West End News

The fall colors in the West End seem to be reaching their peak this week and next. It’s a decent year for color, if not a great year. The drought caused some stands of birch to lose their leaves prematurely, but that has created another sort of beauty by letting the colorful reds and yellows from the underbrush shine through the white birch trunks. The color combined with balmy weather, clear skies and mild winds have created sort of a false “spring fever,” including distracted window gazing, laziness and overwhelming desire to get out in the woods. Some flora and fauna are fooled too, so we’ve seen a few black flies, some blooming violets and mating displays from the woodcocks and ruffed grouse.

Speaking of ruffed grouse, the season is well under way, of course, and hunters are having pretty good success already. On opening day, all of the area around us here at Sawbill was closed to the public due to the Pagami Creek fire. A couple of days before the opener, a few of the hunters on the Sawbill crew realized that they were living in the middle of what amounted to a private grouse hunting preserve. They were quick to take advantage and bagged 10 grouse between four hunters in the opening hours of the season. When the officer at the roadblock found out what they were up to, he put a damper on their enthusiasm, suggesting that they hunt only near home and off of any roads that fire engines might have to use. In spite of those restrictions, they were still able to get in some spectacular hunting days before the area was reopened to the public.

There are still some slots available for the North Shore Health Care Foundation golf tournament, scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 2 at Superior National in Lutsen. The tournament is the main annual fundraising event for the Health Care Foundation. The foundation gives grants to improve and enhance health care in Cook County. Since it started in 1995 the Foundation has raised and donated more than $426,000 to Cook County health care providers. It seems hard to believe, but the golf tournament is in its 16th year. Many individuals and businesses contribute to the tournament, but special thanks to Superior National golf course for providing the course at no cost to the foundation. While we’re on the subject, it’s not too early to plan for the annual Fall Brunch fundraiser held at Chez Jude in Grand Marais beginning at noon Sunday, Oct. 30. More information on both events can be found at northshorehealthcarefoundation.org.

There is a big change happening in the West End that is kind of flying under the radar. For a variety of reasons, many people have, or are about to, retire from their jobs with the U.S. Forest Service. The combination of the baby boomers reaching a certain age and some policy changes within the Forest Service is causing a significant number of long-time employees to retire this year. This causes me to have some mixed feelings. First feeling is sadness at losing the day-to-day working relationship with so many fine, dedicated public employees. The second feeling is jealousy as I see my friends happily engaged in leisure activities at any time of the day, week or year. The third feeling is a little trepidation when I realize how much wisdom and experience is walking out the door. I do take consolation though, in seeing the bright young people who are joining our community as they step into new roles within the agency. Whenever someone stops doing something that they’ve done for a long time, it’s hard to imagine that anyone else can fill their shoes. But, in my experience, people step up when they are given the opportunity and the world keeps on turning.

The northern lights have been very much on display this week after being relatively quiet most of the summer. I’m told that there is going to be strong solar storm activity for the next few weeks and the northern lights may be spectacular during that time. I guess I’ll have to start taking naps so I can stay up late enough to enjoy the show.

More than a week has passed since Monday, September 12th, when the Pagami Creek Fire made its historic run.  Driven by high temperatures, high winds and long term drought, the fire ran more than 15 miles to the east and south in one afternoon.  Last week I described that day here at Sawbill as “apocalyptic.”  Little did I know.  As the pictures and descriptions come in from fire that day, I became more and more frightened.  It now seems clear that if the wind hadn’t shifted, Sawbill would have been engulfed in the biggest fire-storm in the recorded history of the Midwest.  We are feeling very, very lucky and grateful.

A couple of days before the fire blew up, we delivered a very nice older couple from California, the Furmans, to Kawishiwi Lake to start a two week canoe trip through the wilderness back to Sawbill.  Given their somewhat advanced age and the sheer volume of their food and gear, they planned to move very slowly up to Polly Lake and then back to Sawbill through the chain of lakes with ladies’ names: Hazel, Phoebe, Grace and Beth.  They were on Polly Lake on the Monday when the heart of the fire came within a hundred yards of the south end of Polly Lake.  Other campers on the lake reported and documented flames hundreds of feet in the air, extremely high winds and a smoke plume that towered more than 30 thousand feet in the air.

