8/3/08 – The Sawbill crew held its second annual dragon boat race (actually canoes) to coincide with the Fisherman’s Picnic dragon boat races held in Grand Marais every year. Four 4-person teams started at the Forest Service dock half a mile from the Sawbill Landing and raced back to the landing. The winning team, in four minutes flat, was Three Babes and A Boy, consisting of Cindy, Tess, Jessa and me. Aside from swift paddling by the three gals and precision steering by me, our win is largely credited to the fact that all the other teams ran into each other when they rounded the point near the Forest Service dock. – Lee

Three Girls and One Boy: Cindy, Lee, Tess and Jessa bearing our pre-race game faces.

Something’s Afoot: Nathan, Sam, Clare and Liz getting pumped up before the race.

The Warmouth Slayers (Molly, Tim, Carl and Belinda) getting their boat into position at the dock.

Fear of Phartman: Frosty, Marc, Ellyn and Caitlin, ready for a postrace water fight.

8/3/08 – Thank you to Greg and Liz Fangel who sent this email:
On our day canoe outing yesterday, we saw what looked like an army helmet on
a rock in Sawbill Lake near the Smoke Lake portage. Upon closer examination,
we found this prehistoric creature.

Earler in the day, we were able to pick 5# of wild blueberries near Sawbill
(location undisclosed). They are abundant and plump this year.

Greg Fangel

8/1/08 – Every summer the self-proclaimed Sawbill Babes (female crew members) get dolled up for a night on the town in nearby Grand Marais. This year they visited Sivertson’s Gallery, which features Northwoods motif fine arts, the Angry Trout, a local seafood lover’s favorite, and Chez Jude, an award-winning fine dining establishment overlooking the harbor. As usual, they returned from the evening rested and raving about the good eats. – Lee

Say smoked gouda! The Babes take a moment away from dinner to pose for a group shot on the dock outside the Angry Trout.

On the left, Clare Hansen regales the others with stories (of course, wildly exaggerated) of her recent student travels in Chile.

The Babes share a warm moment again on the dock, most likely contemplating the serenity of the harbor and their next move. Dessert anyone?

Dessert at Chez Jude: delectable, and probably the first such morsel they’d seen in weeks that didn’t come from the ice cream freezer in the Sawbill store.

7/30/08 – Four Sawbill crew members recently set their alarms for the early hour of 5:15 to try to catch sunrise along the Kelso Loop. It was already light when Liz, Marc, Ellyn, and I slid our canoes into Sawbill Lake down at the landing, but we did catch the sun as it started to peek over the tall pines on the east side of Sawbill Lake and illuminate the mist rising off the water. Getting out for a morning paddle reminded us all that the BWCA is different and beautiful in all its moods. I recommend trying it the next time you visit. – Molly

The lake was beautifully calm in the narrow strait between the “Boundary Waters island” and the shore.

We were quiet enough to come upon this loon family as we paddled north on Sawbill. Aside from this, we only saw one other party (in canoes), as we finished up the loop around 7:30 a.m.

7/29/08 – We received the following note and photo from Charles Kersten today:
My son and I are back from another great adventure into the BWCAW thru Sawbill. We put our used Sawbill canoe and packs into great use! It is always a pleasure to use Sawbill as our entry point and we love the store with it’s friendly, helpful staff and great t-shirts to commemorate each years trip. This year my 14 year old son Andrew discovered it pays to look around the wilderness. While out on a “discovery” mission along a lake shore he came across quite a find! The attached photos say it all with the smile on his face. We took many photos to document his find…he will long remember that day! To those heading in…keep your eyes open…maybe you too can see treasure up close! We base camped on Cherokee 🙂

Andrew Kersten admires the massive moose antler that he found (and left for others to enjoy).

7/26/08 – Great news for all of you who like to leave your canoes down at the boat storage area while you’re camping at the Sawbill Lake Campground! Six hardworking students from the Minnesota Conservation Corps spent this week rebuilding the center set of steps that leads down from the main campground road to the storage area. They tore out rotten timbers, straightened out the sweep of the steps, and moved around a whole lot of dirt and gravel to bring you this new, stately, splinter-free staircase.

