Sites: Sawbill Lake Campground (site 9) and Sawbill Lake site 2212
We got married on September 10th but decided not to do a honeymoon right away, but I had a conference in Duluth at the end of September so we had a chance for a quick trip. Sean went to college in Duluth and doesn’t take a lot of convincing to go visit, and we both love the town. I did my conference work during the week while Sean went on an exploratory day-trip mission to Little Gabbro Lake to see if it would be suitable for a weekend camping trip. It’s a 200 rod portage in from the parking area to the put-in, and with our not-light canoe (plus a pack for ballast, since I was absent), Sean felt all 200 rods of it. Since I was tied up until about 4pm Friday afternoon and we didn’t want to portage or look for a site in the dark, we decided to switch gears and headed to Sawbill Lake, which is just over 2 hours from Duluth.
By the time we got to Sawbill Campground, the sun was setting and it was getting dark fast. The put-in landing at this campground is very nice and has a wide floating dock, with plenty of space for multiple parties to load/unload, which we quickly did. The nearest two campsites were about a 15 minute paddle away, but they were unfortunately taken. We didn’t relish the idea of looking for other sites on an unfamiliar lake in the dark, so we sadly turned around and headed back to the campground, where we stayed the night.
The Sawbill Lake campground was quite busy when we were there but it was pretty quiet. It was probably busy because it was an unusually nice and warm weekend for early October, with temps projected into the high 60’s and sunny. People seemed to be respectful of each other and of the condition of the campground, and it was clean and well-maintained. I bet it’s got a little more going on in the height of summer. The outfitter at the campground has really modern, clean facilities and it looks like they offer all kinds of services along with groceries, ice, dumpsters, and showers. Several of the sites are reservable (and those were mostly taken), but we did manage to grab a non-reservable site at #9.
We got up before dawn on Saturday and quickly broke down camp and got out onto the lake. We decided to grab the first empty site we came across and claim it, which ended up being 2212, back in a shallow bay. It’s got a lot of trees right along the shoreline, so it’s a little difficult to spot from the bay entrance, but there are two narrow canoe landings on the innermost curve of the bay. I recommend the one on the right-hand side as you approach, as the left-side one has a lot of shallow rocks that do not allow you to get the canoe right up to the landing. The site itself is probably not the best choice in the summer if you can avoid it, as it is low-lying, shady, and due to its location in the back end of a bay does not catch much breeze. There are some boggy areas near by, so with this combo of factors it’s probably very buggy in the summer. It also has only one really good tent pad. You can fit at least 2-3 more tents back there in a pinch, but those pads are pretty rooty and the tents will likely be pretty close to each other. The kitchen area is pretty cramped and would be a little crowded for bigger groups. But for two people on an October day, this site was just fine. We set up our tent, had a little breakfast, and headed back out to go fishing.
This is a relatively shallow lake, with a lot of rock piles distributed throughout. Sean caught a small northern off of the rocks just outside our campsite bay on a floating rap, and then about 30 minutes later detected a slight wobble on his line and decided to make sure he hadn’t caught a weed. He had not caught a weed, but did manage to reel in the tiniest smallmouth in the lake, who had probably gotten a little territorial with the rap and got a big surprise!
We didn’t catch much else in the morning (I was totally blanked), but we did get a nice up-close view of a beaver doing some work. It was good that we had chosen to grab a site early, because the lake was very busy on Saturday and many of the sites farther north were taken. Unlike many of our trips this year, the weather stayed pleasant and the wind was very calm, so we had a nice easy day of not getting pushed to and fro by the breeze.
We went back to camp and did some reading and took naps – that early morning caught up to us. It was a really pleasant, sunny day and the birch trees were golden and gorgeous. While I was reading my book in the kitchen area, I heard some gurgling noises and was able to peer through the trees to watch a female grouse foraging. Our first grouse sighting! Very cool.
After some dinner we decided to see if sunset fishing was any better. We saw that there seemed to be several people who knew “known spots” for fishing, posting up at specific areas in the lake. We decided we’d paddle troll in those general vicinities (while of course keeping a respectful distance from other fishers). On the far shore across from our bay we started tying into some eating-sized walleye, so I finally got some action! They were striking really well on our natural perch and silver-colored raps (we ended up losing both of those eventually this trip – RIP, lures!). We did end up losing one, but ended up with four good fish on the stringer. We used some paracord to give them a lot of room to run and tied them up at the site. We had purchased ice for the cooler along the north shore, so we were excited about being able to take home our catch.
After a quiet night in the woods, we got up early the next morning. Unfortunately, this was the last day of our short trip and we had a long drive back to Madison in front of us. After a quick oatmeal and coffee breakfast, we packed up and fished our way out, trailing along some very unhappy walleye. Sean caught a slightly larger northern on the way out, and lost his silver rap. My natural perch rap caught on something and lost his action fin, so he’s done as well. After dressing the fish quickly and loading up the car, we headed out.
North shore dining recommendation! We were going to go to Duluth to eat, but it was already 1:30 or so by the time we got to Beaver Bay and we were hungry, so we stopped at Lemon Wolf Cafe. It is a really excellent little spot with a good selection of bottled beer and really tasty food, good coffee, and delicious pie. Stop in if you’re headed through Beaver Bay!
Photo credit to Sean. See the full album here.
Tippy Canoe Tales 