The Forest Service immediately began evacuating people from Polly and the Lady Chain. Numerous low level flights were made, checking every campsite and portage.  Wilderness rangers patrolled by canoe and gradually, over the next couple of days, everyone straggled out. Eventually, everyone was out of the wilderness – except for the Furmans.  As several more days went by and they didn’t appear, the Forest Service started to actively search for them, with increasing urgency as time went by.  Finally, after nearly a week of looking, the helicopter located them about half way between Polly and Sawbill.  Wilderness rangers canoed in and escorted them slowly back to Sawbill.  When they arrived here, I asked them if they weren’t concerned about the fire, especially on Polly where the raging inferno was less than a mile away. Mrs. Furman replied that they had been completely unaware of the fire throughout their trip. She said, “If there was a fire, shouldn’t we have seen smoke?” Apparently, they had selected a north facing site on Polly and never saw the flames or the giant smoke plume.  In the following days, the winds and rain kept the smoke low and moving away from them.  On their campsites, they had a small tent and kept the canoe well up in the woods, so the searchers were unable to spot them.  They had a wonderful, relaxing vacation while a living hell raged just out of sight.  They left Sawbill happy to spend the rest of their vacation driving around Lake Superior before catching their flight back to California.

While the fire has definitely depressed the number of visitors, especially here at Sawbill, the presence of more than 800 firefighters has been a major boon for the local economy, especially for Ely. Today, we received a trail food order for 46 fire fighters for a week. The gentleman placing the order said that he had basically bought all the trail food available in Ely over the last week, so has been forced to shop further away.  He called back an hour later and wondered if we could pack food for an additional 50 for the week.  Alas, he has now cleaned out all the trail food at Sawbill as well.  A lot of money is spent in a hurry during natural disasters, but I’ve been impressed with how carefully the fire staff monitors the costs. They aren’t looking for bargains, but they are careful to protect the taxpayers money as much as they can.  They also make an effort to spend as much of the money as they can locally, knowing full well that they are filling in for local economy that has just taken a big hit.

On the bright side of things, we have received an inch and a half of rain here at Sawbill in the last few days.  Even though warmer, dryer weather is predicted for the week, time is on our side with shorter days, cooler nights and eventually winters quiet grip on the land.  I love winter, but I’ll never be so glad to see it as I am this year.

It has been an interesting week here at Sawbill. As you know, the Pagami Creek fire, which started several weeks ago near Ely, has blown up to more than 100,000 acres burned. On Sunday, Sept. 11, the fire made its first big run and we started to pay more attention. On Monday, rain was predicted, but it didn't materialize in time to slow the fire. Instead, winds increased to 20 miles per hour with gusts to 35 miles per hour and the fire made a dramatic 15 mile run. By the end of the day, all the wilderness entry points in the Sawbill area were closed, the Sawbill Campground was evacuated and the upper portion of the Sawbill Trail was closed.

All morning on Monday the wind was out of the south. Here at Sawbill the sun was shining, but we could see a huge plume of smoke to the west. Then, in the early afternoon, the wind started to swing around to the west. The Forest Service called and advised us to start our sprinkler system and evacuate the Sawbill Lake campground. As I was working to get the sprinkler system going, we were suddenly inundated with heavy smoke; it was so heavy we could only see about 30 feet. The wind suddenly increased to 35 mile per hour, it got very dark and then everything turned dark yellow. The sky was yellow, the air was yellow and the smoke was yellow. If that wasn't weird enough, lightning started to flash every few seconds, along with loud thunder, and then it started to pour rain and hail mixed with sodden ash. In my whole life here at Sawbill, I've never seen anything like it. It truly felt like an apocalypse. The rain and hail continued to fall hard for about twenty minutes, which was very welcome at that point in time. The wind continued to shift to the north and just as suddenly as it arrived, the smoke cleared, the rain stopped, and the sun came back out.

On Monday night, the temperature fell dramatically, but on Tuesday morning the Forest Service warned us that it was possible the fire would burn through Sawbill that day. We spent Tuesday morning tuning up the sprinkler system, cleaning rain gutters and raking the pine needles away from building foundations. We were on pins and needles all day as we wondered if the fire would sweep through, but by the end of the day it was clear that the fire had been slowed way down by the rain showers and cooler temperatures. By the end of the day we had pumped more than 50,000 gallons of water onto our property through our sprinkler system. Finally, in the evening the wind shifted again to the north and it actually rained another tenth of an inch. Our intrepid Sawbill crew went to bed tired, but relieved that we had dodged the bullet, at least for the time being.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say that we are just overwhelmed by the support and concern that we received from our community. We literally had over a hundred calls from people offering to come help us, transport things to safety for us, and offering us places to stay if we were evacuated. We all know, of course, that this is a great community, but when you experience an outpouring of community spirit and support first hand, it is profoundly heartwarming. Many thanks to everyone who offered their assistance and concern.

