6/27/18 – Yesterday evening the Sawbill babes had our annual ladies night out on the town. Festivities included a beautiful view of the Grand Marais harbor from the Gunflint Tavern’s rooftop deck, an amazing meal and dessert from the Angry Trout, all capped off with an evening stroll along artist’s point. A big thanks to the Sawbill boys for holding down the fort while we were away! -Jessica
6/24/18 – North House Folk School, located in Grand Marais, celebrated the official arrival of summer this weekend with their annual Wooden Boat Show and Summer Solstice Festival. Events included a wooden boat display, craft demonstrations, a solstice pageant, contra dancing, guest speakers (including Sawbill’s own Dan Shirley), and much more. -Jessica
6/21/18 – Happy summer solstice! Today is the longest day of the year with the sun above the horizon for just over 16 hours, which is almost 7 hours more sunlight than six months ago on the winter solstice. Here’s hoping everyone is able to enjoy a little bit of the extra sunlight today. -Jessica
6/19/18 – If you’ve been up Sawbill Trail in the last few months, you may have noticed an exposed mound of dirt on the right side of the road before turning into our parking lot. This open space serves as the drainage field for our septic system. Soon, this sandy soil base will be a blooming amalgam of prairie grasses, sedge, and wild flowers, thanks to the help of Shoreview Natives, who have spent the last few days preparing and planting the area. Dan Schutte, who serves on Mark Dayton’s Pollinator Advisory Committee, personally locates and collects the seeds in Lake, St. Louis, and Cook Counties, ensuring that everything chosen and planted here is native to the region. He is particularly interested in helping pollinators like bees and butterflies who are facing habitat destruction farther south.
Some of the new species that will soon call Sawbill home include Purple Cone Flower, Tall Blazing Star, Bee Balm, Ox Eye Sunflower, and Swamp Milkweed, in addition to several other kinds of flowers and grasses. Though this type of planting is not technically considered prairie restoration due to the forested nature of the area, the different soil composition of the drainage field (sandier and more arid than the surrounding land) helps to support species that are more commonly found in Minnesota’s prairies. While it will ultimately take three years before the mound reaches full growth, Dan estimates that we will see wildflowers blooming later this fall. Keep your eyes open as you pull in; new plants and flowers await you with every visit!
– Katie
6/19/18 – We are thrilled to announce the arrival of the newest member of the Sawbill family, Louis Jeffrey John Hansen! Adam Hansen and Lisa Burtch welcomed Louis to their family on May 21. For those unfamiliar with the Sawbill family tree, Adam is the grandson of Sawbill founders Frank and Mary Alice, and current owner Clare’s brother.
Grandpa Bill and cousin Kit are looking forward to many years of canoe trips with Louis. And of course, he’s already signed on for a spot on the 2036 Sawbill crew 😉
-Clare
6/16/18 – A couple of days ago Hannah and I were able to sneak away for a long day paddle. We were pleasantly surprised by the minimal amount of mosquitoes, abundance of moose tracks, and beautiful flowers encountered along the way. – Jessica
6/13/18 – Four Sawbill Crew members took advantage of a few days off work this week and paddled one of Sawbill’s most popular loop routes, the Cherokee Loop. The Cherokee Loop is a scenic chain of lakes that starts at Sawbill Lake, snakes up to Cherokee Lake and down through a series of lakes back to Sawbill. Since this a loop frequented by many Sawbill customers, the group of first year crew members were eager to try it out themselves and see what it had to offer.
They set out on Sunday night (June 10th) and set up camp in the dark on Sawbill Lake. The following day, the crew paddled through the lakes and trekked many portages passing through Cherokee Lake to settle on North Temperance Lake, where a beautiful sunset and easy night’s sleep came quickly.
The true magic of the BWCA was captured on the third and final night upon Smoke Lake, the lake directly east of Sawbill Lake. Following a delicious and gourmet dinner of freeze dried chicken stew, storm clouds and rain showers began to quickly roll through. But instead of delivering a night of soaked gear and early bedtimes, this equation of light showers, storm clouds and a sunset cooked up a magnificent double rainbow resting beneath a pink sky.
And of course, what would a trip in the BWCA be without the fishing? The crew fished Smoke Lake and caught a variety of fish from Northern Pike to Small Mouth Bass, all from the same shoreline! Unfortunately, the crew was so full from their freeze dried dinner, that they did not cook up the fish they caught.
On the fourth day, the crew woke up at 5AM, broke camp and hit the water to be back in time for their 7AM shift at the store. What a great way to wake up for work!
The Cherokee Loop is an amazing loop for any level of BWCA enthusiasts. Each lake within the Cherokee Loop seems to have it’s own unique personality and ecosystem, making for a trip full of natural variety and surprises.
6/8/18 – A relatively dry spring has made for a relatively short lived black-fly season here at Sawbill. The little buggers appeared around Memorial Day but have largely abated already. Mosquitoes are out, but are most noticeable in the early morning and evening hours. We can thank our favorite fliers, the dragonflies, for keeping the pesky bug populations in check! The first big dragonfly hatch happened a few days ago, and the sky is swarming with the friendly bug-eaters.
Customer Frank Ferraro and his son were recently camped at the Sawbill campground and enjoyed the abundance of Canadian Swallowtail butterflies.
The blueberry bushes are flowering, signs of a bountiful harvest come August thanks to the black-flies who pollinate the bushes!
-Clare
6/3/18 –
-Paul
5/30/18 – Sawbill customers Bryan and Courtney Gibson shared the following note and photos from a recent trip:
“We did a 4 day Cherokee loop and saw 6 moose. Four of them were on Sawbill, and the other two were on Weird Lake – one in the evening and one the morning after. We also had him visit us during the night about five feet away from the tent!
The Cow on Sawbill lake had two little tiny babies!”
What luck! Thanks for sharing.
-Dan
