5/4/12 – The Sawbill Lake canoe landing now has a 20′ floating dock section that will make loading and unloading canoes much more convenient. Thanks to the U.S. Forest Service! – Bill

Derek Montgomery and Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio journalists, are the first people to use the new floating dock at the Sawbill Lake canoe landing.

4/26/12 – Here are two great pictures.

I thought this was the same lynx that we had in a recent photo, but on closer inspection, it is clearly a different lynx. It is so wonderful to have these big cats roaming the woods around here.

Part of this year’s order from Wenonah Canoe Company arrived this morning. The canoe yard is now a sea of bright Kevlar! – Bill

4/24/12 – Big excitement here at Sawbill yesterday as the Forest Service worked to replace their floating airplane dock that is near their cabin at the far north end of the campground. The dock was delivered last fall, but they had to wait until this spring to hire a large fork lift to get it into the lake. It isn’t easy to get a machine near Sawbill Lake, but they did find a way to get the dock sections into the water at the canoe landing. Then they towed the sections past the campground and into position.
We had suggested that they install the old dock at the canoe landing to make it easier to load and unload canoes. They decided not to use the old dock, but did order an 18 foot floating dock section to attach to the current canoe landing. It should be here and installed by early summer – Bill

4/18/12 – The weather has been wildly variable again this past week. We’ve gone from extreme fire danger to extremely wet and cold with a fine layer of slush on the ground right now. We won’t complain about moisture though. We’ve had more than 2″ in the last few days. The lakes and streams are very high again.

The seasonal transition: slush on the canoes.
Here is this week’s edition of the Cook County West End News from WTIP North Shore Community Radio. – Bill

4/7/12 – The Hansen’s have been on vacation this week, if you have wondered why there are no updates here. Minnesota’s warm weather chased us out to British Columbia for a last shot of winter. We’re near the Sovereign Lakes Nordic Centre, one of the finest cross country trail systems in the world. The nearby Silver Star Ski Resort is providing excellent downhill skiing and snowboarding.
Here is a link to a YouTube presentation of a Sawbill canoe trip last fall. – Bill

3/30/12 –

This is the March weather we know and love. 3″ of snow overnight.

Phoebe is excited to run down to see if the lake is refrozen – it isn’t.

3/29/12 – Here is this week’s edition of the Cook County West End News from WTIP North Shore Community Radio. – Bill

3/28/12 – The ice cleared from Sawbill Lake yesterday, March 27th. This is a new record for early ice-out by a wide margin. The previous record was set on April 4th, 2010. An ice-out date in March was unthinkable in the past.
Canoeing is theoretically possible now, but I’m sure some of the larger lakes are still ice covered. Also, the weather forecast is fairly grim for the next week with snow, freezing rain and high winds predicted. Today it is snowing with very high winds and temperatures in the low 30s. – Bill

A small remnant of ice floats on Sawbill Lake. Officially, the ice is considered out when more than 90% of the lake is ice free.

3/23/12 – Sawbill Lake’s ice cover is pretty degraded, but we are expecting more seasonable temperatures in the coming week, so I don’t think it will go out for at least another week. It is a notoriously difficult thing to predict though.

The view looking north from the Sawbill canoe landing at 5:30 today.

The Forest Service is replacing their old floating airplane dock on Sawbill Lake. They usually unhook it from shore and paddle it around into a sheltered bay for the winter. With the new dock in position to be installed this spring, they decided to leave the old dock in place this winter. Soon the ice will break it away from shore and it will have to be fetched back from where ever the wind decides to leave it.
Here is this week’s edition of Cook County West End News from WTIP – North Shore Community Radio. Bill

3/20/12 – Ken Farnham was camping here at Sawbill less that two weeks ago. He has a beautiful, large canvas tent with a wood stove, cots, a table and a kitchen. He sent along this great picture of his 11 year old daughter, Seda, enjoying a snowshoe hike.

Seda is Armenian and her name means “Spirit in the Forest” and her father says, “She certainly is.”
It’s hard to believe that they were skiing and snowshoeing less than two weeks ago. The snow is all gone now, except for piles and some drifts in shady areas. Some of the small ponds in the area have lost their ice and it looks like some lakes will start to open up within the week. This is, of course, unprecedented since weather records have been kept. Take a look at the dramatic temperature change on our weather blog. – Bill

Phoebe inspects the rapidly melting lake ice.

Roy, looking like a black dog on a hot, sunny day.