5/13/2020 – This evening Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued a new executive order that goes into effect at 11:59 pm on May 17th (found here). The bulk of the order is aimed at allowing most businesses to re-open, provided that they meet certain guidelines, have implemented a Covid-19 Preparedness Plan and only allow up to 50% of maximum capacity into the establishment.

More specifically pertaining to us at Sawbill, the State of Minnesota will allow dispersed and remote camping. Dispersed camping is defined as camping in an undeveloped location that does not contain facilities. Remote camping is defined as designated campsites that are accessible by hiking trail or watercraft. Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness campsites fall under the remote camping designation. So, as far as the State is concerned, camping in the BWCA should be allowed beginning May 18. That said, the BWCA is under federal jurisdiction, therefore the Forest Service will ultimately decide when overnight use in the BWCA will be allowed. We are awaiting an update from the Forest Service.

Under this order, developed campgrounds must remain closed until at least May 31, 2020 at 11:59 pm. Again the Forest Service has the ultimate control over the Superior National Forest, so we will await guidance from them regarding the Sawbill Lake, Crescent Lake, and Temperance River Campgrounds.

The State of Minnesota is still encouraging people to stay close to home and avoid all unnecessary travel. They advise that you should be able to complete your round trip journey on one tank of gas.

To date, coping with all of these restrictions and uncertainty has been challenging for all of us. However, there has been consistency between State and Federal requirements as they pertain to our areas of business. With consistency, and the degree of predictability it brings, we’ve at least been able to stake out clear positions and decisions for how we will operate our business . This latest update appears to be the beginning to conflicting policy and we are finding ourselves between a rock and a hard place both ethically and in how to provide our core services. The continued encouragement to stay close to home raises some tricky issues for us, who, primarily serve people who do not live close by. The potential extension of the campground closures creates a complication for us and many of our customers who rely on the Sawbill Lake Campground as a launching pad to their BWCA Wilderness trip.

Whether the BWCA and Sawbill Lake, Crescent Lake, and Temperance River campgrounds will open remains at the discretion of the Forest Service, who will have to weigh many considerations with many stakeholders, and quickly. Please feel free to call or email us if you have any questions. We should know more from the Forest Service by the end of this week.

Hang with us as we continue to navigate this situation. Sawbill’s business mission is to help all people access the Wilderness in a friendly and inclusive way. Caring for our crew as if they are family is in our ethos. Looking out for our friends and neighbors in Cook County is a priority.

-Dan

5/10/20 – We are very sorry to report the passing of Dee (Sampson) Hedman. Dee was a well loved Sawbill Canoe Outfitters crew member in the early 1960s. Before that, her parents, Jim and Fran Sampson, brought their young children to camp in the Sawbill Lake Campground every summer.

First and foremost, Dee was loved for her cheerful and loving personality. She was warm and funny, with a very distinctive and individual laugh. If you were with Dee for five minutes, you received the gift of her infectious laugh.
While working at Sawbill, Dee attracted the attention of a young employee of our neighbor, Sawbill Lodge. Steve Hedman worked at the Lodge, but he spent much of his free time standing in the corner of our store, staring nervously at Dee. She thought, justifiably, that he was “really weird.” 

Steve was persistent and the following summer Dee discovered that in addition to being weird, Steve was also intelligent, fun and loving. Romance bloomed and they were married in 1966. They were the first of many couples who have met at Sawbill and ended up together for life. Their honeymoon, unsurprisingly, was a BWCA Wilderness canoe trip. The ’66 crew decorated their canoe appropriately, creating a story that has passed down through the decades. In 2015, Dee and Steve returned to Sawbill to celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary and the honeymoon decorations were reprised. While they aren’t the only Sawbill couple to wind up married, they are perhaps one of the more inspiring – especially to those of us who are newly married. Their love and happiness always radiated from them, and their children, whenever they visited.

Dee and Steve lived in Duluth, so they, and their three children, were frequent Sawbill campers over the years. In the 1990s, Dee’s parents, Jim and Fran, returned to Sawbill to serve as campground hosts for several years, bringing Dee back into Sawbill life even more frequently. While Dee lived with a diagnosis of Alzheimers for the last several years, she was surrounded by care from Steve, as well as her extended family and friends.
 Dee leaves a virtual army of friends and family who loved her very much. She will be remembered fondly as an integral part of the Sawbill family.

-Bill and Clare

5/8/20 – Sometimes, no news is good news. That’s the case right now as we wait for overnight camping in the BWCA and Superior National Forest Campgrounds to open. Last we heard, the plan is still to open both for overnight use starting on May 18th. We are busy using this extra time right now planning ways to be even better prepared to safely welcome everyone back to the Northwoods. Keep your eyes peeled in the next several days here on our website for an update on how we plan to operate in the time of COVID-19.

In other news, Kit Shirley turned 4 yesterday! While she couldn’t have the party she hoped for with all her friends, we tried to make up for it with a day full of balloons, presents, scavenger hunts, bubbles, pizza, a piñata, cake AND cupcakes. She loves to fish, so it’s convenient that her birthday falls so close to Minnesota’s fishing opener. Last year she landed a big bass all by herself, and this year she tells me she has her sights set on her first walleye.

We’ve gotten several questions about the current fire ban recently. There is a ban on all fires with the exception of liquid fuel campstoves right now. We’ve had a very dry spring, the mud season is not very muddy this year. Additionally, the pandemic puts a strain on bringing in Forest Service fire crews from around the country. To keep our firefighters and first responders safe in this dry spring, a fire ban is the right call. We’ll be sure to let you know if that changes. In the meantime, the newly returned loons are calling and the sunsets have been memorable, creating all the atmosphere we need to feel rejuvenated each evening.