I'd also like to thank and offer some support to our friends and neighbors who work for the U. S. Forest Service. I know that they will receive criticism about their management of the Pagami Lake fire, but I feel like that criticism is somewhat unfair. For more that 30 years we have all understood that fire is a normal part of the ecosystem here in the northern forest region. Historically, every acre of this forest burned at least once every 70 years. After European settlement and the establishment of the timber industry, the Forest Service was charged with aggressively extinguishing every wild fire, no matter what the cause. The forest managers got pretty good at fire suppression over the years. Over time, scientists came to realize that the policy of suppressing all fires was just setting the stage for disastrous, destructive fires, which since 1988 have been referred to as "Yellowstone" type fires. Now there is no longer any doubt that fire must be allowed on the landscape, or the forest as we know it will eventually cease to exist. Over the last 20 years or so, forest managers have developed a much smarter, nuanced approach to how they manage fire. They have been remarkably successful with this new approach and have made a lot of progress, especially in the wilderness, toward their goal of maintaining a healthy forest eco-system. That said, fire management often hinges on accurately predicting the weather, which carries an inherent risk. I think the Forest Service does a remarkable job with fire, but they are only human and nature will occasionally humble any human, no matter how skilled. I would urge the critics to look at the big picture, learn as much as possible about fire policy, and remember that hindsight is 20-20 and it's much easier to judge the future once it has passed. Since I had my first conversation with legendary fire ecologist Bud Hinsleman, I've known that wildfire in this part of the world isn't a matter of "if", it's just a matter of "when."

Here's hoping that next week, there will be a more ordinary West End News.

I'd like to welcome Kim Jahnke and her new business, Little Cubs Day Care, to Tofte. It is a big deal in a small community when a new business opens up. Kim has moved up from Blue Earth and has 16 years of experience in the day care business. She is licensed in Minnesota and is getting licensed by Cook County. She'll be providing her services from their brand new home on the upper side of Highway 61 on the east side of Tofte. Kim and her husband Lee have owned the property for three years. Lee operates an auto body shop near Blue Earth and will be commuting up to Tofte on weekends for a while. He plans to move up full time when he can. Kim is not only offering much needed day care services to local working families but will also offer temporary day care for guests at area resorts. Her hours are flexible and she can be reached at 663-7552.

We had some large-scale excitement here at Sawbill last week in the form of three giant heavy hauler trucks that took a wrong turn and ended up here at the end of the Sawbill Trail. The trucks were operated by a company from Colorado and they were hauling modular apartment units from the oil fields of Manitoba to the oil fields of North Dakota. Their problem, once they arrived here at Sawbill, was that they were too large to navigate the corners here at the end of the road, so they were unable to turn around to get back to the highway. They were on the back roads because their loads were too tall to get under the railroad bridges across Highway 61 at Taconite Harbor. If they couldn't get turned around here, they would have had to back up for six miles down the Sawbill Trail.

After much trial and error, they found that one truck's cab was four feet shorter than the other two. Using the smaller tractor unit, they were able to position the trailer halfway through the corner, then unhook the tractor, drive it around the trailer and re-hook it at a different angle. They had to repeat this laborious procedure with all three trucks. After three hours, they were pointed in the right direction and headed south again on the Sawbill Trail. The mistake that brought them here was in the permit that they carried from the Minnesota Department of Transportation. It was literally a typo that told them to turn on Cook County Highway #2, which is the Sawbill Trail, instead of County Highway #1 which is the Cramer Road in Schroeder. The drivers were very professional and highly skilled at their jobs. They were very careful not to damage anything as they jockeyed the loads back and forth to gain a couple of inches of advantage. They also paused when they could to let backed up traffic pass through. When they were finally done, they apologized graciously for the inconvenience they caused. Frankly, it was pretty good entertainment on what was otherwise kind of a sleepy Wednesday afternoon.

We received two unintentionally funny emails from customers yesterday. One asked if we had heard any reports of nuisance beers -b-e-e-r-s- on the portages or in the campsites. We were tempted to answer that certain brands of beer are considered nuisance beers just for their bad taste, but of course, we are much too professional to do that. The second email, from a different customer, asked if we knew of any "burning bands" -b-a-n-d-s- and if so, were they affecting us in the Sawbill area. Again, we were tempted to reply that there were several very hot bands in the area that were causing us to occasionally break out dancing, but again we decided to answer the intended question, not the actual question. These questions will now pass into the lexicon of funny questions that visitors ask, along side the old chestnuts: "Do the lakes freeze over in the winter?" and "When do the deer turn into moose?"

