Eagle Rock
There’s a place in the Saganaga Narrows where I love to go, I call it Eagle Rock. I named it this because 9 out of 10 times when I go through there an eagle sits at the top of a dead tree keeping watch on mighty Sag. I had always thought the eagle had a great vantage point from his tall tree on top of the high rock so one day I decided to see just how good of a view it was.
I wasn’t disappointed after my hike to the top of Eagle Rock. The view of Saganaga is incredible from up there and you can see a long ways in all directions. The immediate area around Eagle Rock was burned during the 1995 Sag Corridor Fire. The Jack Pines and other trees have done alot of growing over the past ten years and are now much taller than me.
This year the Ham Lake Fire made it’s way through some of the Sag Corridor Fire too. I was afraid Eagle Rock had been burned so on my first trip up to Sag I was very happy to see it, and the eagle’s tree, untouched by this year’s fire. There are areas to the north, south and east of the rock that have burned and you can see this in the photos I have posted. The photos with the orange trees are what were burned during this year’s fire, the other photos were taken two summers ago.
It’s an amazing thing to see a forest that has been burned. The variety of plants and different sizes of trees make Saganaga an incredible lake to visit. Now when you head onto Saganaga you can see areas that were burned in 2007, 1995, 1992, 1976, 1801, 1692, 1364 as well as areas that haven’t burned in a very long time. Fire is a natural part of the forest and we are fortunate to be able to live where we can watch the changes over time.