The steps now provide safe and solid footing for portaging canoes from the lake back up to the Sawbill Store. I think the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) members of the 1930s and ’40s would approve of this job.
As anyone who has read Mary Alice Hansen’s book Sawbill History and Tales knows, the Conservation Corps has a long history in this area. A sign commemorates the CCC camp at the intersection of the Grade Road and the Sawbill Trail, and MA writes that there were once thirteen camps in Cook County. Men stationed at the Sawbill Camp did everything from improving portages to taking depth data that was the beginning of lake contour mapping. Britton Peak, on the Superior Hiking Trail just north of Tofte, is also named for Sawbill CCC camp enrollee “Windy” Britton. (For more information, see Sawbill History and Tales, Chapter 8: “Corps Values – The CCC.”)
According to its website, the Minnesota Conservation Corps (MCC) follows in the footsteps of the CCC as it “provides hands-on environmental stewardship and service-learning opportunities to youth and young adults while accomplishing priority cost-effective conservation, natural resource management projects and emergency response work.”
The MCC members who worked at Sawbill this week have already spent four weeks at public space improvement projects across Minnesota and Wisconsin with other crews. They are participants in the Summer Youth Program, an 8-week traveling residential work program for 15- to 18-year-olds which attracts outdoor-loving students from across the country. They are now two weeks into their month working with this crew. When they left Sawbill yesterday, they were headed to the MCC base camp in Hinckley to await their next mission. – Molly

“Our” MCC crew goofs off in front of the Sawbill Store before they depart. From left to right, they are Tyler Goodwin (Bagley, MN), Zach Finger (Kasson, MN), Aimee Jefferson (Eden Prairie, MN), Chris Lezama (Daly City, CA), Ariana Hudzinski (Waynesboro, PA), and Elle Schneider (Belle Plaine, MN).

7/24/08 – Her first day on the water during this year’s Sawbill vacation, 15-year-old Jill Ross hooked this 7 1/2 pound lunker of a northern pike. In addition to being an avid and successful fisherwoman, the Merrillville, IN native also has a Sawbill Family connection: she is a niece of former Sawbill Crew member Patti Olson (’95-’97). She has been camping at the Sawbill campground with her family every summer that she can remember. – Molly

Jill hopes to make this one look small later in the week!

7/21/08 – Adam Hansen, of The Three Jakes (a canoeing group usually comprised, oddly enough, of four former Sawbill Crew members, only one of which is actually called Jake), sent us these photographs from this year’s annual trip. Over the last 12 years they’ve chronicled their adventures in a homemade book called “I’m In! The Story of The Three Jakes,” which is full of goofy snafus, cryptic inside jokes and crazy pictures. This year they ended up on Cherry Lake, near the Border Route, where Adam said they saw the full array of Boundary Waters wildlife, a moose, a bear, eagles galore, and had an all-around madcap good time, as usual. Thanks Adam! – Lee

A bull moose spotted by the Three Jakes on Ogishkemuncie Lake.

Adam Hansen, who stands a towering six-foot-six, at the bottom of a cliff on Cherry Lake, finally looks short compared to something.

Hey guys, look over here! The Three Jakes looking scattered at the portage into Cherry Lake; Jason Morse in front, John Oberholtzer on the right, Adam Hansen to the left and Thomps, a.k.a. Jeff Thompson, behind the camera.

7/19/08 – Looks like it’s past time for some crew arrival updates! Returning crew members Liz Foot, Tess Dornfeld and Tim Rinden all arrived in mid June, long-time Sawbillian Molly Breslin came late last month and Clare Hansen returned from a study-abroad trip in Chile just this week. The ranks are getting full here and it’s great to have the new faces and energy in the mix. – Lee

Clare Hansen, the latest arrival, seeing her family at the airport for the first time in months.

Liz Foot rowing her sculling shell across Sawbill Lake this morning. Liz’s rowing team at the University of Puget Sound won third place in the NCAA Division III national championships this spring.

Tess Dornfeld (center) enjoys the season’s first festive dinner, with a fiesta theme.

Tim Rinden goofing off with Carl Hansen at the festive dinner.

Molly Breslin and I posing during the festivities.

7/14/08 – Another big walleye surfaced this past week when Anne Foote went fishing through Sawbill and landed this 30 incher. Foote didn’t say whether or not it was a personal record, but by the look on her face I’d bet it’s safe to say it’s up there. The young angler released the beast soon after this photograph was taken. Foote went out with the Camping, Fishing and Canoeing class Professor Bob Ritzer teaches at University of Wisconsin River Falls. Where was I when registration for that class opened? – Lee

30 inch length, 16 inch girth: Arms getting tired, Anne?