The North Shore Stewardship Association, based at Sugarloaf Cove in Schroeder is offering an interesting program next week. It's called "Keeping the Cabin in the Family- Intergenerational Land Transfer." It will address all the issues that accompany an intergenerational land transfer, from the gritty issues of taxes and titles, to the perhaps more important issues of values, goals, aspirations and conservation. The program runs from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17 at the Beaver Bay Town Hall, which is located on the second floor of the building that houses the Lemon Wolf Café. There is a cost associated with the event and you can get more details by calling 218-525-0001 or Googling Sugarloaf Cove on the web.

Leif Gilsvik and Caleb "Hurrikane" Hamp-Sill, from Two Harbors, have set what I am guessing is a record for distance traveled in one day in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. They started at Sawbill Lake at 6:30 in the morning and completed the route known as the Little Sag West Loop. They headed west through the Lady Chain of lakes: Beth, Grace, Phoebe, Hazel, and Polly. They turned north at Polly and traveled to Little Saganaga via Malberg, the Kawishiwi River and Malberg. They stopped on Makwa to cool off by jumping off the 30-foot cliff found there. They took another break on Little Sag to eat lunch and relax for an hour. Then they turned south and returned to Sawbill via Mora, Hub, Mesaba, Zenith and Kelso Lakes. This stretch contains many portages including one that is a mile long and another that measures a mile and a half.

On the north end of Kelso Lake, Leif and Hurrikane found a wildfire on a small island. They took another hour break to haul dozens of packsacks full of water and put out the fire that has burned about 500 square feet of forest. They couldn't tell if the fire was the result of careless people or a lightning strike. Leif said that putting out the fire gave them a second or third wind and they fairly cruised the last five miles into Sawbill. They arrived at the landing at about 9:30 pm. Distance is hard to measure accurately in wilderness travel, but I estimate that the young athletes covered roughly 60 to 70 miles including around 9 miles of portaging. As you might expect, Leif and Hurrikane are in better than average physical condition. Leif is a varsity cross country skier at Gogebic Community College and a Junior Olympian. Hurrikane is the reigning state high school champion in both the long jump and the triple jump. Leif's only comment about their trip was to mention that they should have brought more food.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has announced a major study to determine the effect of the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Minnesota's loons. No one knows how many of Minnesota's loons were killed outright by the oil in the gulf where our loons spend their winters. Many loons did return this spring, although numbers do seem to be down somewhat, at least in the West End. The concern is that the oil will affect the long-term ability of baby loons to reach maturity in the gulf before they return to the north country. The study will equip a bunch of loons with tiny satellite tracking devices so their travels and mortality can be tracked. You can follow the travels of some loons by going to the Minnesota DNR website.

Light bulbs have been in the news lately as the federal government begins the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs in the United States. This is a very sensible policy that has long been established in other developed nations. The traditional incandescent bulb is a very old technology that is terribly inefficient in its energy use. The newer compact fluorescent bulbs are much more efficient and will save you serious money over time. The new LED light bulbs are even more efficient, long lasting and money saving, but are still prohibitively expensive for most people. Requiring incandescents to go away will create an economy of scale for the compacts and LEDs that will bring the prices down quickly. Even more important, it will save the country huge amounts of energy that will both increase our productivity and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. There has been a little bit of political push back on the incandescent phase out, but they haven't gotten much traction in the face of the overwhelming evidence that the switch to more efficient lighting will be a very smart move in the long run.

While on the subject of energy, I'd like to engage in some shameless promotion. My son, Carl, is a finalist in a short film contest sponsored by the non-profit organization Environment Minnesota. The task was to produce a very short film that promotes the use of solar power to make electricity in Minnesota. The films will be judged on a variety of attributes, but one of the factors will be how many people vote for each film on Environment Minnesota's website. You can view and vote for Carl's film by going to EnvironmentMinnesota.org and clicking on his film, which is titled "My Fellow Minnesotans…" By the way, you may recognize the voice of the narrator.

The Cross River Heritage Center in Schroeder will have a program titled "Teacher Day" featuring John Salls, teacher and author of the book "First Year," and Larry Longmore, a former teacher at a logging camp school. The program starts at 1 pm, Saturday, Aug. 27.

We had a terrific bolt of lightning very close to Sawbill the other day.  It didn't actually strike one of our buildings, but it was close enough to give everyone a good scare.  The Sawbill Lake campground host, Jim Ter Beest, was standing next to his pickup truck and the blast literally dropped him to his knees.  Our satellite internet and television were knocked out, along with a couple of other small, but expensive electronic components.  The satellite transceivers are particularly sensitive to lightning, so I had squirreled away a replacement for just this occasion.  I didn't have a spare for the television, but frankly, there isn't much worth watching right now - nor do we have the time, so that won't be much of an issue.