-Clare

5/5/20 – Sawbill Lake was officially ice free as of Sunday, May 3rd. Kit and Dan did a little recon today to see how Alton was fairing. They report lots of open water, but some ice still crowding the eastern shoreline. -Jessica

5/4/2020 – This afternoon the USFS has announced that beginning May 5, 2020, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness will be open for day use only.

The overnight use closure that has been in effect since mid April, is going to be continued until May 17th at 11:59 pm. The Wilderness will be open for all use beginning on May 18th.

All Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness overnight permits already reserved for trips beginning before May 18th will be cancelled and refunded automatically. You should receive an email directly from recreation.gov. If you have a reservation with Sawbill Canoe Outfitters for a trip during the now closure period, we will reach out to you regarding options for re-scheduling or cancellation.

This order handed down today by Superior National Forest Supervisor, Connie Cummins, aligns with current Minnesota Stay at Home order and prohibition of recreational camping state-wide.

In response to this order, Sawbill Canoe Outfitters will remain closed until May 18th. If you are a local and would like to rent a canoe for a day paddle, give us a call and we can discuss options.

We applaud the Forest Service for this common sense approach. Allowing day use makes sense for those of us that live near the Wilderness and continuing the overnight closure maintains consistency with guidance from the State.

-Dan

5/2/20 – Today’s official ice measurement; not enough to venture out on. -Jessica

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5/1/2020 – As we welcome the month of May and all the ephemeral transitional magic that happens this time of year, the pandemic response can be characterized in a similar way. Maybe less magic.

Yesterday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz extended the Stay at Home order until May 17th at 11:59pm. The continuation of the Stay at Home order dictates that all non essential travel should be avoided. The provision of supplies, purchasing goods and recreating should be done as close to home as possible.

We have not heard from the Forest Service, yet, how this extended order will affect the opening of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. That said, they have made it clear to us in the past that they intend to align Superior National Forest and Wilderness restrictions with those handed down by the State of Minnesota. To that end, we expect the Wilderness closure (at least for overnight camping), to extend until May 17th at 11:59pm. We will post and update as soon as we see a new order. If no new order is issued, the Wilderness is slated to open on May 5th.

The extended Stay at Home order has been modified to allow for a slow opening of more businesses coined “Non-essential exempt businesses” beginning on May 4th. Businesses, such as retail and equipment rental (like Sawbill), may begin to operate provided that all transactions are done out of doors and maximum physical distance is maintained between staff and public. Prior to this order, we at Sawbill have already been crafting a Preparedness Plan that largely mirrors this new guidance. We are encouraged that we have been on the correct track. Stay tuned as we begin to roll these plans out to our loyal customers. It will look different here, but our core values will still be on display. Providing friendly service to all in pursuit of a Wilderness experience. The health and safety of our staff, our customers and our community is our priority. We are all going to join together in that pursuit. This Plan will be made available on our website when it’s ready.

According the the State’s order, all recreational camping is still not allowed. The Forest Service has also informed us that the camping closure on the Superior National Forest is also being extended to match the order from the State. All reservations for stays that begin before May 18th for National Forest Campgrounds, including Sawbill Lake and Crescent Lake, are going to be cancelled and refunded. If you have made a reservation already for this time period, expect a cancellation email directly from recreation.gov in the next day or two. Reservations for May 18th and beyond are still being honored at this time and new reservations can be made.

We have developed and submitted a detailed and comprehensive Covid-19 Campground Operations Plan to the Forest Service. It is in the review phase. We are confident in our Plan. It will become available on our website once it is approved.

So, the take-away is: Sawbill can technically open on May 4th to sell goods and rent canoes. However, with the Wilderness likely being closed and a Stay at Home order asking people not travel long distances, we are effectively going to remain closed. We could rent a canoe to a Cook County local to take a day trip paddle on a non-Wilderness lake. That scenario is obviously not a very large part of our business, so we’ll continue to monitor the situation, prepare for the new normal and look forward to a fantastic Wilderness paddling season when the time comes.

The Wilderness is medicine for the mind, body, and soul. Its remedy will be more important than ever in the coming months. We look forward to helping people have that experience. Hang in there everyone and we’ll see you when the time is right.

-Dan

4/30/20 – Tune into 90.7 FM, or stream at wtip.org, tonight at 7 pm (CST). Sawbill’s very own Dan Shirley will be in on a community conversation with other business leaders and healthcare professionals of Cook County. -Jessica

The program is archived here. As the coronavirus continues to impact so many different aspects of life for people here in Cook County and throughout the state of Minnesota, one question that continues to loom in the background of day-to-day discussions is when and how will the local economy recover? It’s a question on the minds of nearly everyone in the local business community, as well as those who live outside the area and are anxious to plan their next trip to the North Shore. At the heart of the question is how do we balance community health, both physical and mental, while giving consideration to a local economy that relies on tourists visiting the region?

WTIP North Shore Community Radio

4/26/20 – The ice is clocking in at 23″ from top to bottom this morning, but all of it is not frozen. There are three distinct layers of ice separated by 2-3″ pockets of water. Each day the open water near the mouth of Sawbill Creek creeps a little closer to the canoe landing, so we are certainly making progress toward ice out.

This time of year I always haul around my binoculars in the off chance I see a critter out on the ice, or an unknown bird flitting about. This morning it payed off as I was happy to find three male hooded mergansers and one female soaking up the morning sun. Also of note, I heard my first loon call of the season. If I had to guess I would say it was hanging out on a small pond on the west side of Sawbill lake where water flowing in from Alton lake keeps things free of ice. -Jessica

4/24/20 – The annual ice countdown has begun! Late this afternoon I measured 22″ of mostly solid ice. -Jessica

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