5/6/17 – As the final flurries of snow fell among the pines, three more crew members made their way up the Sawbill Trail. After a few years away from Sawbill working in Alaska and Colorado, Tyler Campbell is back for a full season as a returning crew member. Also back for another year is Brian Henry. New to the Sawbill crew this year is Mark Streeter, most recently from Forest Grove, OR. The three of them have happily jumped into action as more excited paddlers continue trickling in.

Tyler, Brian, and Mark.

Potential boy band? Time will tell.
-Mark

4/23/17 – The ice is out on Sawbill Lake! We also had our very first customers the next day! Canoe season is upon us with the Loons already singing and Grouse are drumming away.
It seems like only yesterday that the sun was setting at 4pm and there was 32 inches of ice. Come take advantage of the early thaw with a dip in the lake just like the Sawbill crew!

Beach Club 2017

4/21/17 – It’s official, the ice on Sawbill is out! We are too busy opening the beach club and paddling around to other area lakes to post a photo today, but we’ll put one up soon. Kawishiwi beat Sawbill with ice out yesterday. Alton lake is still frozen, but the ice is slushy and dark and will likely be out soon. -Clare

4/18/17 – The uniquely Minnesotan season known as Sprinter has taken hold here at Sawbill. Not quite willing to relinquish its hold to Spring, Winter is having a (hopefully) last hurrah. In the last two days we’ve had day time temps in the low 40s, with overnight lows around 27 and a mixture of hail, freezing rain, and even a dusting of snow. Sawbill Lake is still ice covered, although it has detached from shore and floated up. A few hardy merganser ducks have found their way to the small area of open water by the Sawbill creek outflow.

A chilly Sprinter morning at Sawbill.

This star nosed mole fell victim to the icy water between the landing and the ice. We found him right at the canoe launch a few days ago. His interesting nose and huge feet were fun to inspect up close! -Clare

4/14/17 – The days are flying by up here as we quickly prepare ourselves for the arrival of excited paddlers. We’ve been hard at work scrubbing the store, pulling things out of storage, and refurbishing for-sale canoes as we prep the new ones for their first year in the rental fleet.
The days are warm, but it is still freezing overnight. The lake has about 8 inches of ice still, but it is honeycombed and no longer safe to travel on (just ask Huckleberry, he’s ok but has taken several unintentional swims).

Kit watches as Dan, Jesse and Huck walk the plank to measure the remaining ice.

The sun sets on perhaps one of ice’s last days on Sawbill.
-Clare

4/6/17 – A big welcome to returning Sawbill crewmember Jessica Hemmer! This is Jessica’s seventh season with us and we are SO GLAD she’s back for another summer of Wilderness fun. Jessica reports that the ice is 17 inches thick on the lake as of yesterday afternoon, it’s going fast!

4/3/17 – We welcome the month of April along with the arrival of our good friend and first crew member of the season. Jesse Bergeson has a vast background of hands-on Wilderness conservation work throughout Montana and Idaho. Jesse was introduced to the BWCAW by his grandfather. We are excited to have such an experienced Wilderness traveler and advocate join our crew!

For his first day, Huckleberry trained Jesse in proper ice auger technique. Jesse and Huck report that the ice is 24 inches thick with an inch of slush on top.
-Clare

3/28/17 – Let the ice measuring begin! When we encountered a lake covered in large puddles at the start of our daily cross country ski, we thought it prudent to measure the ice before venturing too far. Lest you worry about us, there are still 24 inches of solid ice with about 4 inches of hard packed slush and snow on top of that. Our ski was a sloppy one, with soaking socks to prove it. With temperatures in the high 40’s and the sun shining the sky was reflected perfectly in the large pools of standing water. It felt for all the world like we were skiing on the sky.

Who needs pushups when you can auger through 24″ of ice?
-Clare

3/16/17 – It’s still winter up at Sawbill. The lake ice is thick, and the surface is pretty slick thanks to the warm weather and freezing nights. There is a nice ribbon of windswept snow along the eastern shore though, allowing us to squeeze in some skiing.

Dan, Kit and Huck enjoying some much needed Vitamin D.

3/3/17 – If you got your permit through us last summer, chances are we asked you to fill out a short survey. The survey was studying the economic impact of visitors to the BWCAW, commissioned by Friends of the Boundary Waters in partnership with Conservation Economics Institute and Quetico-Superior Foundation. The results are in, and they are astounding! The study, conducted during the 2016 summer tourism season, found that out-of-region visitors spent $57 million in the three surrounding counties: Cook, Lake and St. Louis. This spending led to the creation of nearly 1,000 jobs and overall economic output of $77 million in one summer season.
Joe Friedrichs, of our local radio station WTIP, recently did a great feature on the study, which you can listen to here.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out and return the survey! We are happy to know that the data supports what we’ve always known to be true; visitors to the BWCA are a major economic driver in our region.
Clare