Years ago, Dr. Mike Debevec did an informal study of injury and death in Cook County due to lightning strikes.  If I remember correctly, he found that lightning fatalities often happened to people that were lying down in their tents.  His theory was that the lightning usually struck a tree, but due to the shallow soils here, it would splatter out along the ground.  If it encountered a reclining camper, it would pass through the unfortunate soul from head to toe - or visa versa.  Mike recommended that if you are camping and a storm is bearing down on you, the best strategy is to squat on your foam sleeping pad.  He said you may have a shocking experience, but you should survive.

My daughter Ruthie and I tested Mike's method a few years ago when a storm swept over us while we were in the tent on the Parent River.  Lightning did strike very close, but did not pass through our tent.  The blast was loud enough that both of us had temporary hearing loss for the whole next day.  It was one of those experiences that makes a good story - as long as you survive it. Between a few close calls and some expensive property damage, I now get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I hear thunder approaching.

The Minnesota Department of Natural resources is recommending that deer feeding be banned in the entire Arrowhead region as a part of a comprehensive plan to help Minnesota's moose population recover.  While this is bound to be controversial and will be a real sacrifice for some people, I sure think it's a good idea if it helps the moose.  It has long been known that deer feeding doesn't really help the deer population.  In fact, it may actually do some harm by concentrating the deer and exposing them to disease and bringing them closer to highways which results in the inevitable car/deer interaction that is not good for either deer or car.  The DNR has dropped the number of moose hunting licenses down to a hundred and five bulls only, half of what it was last season.  They expect that around fifty bulls will actually be shot.  The wildlife biologists make a pretty good argument that shooting that many bulls doesn't really affect the total population, but they do plan to end hunting completely if the population continues to fall.  The biologists also feel that wolf predation has nothing to do with the decline.  Climate change is considered the most likely culprit.  All of this is really going to push some people's buttons, but in long run, I believe it's best to follow the evidence and not try to bend the evidence to what you believe.

A couple stopped in the store this week and mentioned that they had seen a very small bear cub on the Sawbill Trail about a mile south of Sawbill.  They did say that they saw it from a distance and didn't get a good look at it.  A few hours later, I was driving by the same spot and I saw a porcupine.  I got a very good look at it from close range and it was definitely a porcupine.  I was surprised because I haven't seen a porcupine in Cook County for at least twenty years.  A few miles further down the road, I stopped to pick up my neighbor, Rick Brandenberg and he said that his son Willy had seen a porcupine in their driveway a week or so earlier.  Now, I've heard a few other people mention porcupine sightings.  I don't mind having porcupines around, as long as our dogs don't decide to mix it up with them.

Photo by Qualsiasi via Creative Commons on Flickr

Dallas and Luanne Leier stopped at Sawbill for a visit the other day. Dallas is a retired telephone company employee and very active in the Telephone Pioneers organization. Exactly 20 years ago, Dallas led an effort to build handicapped accessible fishing piers on lakes around the Superior National Forest. The Leiers had a seriously handicapped son who loved to fish, but was not comfortable in a boat or canoe. Dallas put together a unique partnership between the U.S. Forest Service, the Telephone Pioneers and local businesses. The Forest Service provided engineering and site selection, the Pioneers provided the labor and the local businesses purchased the materials. Eventually, 13 accessible piers were constructed, including one here at Sawbill Lake and one at Crescent Lake. The Leiers’ son passed away in 2003, but the fishing piers that he inspired continue to serve thousands of delighted anglers, of every ability, year after year. It's a wonderful legacy and a testament to the important role of volunteers in our society.

Speaking of volunteers, the North Shore Stewardship Association at Sugarloaf Cove in Schroeder is hosting an information session on non-native invasive species in northeastern Minnesota, Friday, Aug. 12, at 2 p.m. at the Sugarloaf Interpretive Center on Highway 61 just west of Schroeder. Mike Lynch, coordinator of the newly-formed Cook County Invasive Species Team, will talk about what species are a concern in this portion of the state, how to identify them, how to report new infestations and best management techniques for removing them. He will also talk about the coalition of local, state, federal, tribal and nonprofit organizations that form the Team, and are working together to limit the impact of non-native species in northeastern Minnesota, and how you can get involved. You can call Mike at 387-3237 for more information or to sign up as a volunteer in this important effort.

Sugarloaf will also be having their annual Ice Cream Social and membership meeting Saturday, Aug. 13. There is a very short annual membership meeting at 1 p.m., followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new bridge. Then it’s ice cream sundaes for everyone and a presentation about North Shore spiders by local naturalist, author, and WTIP contributor, Larry Weber. Larry is a retired schoolteacher and author of numerous North Shore nature books including “Spiders of the North Woods” and “Butterflies of the North Woods.” Larry is a genius at getting people to appreciate and love spiders and is a highly entertaining and engaging speaker. The event is free and open to the public.

