6/4/22 – It’s official folks! Summer has arrived here at Sawbill. Daytime temperatures are in the mid to upper sixties and the recent thunderstorms created a verdant landscape for visitors and residents to enjoy. The warmer weather has also coincided with the return of our favorite summertime friends, the black flies. Despite their unwelcome arrival, we are thoroughly enjoying the buds on the trees, young plants, and beautiful wildflowers that are starting to spring up. The water is also warming up, leaving all of us hopeful for comfortable swimming in the near future!

Crewmember Katie and Sawbillian-turned-campground host Jesse went for a quick foraging trip late last week, keeping their eyes out for ramps and morels in the maple forests down the trail. Though they returned empty handed, they did see some other notable species during their frolic through the woods. Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica), lilies-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis), and wild violets (Viola sororia) speckle the floor of the Superior National Forest.

Additional species will continue to pop up throughout the spring and summer here, so keep your plant ID books ready and your eyes peeled! What kind of new growth have you noticed in your neighborhood this year? – Katie

Happy memorial day, one and all! The holiday weekend has historically marked the beginning of the Summer season here in the North Woods, and this year is no exception – the canoes are out on the lake, the ice machine is churning, and the aroma of pan-fried walleye is wafting through the campground. Much remains the same around here, though it’s fun to note the new happenings as well. One exciting new development has been a friendly beaver frequenting the south end of Sawbill lake. If you look hard enough, you can notice beaver sign in a variety of places, such as the chewed-up log pictured below. The Sawbill crew has noticed our beaver buddy swimming around the lake a few times over the past week, including a close encounter where crew and beaver startled each other during an evening paddle! Keep an eye out if you’re paddling Sawbill in the near future, you just never know what you critters you may see! – Owen S.

5/22/22 – This week we’ve been visited by a number of forest friends who seem just as excited as we are that Summer is on its way. We’ve received reports of moose, bear, and owl sightings on the Sawbill trail over the past few days, and have been lucky enough to spot some rare wildlife of our own! A rose-breasted grosbeak hung around at the crew house during our lunch hour on Friday, and a pine marten caused some excitement when it ran into the outfitting porch Saturday afternoon. — Owen S.

This year in many places like the Twin Cities, it’s felt like the seasons have changed unceremoniously from Winter to Summer without any Spring weather to allow folks to acclimate to the heat — but up here on the edge of the Boundary Waters, we’re enjoying a more extended transition to warmer weather. The ice is out on the lakes, the spring peepers are croaking, and the forests are becoming tinged with hints of green as low-lying plants and deciduous trees begin to bud. It won’t be long now before leaves expand and flowers unfurl, adding their hues to the color palette of the North Woods! — Owen S.

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!

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

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.

With about an inch of rainfall overnight, sustained warm temperatures, and constant wind, the lake looks considerably darker and less icy by the hour.

-Matthew

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 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.

-Dan

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.

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.

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!

-Dan

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.

The roads are almost clear of snow, the campground is thawing out, and the wilderness is awakening. Paddling season is nearly here! – Matthew