Two more fires have happened on Lake Saganaga this past week, both started by campers and both extinguished by cabin owners and other patrons of the lake. The two fires did minimal damage since they were attacked so quickly by the volunteers, and the entire community would like to thank everyone for being so alert. It does not take very much wind to allow a fire to get out of control and I think we are awfully lucky the fires did not do any serious damage.
One fire was on Horseshoe Island. It was started well outside of the designated U.S. Forest Service fire ring which is illegal in the Boundary Waters. Every designated campsite in the B-Dub has a metal fire ring stamped USFS and a latrine. They were painstakingly placed there for a reason. You do not build fires outside the rings and you do not “dump” outside of latrines. Seems logical to me. I was told that the campers on Horseshoe were actually fleeing the scene while volunteers were arriving to put it out. Of course, they had no idea how it started and they had to be asked to stick around and help extinguish it. The other fire was on the Canadian side. It had spread from a fire ring—the ones in Canada are homemade rock circles and usually not as safe as the metal versions in the U.S. It was also put out by local volunteers and I believe I was told that the campsite was empty. Fire can rekindle a couple of days later if not doused properly and a lot of the unattended fires are started by people who will never even know that they started it. I found some old letters and newspaper clippings in a camper trailer that I purchased locally years ago, and there was a great article written by Irv Benson after the Sag Corridor fire in 1995 entitled The Cost of Fires. Irv was a very intelligent man that spent a lot of years on the lake. If you thought I was too hard on the campers in my past couple of articles you should go through the archives and read what Irv had to say.
Volume 105, No. 21 on September 18 of 1995 in the Cook County News-Herald. Irv says, “I very definitely think that a large sign of even billboard proportions should be placed immediately north of the last narrows unbound in the lower channel of Sag… The (large) sign should simply state “This was caused by a careless camper.”
Irv was so cool.
Human error is unavoidable and with so many campers in the woods this month, I am actually surprised we have not had more problems.
Motor permits for Saganaga have not been available the past couple of weeks which means there are either a whole lot of people using the lake or somebody is reserving permits with no intention of using them. It has happened before. It is hard to believe that 50 permits were reserved overnight. I watch them online and there have been some weeks this summer when roughly 30 to 50 permits were available on Friday and by Saturday there were zero. Maybe I am wrong, but it just does not seem possible.
I will admit that the lake has been busier lately than I have ever seen it, so maybe it is legitimate. The price to reserve a permit was reduced this year to $6 so that may also be reflecting the lack of availability. It is cheap enough now that some people could be reserving permits, just in case they decide to enter Saganaga. I certainly hope that is not happening since it means that someone else is denied access to the lake because of it.
I tend to get a little preachy this time of the year but it is only because I care about this place and I want my children to see the same landscapes that I was fortunate enough to see. The previous generations preserved it for us and it only seems fair to follow suit.
Cory Christianson has worked as a fishing guide on the Gunflint Trail since 2000. If you have any fishing or wildlife reports or stories to share, send an email to: christiansoncory@hotmail.com or call 218-388-0315. You can also visit Cory’s website at Gunflintfishingguide.com.
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