Blueberry and raspberry season is in full swing with many people cruising the back roads looking for good patches. The report from the field is that it's a good year, but not a great year. Most people are returning with their buckets full, but are saying that they have to work hard to get their berries. One woman told me that she had forbidden her boyfriend from giving away any berries this year because of the work they had to put in to gather them.
The only bear that has given campers any trouble this year, way up on Malberg Lake, hasn't been seen for the last couple of weeks. I'm guessing that he prefers blueberries to freeze-dried food. He is kind of an odd bear, though. Usually, when one bear shows up in a campsite somewhere looking for a handout, we soon start to hear bear stories from many other places. Basically, when the natural foods fail, all the bears become interested in picnic baskets at the same time. Last season, we didn't have a single bear report from anywhere in the BWCA Wilderness or the local drive-in campgrounds. This year is the same, except for this single bear on Malberg. He isn't a particularly aggressive bear, but was consistently visiting campsites nearly every day. A few careless campers lost their food, but everyone who took the basic precautions were able to discourage him easily. Maybe he is just a bear that has a particular liking for freeze-dried beef stroganoff - who knows?

All the tourism businesses in the West End seemed to be running at capacity recently. Once the tax revenues are compiled, we'll know for sure, but my hunch is that business is up significantly from last year. Some of the upturn is probably due to our streak of beautiful weather, combined with extremely hot weather almost everywhere else. Or perhaps it is the result of the new coordinated tourism promotion under the leadership of the Cook County Visitors Bureau that began more than a year ago. Whatever the reason, it beats a downturn any day.

Construction is nearly finished on the new, single-track mountain biking trail that begins at the Britton Peak parking lot, 2 miles north of Highway 61 on the Sawbill Trail. It’s 1.2 miles of narrow, twisting trail that is specifically designed to maximize fun for mountain bikers. This trail is designed for beginners. Another 1.7 miles of intermediate trail will be added by this fall or early next year. The project has been coordinated by the U. S. Forest Service Tofte Ranger District; the Minnesota Conservation Corps, which is a state program that provides summer jobs for Minnesota teenagers; the Boy Scouts Order of the Arrow; and the Superior Cycling Association, a local non-profit that promotes cycling in Cook County. This is an example of government at its best: cooperating with citizens to develop and maintain a facility that provides outstanding recreation, providing construction jobs while teaching skills to young people, improving the health of our population and giving our tourism industry another top quality amenity to offer our guests. I guess you could say it’s win, win, win, win, win.

The Minnesota Conservation Corps has also done some major work on the Superior Hiking Trail in the West End this summer. The stretch of trail between Temperance River State Park and the Sawbill Trail has been thoroughly reworked, with brushing, dirt work and new boardwalks in wet areas. This is a gorgeous part of the trail that includes a short spur to the top of Carlton Peak where one of the most scenic views in America is available.

The North Shore Stewardship Association at Sugarloaf Cove is offering a program titled; “What’s Up With Our North Shore Moose” this Saturday, Aug. 6 at the Sugarloaf Cove Interpretive Center, on the lake side of Highway 61 just west of Schroeder. DNR wildlife biologist Martha Minchak will talk about what the research is telling us about the recent decline in moose population in Cook County and what the future might hold for this iconic wild animal. The program is free and open to the public and you can call 218-663-7679 for more information.

While we’re on the subject of wildlife, a few weeks ago I mentioned a bear that was hanging out on the Sawbill Trail. As the weeks have gone by, it became clear that the bear was not well. He was blind in one eye, clearly emaciated and seemed slow and confused. He appeared to be eating mostly grass and flowers along the roadside. Our local conservation officer, Tom Wahlstrom, was monitoring the situation, but of course the C.O.s prefer to let nature take its course in most cases. In fact, the bear seems to have disappeared in the last four or five days, so nature may indeed have relieved the bear of its earthly burden. It is a reminder that life is hard for wildlife in the northern woods. Bear activity in BWCA Wilderness campsites and the local campgrounds continues to be very light. This week the first blueberries have started to ripen. Local pickers report that is looks like a good, but not great, year for berries. Hopefully, between the abundant hazelnut crop and decent blueberries, the bears will stay deep in the woods where they are most at home.

