3/4/10 – Greg Fangel and Liz Wagner, Tofte and Twin Cities residents and avid cross country skiers, spent a couple of days camping in the wilderness starting here at Sawbill. They enjoyed gorgeous weather – warm temperatures, calm winds, brilliant sunshine and a night sky thick with stars. They were kind enough to share some pictures with us.

Greg show good skiing form even with a toboggan holding him back.

Multi-tasking breakfast and boot warming.

Home, sweet home.

The frozen waves of Alton Lake.

A bobcat track.

Exploring Kelso Lake.

Greg and Liz are aficionados of classic wooden winter transportation. Visit his fabulous website WoodenSkis.com.

Liz peers comfortably from her down sleeping bag.

3/2/10 – We received this kind and useful email this morning from long-time Sawbill customer Scott Oeth:
I am a volunteer with the Northern Star Council (Minneapolis-St. Paul area) Boy Scout Council and serve as the chairman of the council’s Eagle Scout Scholarship committee. I’m also a big fan of Sawbill, and have made many trips with my good friend Mike Branham to stay at the campground. I always appreciate Bill’s friendly conversation and being able to buy coffee, showers and souvenirs at your store! Our committee is working with Cliff Jacobson on organizing a wilderness canoeing school which he will be conducting the weekend of March 27th, with all the proceeds going to fund scout scholarships. The program is open to the public, but is designed for the outdoors enthusiast, in particular trip leaders. Cliff is also a big fan of and recommends many trips heading out of Sawbill!
I’m wondering if you could help us out on the promotion side. I’ve attached a detailed agenda and registration form and a link with information on the council site is below. If you could please pass this on to those you know who may be interested, it would really help our scholarship fund and to help develop canoe country enthusiast.
http://www.northernstarbsa.org/News.aspx?articleID=560
Please let me know if you have any questions. I’ll see you this fall if not before!
Thanks,
Scott Oeth

2/24/10 – Frank Hansen asked me to thank everyone who sent greetings to him on hes 89th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Since Frank and Mary Alice moved to Grand Marais a few years ago, they have really missed regular contact with all their good Sawbill friends. – Bill

2/23/10 – “Nordic Nirvana” is what we are experiencing at Sawbill right now. The local ski trails, Sawbill Lake and the rest of the BWCA Wilderness is in perfect condition for cross country skiing. Inspired by NBC’s really good cross country ski coverage, we’ve been burning up the trails. The weather has been perfect, making it all the sweeter.
This space isn’t meant to be promotional, but downhill skiing and snowboarding at nearby Lutsen Mountains are fabulous right now too. The snow is perfect, the weather mild, the slopes uncrowded and they are offering some very good lodging/lift ticket packages. There is also some fantastic music coming up at Papa Charlie’s night club. – Bill

A perfect ski trail is a beautiful sight.

Cindy and the dogs head up Sawbill in the late afternoon sunshine.

The otters are enjoying the fast snow on the lakes too!

During the summer, we call the Forest Service airplane dock “The Sawbill Beach Club.” As we skied by yesterday, we saw this sign peeking out from under the snow on the dock. It may be closed, but no one would mind if you wanted to swim there now.

2/11/10 – We were saddened to learn of the passing this year of Jim Baldwin, a long time Sawbill canoeist, scout leader, and father of Dave Baldwin who was a Sawbill crew member back in the ’80s. Our condolences to the Dave and his family. Jim introduced generations of Missourians to canoe country and a love of wilderness. – Bill

2/8/10 – I just received an unusual request from a customer. He wanted our free map/route guide of the Sawbill area so he and his wife could use it to help find a name for their soon to be born son. Of course, there are many good boy-name lakes: Alton, Jordan, Kelly, Gordon, Karl, Roy, Slim and so on. There are also many other lake names that would be inappropriate to name a baby after, but may provide some amusement: Little Hustler, Kingfisher, Frog, Sucker, Fallen Arch and Clam, just to name a few. – Bill

2/6/10 – Frank Hansen, Sawbill Outfitters co-founder and my dad, is 89 years old today. His email address is mah@boreal.org if you’d like to send him a greeting. – Bill

You can listen anytime to Frank’s weekly column on our wonderful local community radio station, WTIP.

2/3/10 – Ken Harmon is a talented photographer who often works in the Sawbill area. He was kind enough to share these beautiful photos that he took almost a week after the last snowstorm. The snow on the trees is still frozen hard, so the woods continue to look like a postcard. You can visit Ken’s website for more great photography, – Bill

Lichen Lake

Highland view.

Lichen Lake.

1/28/10 – Long-time Sawbill paddler Matt Caton kindly sent a link to this slide show of his canoe trip last summer. – Bill

1/27/10 – A ruptured steam line in Duluth cut off almost all communication here in Cook County yesterday. A fiber optic cable was melted by the steam and we were all without long distance telephone, cell phone and internet service. The exceptions were phone calls within your own exchange (hello neighbor!) and satellite internet except for websites that are hosted locally. For us, that meant only one phone call and no email for the day. It is interesting to be brought up short and realize how dependent we have become on modern communication.
Over the weekend we had a nice snowstorm that dumped 10″ of fresh snow. Much of the state had rain, but we had really wet snow for the first 3″ then fluffy snow on top of that. A perfect combination to refresh the trails and hills for skiing, snowboarding and this weekend’s John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. – Bill

Our sauna looks cozy under fresh snow in the dawn’s glow.

The pine grosbeaks are puffy and colorful at -4 degrees.

The snow gauge standing at 19″.