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- Jan 30, 2002
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Did I mention this wonderful book to you? It was written in 1947 by a neat guy, John Rowlands, and is sort of a friendly how-to journal of a year's time in the wilderness.
I recommend it to anyone who has or wishes he had the opportunity to just be out in a wilderness.
Here's a quote from one review.
Cache Lake Country, by John Rowlands, is a seasonal presentation of stories and projects about his living in a wilderness cabin on a North Woods lake. It is both a how-to collection of projects and a wilderness living collection of essays. Rowlands and Henry Kane, the illustrator, combine their skills for this well done book.
Cache Lake is a timeless classic of living on a lake in the North Woods. Rowlands uses the passing of the months to present different topics, projects and stories illustrating his life on this lake. The book has 13 chapters, a Prologue, Portage to Contentment, a chapter for each month of the year and a good index. One of the most remarkable things about this book is the wealth of illustrations. Henry Kane, the illustrator and a photographer, who also lived near Rowlands lake, has contributed many full-page illustrations and small drawings that grace nearly every page of the book. As Rowlands discusses a project, or tells a story, Kane provided either small, margin-sized drawings or larger ones to assist in the discussion. This collaboration of text and illustrations makes this book unique in many respects. The quality of the drawings and text adds tremendous value to this book. It is hard to read this book without finding yourself captivated by the idea of making a number of the discussed items, or find yourself lost in the mists of Cache Lake.
Here is how Rowlands found Cache Lake in Portage to Contentment:
After I cleared the thoroughfare and came out on the small lake, I stopped paddling like a fellow will when he sees new water for the first time. The sun had come up and mist hung motionless like a big cobweb just above the surface. Ghosts breath we called it when we were young. Over to my right, to the eastward, the shore was lined with jack pines and in one place close down by the water I could see a natural clearing. On the west was part of the great swamp I had passed coming up from Snow Goose Lake, but going north on that side the land lifted up and the white boles of big canoe birches showed on the low ridge.
I have seen maybe a thousand northern lakes, and they all look alike in many ways, but there was something different about that little lake that held me hard. I had sat there perhaps half an hour, like a man under a spell, just looking it over......
This was the lake of my boyhood dreams! This was the lake I used to picture when I camped with my chum by a little millpond near a meadow on a farm...
Then for no reason that I understood, I paddled ashore, built a fire and made myself a pail of tea. And there was the big tree, not the elm that stood by the old millpond, but a tall white pine just where it ought to be. I knew then I had found the place I had always wanted to be.
Let me know if you need my copy.
I recommend it to anyone who has or wishes he had the opportunity to just be out in a wilderness.
Here's a quote from one review.
Cache Lake Country, by John Rowlands, is a seasonal presentation of stories and projects about his living in a wilderness cabin on a North Woods lake. It is both a how-to collection of projects and a wilderness living collection of essays. Rowlands and Henry Kane, the illustrator, combine their skills for this well done book.
Cache Lake is a timeless classic of living on a lake in the North Woods. Rowlands uses the passing of the months to present different topics, projects and stories illustrating his life on this lake. The book has 13 chapters, a Prologue, Portage to Contentment, a chapter for each month of the year and a good index. One of the most remarkable things about this book is the wealth of illustrations. Henry Kane, the illustrator and a photographer, who also lived near Rowlands lake, has contributed many full-page illustrations and small drawings that grace nearly every page of the book. As Rowlands discusses a project, or tells a story, Kane provided either small, margin-sized drawings or larger ones to assist in the discussion. This collaboration of text and illustrations makes this book unique in many respects. The quality of the drawings and text adds tremendous value to this book. It is hard to read this book without finding yourself captivated by the idea of making a number of the discussed items, or find yourself lost in the mists of Cache Lake.
Here is how Rowlands found Cache Lake in Portage to Contentment:
After I cleared the thoroughfare and came out on the small lake, I stopped paddling like a fellow will when he sees new water for the first time. The sun had come up and mist hung motionless like a big cobweb just above the surface. Ghosts breath we called it when we were young. Over to my right, to the eastward, the shore was lined with jack pines and in one place close down by the water I could see a natural clearing. On the west was part of the great swamp I had passed coming up from Snow Goose Lake, but going north on that side the land lifted up and the white boles of big canoe birches showed on the low ridge.
I have seen maybe a thousand northern lakes, and they all look alike in many ways, but there was something different about that little lake that held me hard. I had sat there perhaps half an hour, like a man under a spell, just looking it over......
This was the lake of my boyhood dreams! This was the lake I used to picture when I camped with my chum by a little millpond near a meadow on a farm...
Then for no reason that I understood, I paddled ashore, built a fire and made myself a pail of tea. And there was the big tree, not the elm that stood by the old millpond, but a tall white pine just where it ought to be. I knew then I had found the place I had always wanted to be.
Let me know if you need my copy.