At Sawbill this week we had a visit from several members of the Towner family. They are the descendants of Art and Ruth Towner who used to spend every summer at Sawbill Lodge back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Art and Ruth were wonderful people and played a part in two pieces of Cook County history. They were the owners of what amounted to the first condominium in Cook County. They built a cabin at Sawbill Lodge and owned the cabin, but the lodge rented it out when the Towners weren’t around. The Towners also had full resort privileges in the dining room and at the boat dock. It was an arrangement that foreshadowed the later condominium and other shared ownership properties in the county.

Art also played a key role in the construction of the Cook County hospital. Art was a founder of company called American Hospital Supply, which was very successful in that era. He introduced many of his employees and professional associates to Sawbill Lodge and Cook County. When the Cook County Hospital was being planned back in the ‘50s, the owner of Sawbill Lodge, Jean Raiken, was the chair of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and was working hard to get a local hospital built. At one crucial point in the process, it looked like the hospital would never be built due to high cost. Jean mentioned the problem to Art, who immediately assembled a group of experts in hospital construction. They combed through plans with their experienced eyes and were able to find enough cost savings to enable the project to go forward. Fortunately, none of Art’s descendants who visited recently needed hospital services while they were here. But they do have the satisfaction of knowing that their grandfather and great grandfather played a key role in the medical history of Cook County.

It’s a relief to be back in the business of selling fishing licenses here at Sawbill. While we were very careful to advise everyone that it is illegal to fish without a license, it made for some awkward moments at the cash register as people who traveled thousands of miles to go fishing in the great Minnesota wilderness struggled with the decision of whether to sacrifice a key part of their experience or break the law. In the larger scheme of things, fishing isn’t all that important, but this is just the kind of thing that makes people lose faith in government. At the end of the day, government really resides in the minds of the governed and the tacit agreement to follow the rules for the good of the greater community. I have good friends who argue that all government is bad and we would be better off with a purely free market system. My answer is to invite them to visit Mogadishu, Somalia, where a pure free market, with no government constraint, is a reality. While government can be frustrating at times, it really is the glue that gives us our high quality of life. I’m glad that the state is back in business.

On a smaller scale, we had a customer this week who exemplifies good leadership and the benefits of civil society. Rich Dahle-Koch is a pastor from Plymouth that leads several groups on canoe trips each year. Rich is a natural leader and his groups are among the happiest and most inspired that we see here at Sawbill. Last week, he led his churches scout group on an epic canoe trip that nearly circumnavigated the BWCA Wilderness in six days. Rich has many community building tricks up his sleeve, but a couple are kind of unique. He deliberately led the group to a long portage that is still on the map, but in reality is so grown over that it functionally doesn’t exist anymore. The scouts had to pull out their maps and compasses and figure out how to reach a goal that doesn’t have a clear path to it. Later in the trip, Rich had each kid carry a canoe across a portage blindfolded. He assigned an unblindfolded person to shadow them, but they didn’t interfere unless safety was at stake. It is fun to see the pride and self assurance that radiates from the faces of the scouts when they return to civilization.

Two Sawbill crew members, Tyler Campbell and Luke Opel, took a day off to visit the airplane wreck that is on Zenith Lake, deep in the wilderness. I learned about the wreck back in the sixties when two young canoeists came in the store and asked me what its story was. I had no idea, but by good luck, Orton Tofte, Senior, happened to be paying a rare visit to Sawbill that day. Of course, Orton knew the story. In 1946 a young man appeared in Tofte with a brand new Piper Cub airplane with the idea to make his living as a bush pilot. He was quickly recruited by local trappers and in that capacity flew into Zenith Lake on Christmas Eve to check out the beaver house there. He parked the plane on thin ice and it fell through, with it’s wings resting on the ice. The pilot walked from Zenith Lake to Tofte, where he was living at Tofte’s boarding house. It took him 24 hours to hike the nearly 50 miles in knee deep snow. A gang of men, including the young Orton Tofte, got organized and went back up to Zenith, lifted the plane back up on the ice and started melting the ice off of it using a barrel stove and large sheets of canvas. They were almost done with the process when the whole thing caught fire. They shoveled snow on the engine to salvage that and pitched the frame and wing back in the woods where it remains today. The young pilot soon left the area and his identity is lost to history.

It’s hard to imagine that the lakes will freeze in a few months with the hot weather we’ve been having this week. I’ve had several tourists ask me if the lakes actually freeze over. I think summer is all the sweeter here in the North Country, where we only get it for two weeks every year.

