6/11/10 – Last weekend we welcomed a new crew member to Sawbill, Jessica Hemmer. Jessica, in the fall, will be entering her Junior year at Saint Cloud State University, where she is majoring in ecology and field biology and takes an interest in studying animal populations and behavior.
Jessica grew up in St. Cloud, but has spent a lot of time in the Boundary Waters, visiting at least once a year for the past five years. She visited Sawbill for the first time last year, and she traveled the Kelso Loop with her family. She loved the experience and the area so much that she decided to come back and work at Sawbill for the summer.
Her favorite job so far is administering the Sawbill campground, mostly because she likes being outside and enjoys the quiet, almost ascetic serenity of the area. She most enjoys the sites that are close to the lake, and the privacy that all the sites provide.
-Patrick

Jessica rolling sleeping bags.

6/8/10 – It’s another rainy day here at Sawbill, which is still much needed but has begun to extend a rainy weekend into a rainy week. In spite of the rain, though, many visitors have seen wildlife in abundance, both around Sawbill and in the Boundary Waters.

Recent visitor Shawn Peyton took this moose picture on Cherokee Creek just north of Sawbill.

This playful loon pestered crew member Luke Opel on Alton lake during the fishing opener.
-Patrick

6/7/10 – Recently Sawbill received flowers to decorate around the store, and Cindy, Luke, and Liz have been hard at work planting, mulching, and beautifying the area. The plants have been put all around the store, mostly in pots and in hanging baskets. Many different types of flowers, including petunias, geraniums, and many other varieties have now been planted around the store; make sure to check them out when stopping by for a visit.



Some pictures of the new plantings.
In addition, new flowers are starting to bloom in the woods, including roses and other wildflowers. – Patrick

6/6/10 – This past weekend, the Tofte area received some much needed and overdue rain. On Friday especially, it rained pretty much all day, which helped break the dry spell in the area. Sawbill saw a little over half an inch of rain, and some additional rain fell on Saturday and today. Hopefully, a steady amount of moisture will continue to fall in the coming weeks in order to catch up for the year and stop the coming of a very dry late summer.
-Patrick

Jessica Olmanson snapped this picture on a rainy Friday morning from a campsite on Cherokee Lake.

6/2/10 – Cindy Hansen and Brian O’Neill recently did some late afternoon trout fishing on a nearby stream. Fishing was very good, but they had a little trouble holding on to their catches long enough to snap the picture. All the fish went back in the water anyway, so it didn’t really matter. – Bill

Oops… oh well.

I told Cindy that her hat would scare the fish, but she said “unh uh” and I’ll give you three guesses who was right.

6/1/10 – Sawbill welcomed two new members to the crew this week. First to arrive was Joe Daniels, who just finished his freshman year at Illinois Wesleyan University. He is studying environmental studies, and some day hopes to work for a non-profit on sustainability projects. He spends most of his free time in photography, running, and canoeing the BWCA, and so far he most enjoys the proximity (or surroundings) of wilderness at Sawbill. He also loves the food.

Joe filling out his first ever work credit sheet.
Leif Gilsvik arrived second. He graduated from Two Harbors just a few days ago, and he will be attending Gogebic Community College in Ironwood, Michigan in the fall, where he plans to study exercise physiology. His hobbies include Nordic skiing (which he will also be doing at school), fishing, and camping. His favorite parts of Sawbill so far include the fishing, the variety of jobs available, and, like Joe, the great food.

Leif washing life jackets.
-Patrick

5/31/10 – There have been numerous wildlife sightings around the Sawbill area, as many visitors have reported seeing moose, eagles, grouse, and beavers. Perhaps most unexpectedly, though, have been the early appearance of dragonflies, which usually don’t show up until mid-June. They can be seen all around Sawbill right now, resting on canoes and buzzing the roads looking for insects.
Today, a rare daytime visitor slept right outside the Sawbill store. A small brown bat, one of the most common bats in the area, flew in midday and slept next to the door to the office all day long. He moved once, most likely right after he was drawing attention from the camera, to hang in between the frame of the door and the corner of the building.

The bat when he first arrived.


He later moved to a slightly more protected spot.
-Patrick

5/29/10 – A group of 23 Rochester Century High School students recently returned to Sawbill from a five day trip into the Boundary Waters. The students went on the trip for the culmination of an Environmental Awareness class, and the trip allowed them to examine the issues and concepts from the class through a firsthand wilderness experience. All the students, however, are seniors and will be graduating next week, and as they traded stories on the porch outside the Sawbill store, it was clear that their memories went beyond what they experienced for the class.

Rochester Century Students on the Porch with Homer.
Many of the students shared stories of nasty spills and practical jokes. Others had more curious memories. When asked about his favorite part of his trip, Erich Moyer said he most enjoyed double portaging 285 rods.
The students also had excellent news that has been shared by many Sawbill visitors recently: fishing is picking up. Cody Thompson reported great walleye fishing on Smoke Lake, and excellent pike fishing on Cam Lake, where five lines in the water resulted in five Northerns in the boats, all at the same time.
Perhaps most curious, however, was the pride of Matt Hyde, whom the group called “The Polar Bear.” Hyde showed off a terrible sunburn, and it is doubtful that he will enjoy the sunburn as much for his long ride home. When asked whether he had learned anything from the experience, perhaps the value of sunscreen, Hyde rejected this notion. He only said that next time he’ll maybe wear a shirt, but sunscreen was out of the question. He prefers to be “all natural.”

Matt Hyde shows off his sunburn.
-Patrick

5/27/10 – One unexpected benefit of the unusually warm spring has been the almost complete lack of black flies. Black flies (often referred to as gnats or sand flies), usually present in late May and early June, are aggressive and persistent biters. Although they are easily repelled by normal insect repellent, some years they are so numerous that they become real pests. This year, we had a few days back in early May when they were biting, but they now seem to be gone for the season.
A local biologist explained recently that black flies exist as larva in running streams. When the water temperature reaches a certain point they emerge as flying adults. This year, the streams warmed up so fast that only a few were able to emerge and they now seem to have died of old age. – Bill

5/26/10 – Last night Sawbill received some much needed rain, in the form of a sudden storm that hit around 5 p.m. The winds were high, and brought down some branches, but didn’t cause any serious damage.

The top portion of a white pine fell due to the storm.
The good news is that the storm probably helped fishermen today. Fishing has been slowly picking up since the opener, and walleye are definitely biting now. Which is perfect timing, because Memorial Day weekend is right around the corner. It’s going to be a beautifully busy weekend here.

Sawbill Lake, a great place to start an adventure.