5/16/22 – Yesterday, the 2022 crew continued the tradition of opening the swim season (nearly) as early as possible. Credit for the true first swim of the year goes to the group from Lake Superior College who jumped in a full week before us!
From left to right: Sawyer, David, Owen Jr, Matthew, Owen Sr, Katie, Autumn, Dan, Kit, Clare, Sigurd
To round out the weekend, we sat around the campfire Sunday night looking to the southeast sky as Earth’s shadow slowly engulfed the moon during the blood orange lunar eclipse. Living on the edge of the largest dark sky sanctuary in the world has some perks. – Matthew
5/14/22 – Today’s the day! There’s still a little ice persistently hanging on as of this post (11:30am), but a lot of progress has been made even since this morning, so it should be out by the end of the day. -Jessica
Picture taken 11am today by Owen Slater.
First crew paddle of the season yesterday evening. The south end of the lake was still iced in, but we were able to launch further up the lake. From what we could see just past Boundary Island the majority of the lake was ice free. Photo credit: Katie Kelley
5/12/22 – Last night, after a long day of prepping the store for opening, the crew measured our waning ice coverage. Owen was eager to get his hands on the auger, recording 16 inches total with about 6 inches of rotten ice on the bottom, the rest consisting of a slushy mixture.
Owen measuring the slush.
With about an inch of rainfall overnight, sustained warm temperatures, and constant wind, the lake looks considerably darker and less icy by the hour.
Ice fog blowing across the south end of the lake. 9:30 am 5/12/22
Looking north from the canoe yard. 9:30 am 5/12/2022
May 11, 2022 – The crew headed down to the landing on Sawbill Lake yesterday evening (May 10) for the daily ice check. This time, third year crew member Katie Kelley did the honors. Katie and Owen Slater, who arrived for his 5th season, are here just in time for ice out and beach club opening in a day or two.
Katie Kelley measures 18″ of degraded ice on Sawbill Lake. May 10, 2022
Katie reports that there are 18″ of degraded ice. About 8″ were pretty solid and the rest is slushy. She was able to stand on it, but it was very easy to auger through. The ice is heavily candled and is getting very dark. Lot’s of convection currents visible rising as you look out across the lake. With the warm weather, we are expecting the ice to be out in the next day or two.
The ice is receding west to east, so there are many lakes west of here that are open. We had one customer check out Kawishiwi Lake yesterday and saw enough of an open water path that they were able to launch and head out on a trip. Based on satellite imagery, Baker Lake also appears to be ice free as of yesterday.
May 9, 2022 – One of our favorite crew arrival rituals is to have the newly arrived crew drill a hole in the lake. With the late ice out, we are getting a nice rotating cast to do the honors. Today was second year crew member, David Kelm’s, turn. David took a couple year hiatus between stints here at Sawbill. He is rounding out one more “fun” summer before entering law school in Oregon in the fall. There is a long illustrious list of Sawbill crew lawyers, so David will be in good company.
David Kelm “paddles” out to thicker ice for the measurement on May 9, 2022
Anyway, back to the ice update. This evening, the crew measured 22″ total from the bottom of the ice to the top of the surface. There was 8 inches of solid ice and 14 inches of degraded slush.
Looking south toward Sawbill Creek. Lot’s of open water by the fishing pier and the creek is raging.Looking north from the landing on Sawbill Lake on May 9, 2022. The ice has detached from shore and started to float.
The temperatures are skyrocketing into the high 60’s lower 70’s in the next few days, so ice out is imminent. We think Sawbill will be open between the 12- 14th. We’ll be measuring daily now, so stay tuned!
David, Sawyer and Owen walk back up the now mostly snow-free road to the landing.
5/8/22 – With ice and snow rapidly melting, the crew measured the ice depth again Friday evening. As the newest arrival, I was selected to drill the hole and measure. I recorded 27 inches total with 18 inches of slush/snow atop 9 inches of solid ice.
From the landing looking south. Sawbill creek flows from this southern bay, opening the ice before anywhere else.
From the landing looking north.
The roads are almost clear of snow, the campground is thawing out, and the wilderness is awakening. Paddling season is nearly here! – Matthew
5/4/22 – When we’re not measuring the ice these days we’re busy getting the store ready for the eventual arrival of paddling season. Matthew Campbell just arrived for another season in the northwoods and went straight to work pricing all the necessities of a quality camping trip. Forgot your telescoping fly swatter? We’ve got them!
Matthew and Owen pricing like the wind.
Today I measured an average of 18 inches of snow in the woods so we’re making progress (last week I measured 29 inches)! There’s lots of variation however with some snowdrifts still multiple feet deep, but the open areas exposed to more sunlight are creeping larger and larger each day. -Jessica
5/2/22 – Today’s ice thickness is the same as the last; 36 inches total from the top of the slush to bottom of the ice with the bottom 17 inches solid ice. The big difference since our last measurement is that the top slush layer is more water logged than it was a few days ago. The slush was deep enough along the shoreline that we were worried it was going to top our boots so we hauled a canoe down to bridge the gap to the firmer slush. Owen Willcoxon, who just arrived yesterday, drilled today’s test hole. There’s still plenty of snow in the woods, but with off and on rain the past couple of days we’ve made a dent in that as well. -Jessica
Owen scooches his way across the slush while Sawyer offers words of encouragement.
4/30/22 – Since 1990 we’ve been reporting Sawbill Lake’s ice out date to the University of New York at Buffalo. They provided us this handy graph the other day showing the ice out dates we’ve reported over the years.
The latest ice out we have on record was May 18, 1996. The earliest March 27th, 2012 with a mean ice out of April 28th.
As things stand I expect the ice will be around for at least another week, if not more. The five day forecast shows highs in the 40s with lows mostly below freezing and the possibly rain.
The road to the lake and campground remains completely snowed in.
The vast majority of ground remains covered in feet of snow, but a few patches with southern exposure are beginning to open up revealing signs of spring. The most springy of which are the daffodils and crocus popping through the snow behind the crew house. -Jessica
4/26/22 – Yesterday afternoon Sawyer and I ventured a little further out on the lake for the official ice measurement. We found 36 inches from the bottom of the ice to the top of the snow. The top 19 inches were mostly frozen snow and slush with the bottom 17 inches solid ice.
Sawyer drilling the test hole.
A little progress was made on the snow melting front this past weekend as well, although that slowed to a halt Monday and Tuesday with temperatures staying below freezing. -Jessica
Average of 29 inches of snowpack in the woods as of 9am this morning.