I had the good luck last week to be invited to help out with the entertainment for the first annual Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival at Caribou Highlands at Lutsen Mountains. Beer festivals are popping up all around the country due to a growing interest in home brewing and an increasing number of small, craft breweries that brew beer for a regional market. The Hopped Up Caribou Festival featured nine small Minnesota breweries, each showcasing a handful of their regular or seasonal beers. A crowd of nearly 400 people showed up for the event, which included food, music and educational sessions. Each participant was given a wrist bracelet and a small glass to use for sampling the beer. I was pleased to see that issue of intoxication was addressed directly and each group was urged to have a designated driver that wore a different color bracelet. While it was clear that some of the participants were there to enjoy the beer, scenery, food, music and companionship, many of the others were serious home brewers that were involved in intense beer conversations with the professional brewers and other enthusiasts. The beer tasters were encouraged to vote for their favorite brew and when the ballots were tallied, Fitgers Brewhouse from Duluth took home the most votes with their seasonal apricot wheat beer. Like so many other healthy activities, it was all about community, friendship, pleasure and supporting local economies. Congratulations to Caribou Highlands on their successful event.

Cindy, my lovely bride, was suddenly overcome with the urge to go fishing last week. It wasn't hard for her to talk me into going with her, even though the weather was fairly threatening. We quickly gathered the gear and bait and headed over to Alton Lake to try for some walleyes. We no sooner got in the canoe when it started to pour rain along with strong gusts of wind. When we got to the portage, thunder was drawing near, so we spent 20 minutes under the canoe, swatting mosquitoes and waiting for the worst to pass. Once we reached our chosen fishing spot, the clouds were breaking up, so we hooked up the leeches and settled in for some serious bobber watching.

We were soon distracted by a loon that was floating quietly near by. After about a half hour, it stretched its wings and two little fuzz balls plopped off its back and started swimming behind. The mama loon proceeded to make dive after dive, feeding the little guys and generally fussing over their appearance and well-being. Soon the father loon joined them and then the little family broke out in a chorus of wild song. It is good to see the baby loons this year after a nearly universal breeding failure last year. In fact, it's good to see loons at all after fearing that they might be devastated by the giant BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year that threatened thei4 winter home. Steve Gendron, from Minneapolis, has been counting loons in the West End for many years as a volunteer for the Minnesota Loon Watch program. He and his 10-year-old son Aiden stopped in a few days after our fishing trip to give us a report on what he found this year. Steve says that loon populations are definitely down this year, so maybe the oil spill took a toll after all. On Sawbill Lake, they only counted five loons, when normally they would find more than 10. Smoke Lake had two loons, while Burnt had three and Flame had none. He also counts Fourmile and Richie Lakes, which had two loons apiece this year. There were more single loons this year instead of the pairs that are usually common.

In any case, Cindy and I left the lake just about the time the walleyes usually start biting. We did have a few bobber-downs and caught one walleye, which we released. In our minds, this constitutes a highly successful fishing outing, especially combined with the dramatic clouds, double rainbow and spectacular sunset that we were treated to on the paddle home.

The shutdown of Minnesota state government is dragging on and dragging down the North Shore economy along with it. I read yesterday that religious and community leaders from all over rural Minnesota have been quietly meeting with the legislative leadership and urging them to find a compromise that can honorably end this terrible impasse. My dad, Frank Hansen, said many times that ultimatums are never a good thing. He thought that it was form of bullying and that giving in to bullies only encouraged their bad behavior. Frank believed that honest compromise was an honorable course and made for stronger, smarter and more durable solutions to problems. I hope that a compromise can be reached to pass a budget and end the shut down, and when that happens, I hope that the people of Minnesota will support and praise the spirit of compromise, which is the very basis of our enduring democracy. It seems likely that we are in a similar standoff at the federal level and it would be great if Minnesota could once again demonstrate how good sense and cooperation make us better as a state, a country and a people.

It looks like - knock on wood - it is going to be an excellent blueberry crop this year. We've had just the right amount of moisture and sun, so the bushes are loaded with blossoms and tiny green berries right now. Given our late spring, they might be a week or so later, but here's hoping that they are plentiful and plump. Speaking of which, the bears continue to be satisfied with their natural foods and are, for the most part, staying out of garbage cans, campsites and picnic baskets. The hazelnut crop looks very good this year and if the berries come in behind that, we may have our second year in a row with very few nuisance bear problems.

Depending on when you are hearing this, there may still be time to register for the historic Lundie Vacation Home Tour sponsored by the Schroeder Historical Society. The tour of homes designed by the late architect Edwin Lundie will be held Saturday, July 16, beginning at the Cross River Heritage Center in Schroeder. The cost gets you the bus tour, live music and a fabulous picnic dinner at the end. The proceeds, of course, support the important work of the Schroeder Historical Society. You can get more information by searching for Schroeder history online or calling the Heritage Center at 218-663-7706.