tim and Charles Petricek, who are very frequent Sawbill campers and have a great eye for wildlife, got these fabulous pictures last weekend. – Bill
Bill,
I wanted to share some nice pictures of a bull moose we spotted last weekend. This bull moose was actually following a cow moose across the lake while we were fishing. We weren’t able to get a photo of the cow, but the bull looked awesome especially with the branch still stuck in his antler! My dad, Charles Petricek, took the photos. Thanks again to you and Sawbill Canoe Outfitters for making experiences like this possible for us city folk.
Timothy Petricek
Racine, WI

9/8/12 – The Forest Service has announced that all the fires in the BWCA Wilderness are out or contained. The announcement came before the steady, cold rain that is falling right now. The forecast is dry for the next week so conditions for canoe trips and camping should be excellent as we head into the fall color season. – Bill

9/7/12 – A partial fire ban has been declared in the BWCA Wilderness by the Forest Service. Fires are allowed between 7 pm and midnight. They are not allowed at any other time during the day.
There are a number of small fires in the wilderness, but they’re all far from Sawbill. It is actually fairly damp around here, with pretty normal rainfall all summer. All the fires are being aggressively contained. – Bill

9/3/12-Happy Labor Day! As we move into September, there are signs that Autumn is coming to Sawbill. Some fall color has already started appearing in the leaves. Peak fall color is predicted to occur in late September to early October around Sawbill, which is only a few weeks from now. It looks like it will be a beautiful out there! -Britta

Some yellow snuck into the greens around Sawbill Lake.

This leaf got a jump-start on falling.

The brilliant red tree pictured here can be seen from the Sawbill Trail.

9/2/12-One week ago today crew member Leif Gilsvik participated in the Superior Man Triathlon. This triathlon consists of a 1.2 mile swim in Lake Superior and a 56 mile bike mainly along scenic Highway 61 from Duluth to Two Harbors and back. It ends with a 13.1 mile run around the city of Duluth. This is the first year the triathlon has been held, but Superior Man 2013 is already in the works. Leif completed the entire race in an impressive 6 hours and 7 minutes. He says that he absolutely plans to do more triathlons in the future. -Britta

Leif biking in the Superior Man Triathlon.