North Shore Drive - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 552

9. Sawbill Trail
Three miles farther up the coast, the town of Tofte is the jumping-off point for both the
Sawbill Trail (yet another access route for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area) and a scen-
ic 60-mile round-trip sojourn through 3-million-acre Superior National Forest. Paved in
some parts and gravel-surfaced elsewhere, the road bores through walls of northern hard-
woods (including oaks, maples, and basswoods), whose fall fireworks brighten the oth-
erwise solid backdrop of evergreens. Moose gravitate to the spruce swamps, where they
emerge—dappled with duckweed—from conveniently located beaver ponds. Notoriously
shy, they are best spotted at dawn or dusk, which are also good times to watch for beavers,
deer, and loons.
The forest primeval is punctuated by Carlton Peak, which rises to 1,526 feet and is
accessible by the Superior Hiking Trail. A steep scramble to its rocky summit yields
360-degree views of two wildernesses—a watery one that shimmers to the south and east
and, to the north and west, a wooded one that marches toward the Sawtooth Mountains.