Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods

I read this as a child when I was living in Northern Ontario. Loved it then, and now it brings back memories. Rowland's language is beautiful and allows me to re-experience my days in the north woods.

The first 12 chapters are the 12 months. Rowland lived the country, learned a tremendous amount from an Indian Chief who lived across Cache Lake. He weaves the mythology of the region in with the account of a year's life and adds in how to make the things you'd need to live simply in the wilderness. The drawings in the book are wonderful - much better than having photos, because they convey the simplicity of life he lived. This book is really great for young readers who would like to get a glimpse of life long ago out in the woods. It has the same magical effect on us urban or suburban folks who long for no traffic (NO CARS!), work that has an immediate result like getting in firewood, smoking fish for winter food and for the skills to live in the wilderness.

I discovered this book when I was 13, and have read it no less than 10 times through the next 30 years. Mr. Rowlands was someone I would have loved to spend time with - he was down to earth, interesting, has a good sense of humor, and he lived the kind of life that everyone would love to try. I had fun trying some of his projects, like the needle on the water compass and the dewdrop magnifying glass. As a kid I would dream of living in a cabin near him, Hank and Chief Tibeash, and of canoeing on the rivers he talks about. Sadly, Mr. Rowlands died in the late 1970s, and I never had a chance to meet him. I did discover he wrote another book called Spindrift, and also that he did a lot of writing for The Atlantic Monthly magazine. He lived in New England in his later years, and had a daughter. For those who loved his book, you should check out the books written by his friend Hank (Henry B. Kane), who wrote in the same style and also illustrated Cache Lake Country. All in all, Cache Lake Country was a book that transported a young girl to a beautiful place, and introduced her to the woodsy "uncle" we all would love to have.

Every true outdoors man and woman needs to read two books. One is Leopold's A Sand County Alamanac, the other is Cache Lake Country. If you've hunted, fished, and trekked the northwoods as much as I have, and love its brooding, dark beauty, this book will capture the sensations of the taiga. It is almost painful to read it if you find yourself trapped in someone else's idea of the good life, when what you really want to do is chuck it all for a cabin in the boreal forest.

I first read this book when I was 12 years old, I am now 46. I could not put it down and can not. I made my first knike sheath, first snow shoes, and my first moc;s (which remain my favorite type of moc's) from sketches from this book, as well as many of the other projects and they all lived up to expectations of a young teenager to present. You feel like you are there with the three men of the story. It is is one of the few books that I reread every couple of years. Worth every penney and then some.