8/25/08 – Whoops, I failed to include the dates of the Passport In Time project on the Sawbill Guard Cabin. They are September 8-12 & 15-19, 2008. – Bill

8/23/08 – Passport in Time (PIT) is a volunteer archaeology and historic preservation program of the USDA Forest Service (FS). PIT volunteers work with professional FS archaeologists and historians on national forests throughout the U.S. on such diverse activities as archaeological survey and excavation, rock art restoration, survey, archival research, historic structure restoration, oral history gathering, and analysis and curation of artifacts. The FS professional staff of archaeologists and historians will be your hosts, guides, and co-workers.
On September 8-12; 15-19, 2008, come help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the CCC at the historic CCC-constructed guard cabin at the Sawbill Lake Guard Station. Set above the shores of scenic Sawbill Lake, the NRHP-eligible guard station is a testament to the days of remote station work carried out by Forest Guards. The CCC boys at Sawbill Camp F-10 constructed the log cabin with saddle-notching for the Superior National Forest circa 1936 using the standard Forest Service plans. The cabin remains in use by the Superior National Forest to house seasonal wilderness crews. With your help, we will restore the windows this year, by removing old caulking, cleaning and replacing broken panes, re-caulking, and repainting the frames.

Number of openings: 10
Special skills: Carpentry and painting experience helpful but not required
Minimum age: 15 years old; under 18 with a responsible adult
Facilities: Free camping for the volunteers at Sawbill Campground, adjacent to the guard station, pit toilets, potable water; general store, showers; hotel facilities available along the North Shore of Lake Superior near Tofte
Nearest towns: Tofte, 20 miles; Grand Marais, 47 miles
Application Form.

8/23/08 – Our staff guide, Dave Freeman, sent us the following post:
Kim and Ian Vander Hoeven sent me a couple of photos of smallmouth bass that they caught on our recent trip. We base camped on Flame lake, and fished Smoke, Burnt, Kelly, and Peterson. We let most of the fish go, but we kept a couple to eat. At one spot we landed eight 14 – 20 inch small mouth in a matter of minutes and lost a bunch more. Plus, I had a huge northern pike rip a foot long smallmouth off my line. It was one of the most action packed 30 minutes of fishing I have had in a long time.
We also had some unusually friendly loons swim after our canoe. One loon in particular swam after our canoe several times and actually ran into my paddle. The only thing I can think of is that it was chasing bait fish that were startled by our canoe. – Dave

Ian Vander Hoeven with a nice bass.

Mother and son enjoy fishing success.

8/20/08 – As of tonight, campfires are banned in a large portion of the BWCA Wilderness. The banned area includes most of the area around Sawbill, Baker, Brule and Homer Lakes. All of the area north and east of Sawbill is in the ban area. The ban area extends west of Sawbill through Phoebe Lake along the Lady Chain route. There is no ban out of the Kawishiwi Lake entry point until you get north of the Kawishiwi River just above Malberg Lake. There is a map available showing the restricted area (large file). – Bill

8/20/08 – For this year’s installment of guys’ night out, the Sawbill men made an eating tour of a few of our favorite spots around Grand Marais (imagine six hungry PacMans frantically racing for pellets). First, we listened to live music and had dinner at The Landing on Devil Track Lake. We then headed to Sydney’s Custard for a sweet treat, but a few of us couldn’t resist their top notch gyros. After that we walked to Sven and Ole’s pizza for the legendary Meat-Zah. Needless to say, we came home feeling fat and happy. Thanks for a restful night out, Bill! – Lee

Here’s the whole gang waiting patiently for food at The Landing.

Sven and Ole’s was closing when we got there, so we took our pizza to go. Here we’re loitering on a Grand Marais street corner, about to dig in. Marc took the picture, and Carl was across the street catcalling teenage girls.

8/16/08 – The Siebenmanns, long-long-long-time Sawbill customers (45 years!), brought along a special guest on their annual trip this year. Shogo Okada, 22, Yokohama, Japan, got his first glimpse of wilderness when he accompanied Fred Siebenmann III, Fred Siebenmann Jr. and Welden Blum on a Boundary Waters canoe trip through Brule Lake. Okada, an undergraduate pre-law student back home, is in the United States on a year long ESL exchange program, and is staying with the younger Fred’s family in Portland, Ore. Six months in, he’s already visited Yosemite National Park, toured Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, skied and snowboarded Mt. Hood, in Oregon, whitewater rafted (with Fred III as his private guide) on the Deschutes River, in Oregon, and paddled the Boundary Waters. Who knows what the remaining six months have in store? – Lee

Fred Siebenmann Jr., Welden Blum, Fred Siebenmann III and Shogo Okada (left to right) take a well-earned break in the canoe yard after their trip.

8/15/08 – For those of you who haven’t seen the aftermath of 2006’s Cavity Lake Fire for yourselves, here are two photographs I took on my recent trip into the Boundary Waters. The fire started on Cavity Lake, off the Gunflint Trail, and spread all the way to the area shown below, just north of Little Saganaga Lake. Paddling and portaging through the burn area was an eerie reminder of the power inherent in undeveloped ecological systems, and an amazing look at a near-wasteland of charred tree trunks, burned-white granite, and new green brush growing up between. – Lee

Imagine That: A few years ago this gurgling stream off the north end of Little Saganaga Lake would have been rushing out from the cover of trees.

Notice the hint of purple wildflowers along the green brush on the floor of the burn area. Signs of healing, indeed.

8/14/08 – Tom Bittinger, a long time canoeist from Owatonna, Minnesota, sent the picture below from his recent canoe trip. Not only did he catch two nice bass, he caught them on one lure at the same time. Now that is good fishing. Thanks Tom.

Tom calls this his “30 inch” small mouth – a 14″ and a 16″. Both posed cooperatively for the picture and were returned unharmed to the water.

8/7/08 – Blueberry picking season has arrived. For a few weeks in late summer the Northwoods abound with ripening berries. Today Molly, Liz and Caitlin took a few minutes away from work to drive to a secret location down the trail and harvest these sweet treats (I hear we might be having cheesecake for dessert soon!). If you’re out on a canoe trip in the next few weeks, scout open areas exposed to lots of sunlight; look for the berries on a small bushy plant. You just might come away with a full basket, and telltale blue fingertips. – Lee

Caitlin removing bits of leaves and the few unfit blueberries from the bunch.

One hour worth of harvesting: The pickers gathered enough blueberries to fill half of a gallon ice cream tub in about an hour this afternoon.

8/6/08 – At last! The final member of our summer crew has arrived. Returning crew member Caitlin Coomes showed up in late July and got right to work stacking wood under the supervision of master stacker Liz. Caitlin brings us renewed enthusiasm, wicked dance moves and mad soccer skills. We’re glad to have her back, and just in time for a busy August. – Lee

Liz and Caitlin on the job.