Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods by John J. Rowlands
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Book Reviews of Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods
Book Review: Very enjoyable
Summary: 5 Stars
I read "Cache Lake Country" in 1968. I was delighted to find it in print again...like meeting an old friend.
Thank you.
Book Review: Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods
Summary: 5 Stars
I found the book enlightening and informative. Thank you for the opportunity to enjoy and learn from this book.Book Review: Life in a cabin in the North Woods
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm going to be a little less enthusiastic, but only a little, than some of the other reviewers here. I really did like this book, but for some reason it just didn't quite pull me into the time, place, space the way it did some others- although it didn't miss by much.
This is a very unique book-probably reminding me of my old Boy Scout Fieldbook (a little more detailed and survival-oriented than the handbook) more than a typical non-fiction work. The illustrations are great as well as occasionally light-hearted, and if you are at all handy or have an engineering or for that matter, culinary bent, you will find plenty of recipes and blueprints for food, tools, gadgets- even crystal radio sets or birch bark canoes. While some of these you'd probably have to find some supplemental information to make, most come so well described and diagrammed that you could probably build them or bake them directly from the book.
For me the best part is the author's midwest and at times almost cowboy way of describing life. His time around rough loggers in the days when horses and two man saws were still the order of the day especially captured my imagination. Like many readers, I'm a lot hermit, and the thought of life in a cabin in the north woods with nothing but snow, bear, moose, and wind has a certain charm, and I'm grateful to Rowlands for giving enough of a story to enjoy a bit of that charm vicariously. An excellent and unique book, and for some it will probably become a treasured possession.
Book Review: Long on Instruction, Short on Yarns
Summary: 4 Stars
I thought this was going to be a book about going off into the woods and all the unexpected adventures associated with a relatively modern day Natty Bumpo.
While the author does go off into the woods to live a quiet life, this book doesn't tell enough of his experiences. It has some. It really ends up being a text book for how to live in the wilderness (especially if you have occasional plane visits, a handy abondoned mine nearby for metal scraps, and two neighbors also alone in their cabins but within hearing distance-2 miles)
Yes, I feel guilty about giving it 4 stars when everyone else rates it 5. I did enjoy it. However, I thought it was going to be something quite different than it was.
As I said, there were a few good stories in it, but too much of it was instruction on how to make stuff, like a compass, or an underground fridge.
Good read but just be forwarned. It is not "Grass Beyond the Mountains" or "Shadows on the Koyokuk" or "On the Edge of Nowhere". It's much more like Proenneke's "One Man's Wilderness" without all the angst over hunting and fishing to survive.
Book Review: An enduring treasure
Summary: 4 Stars
Like many other reviewers, I've read Cache Lake Country several times, and have given away more copies than I remember. I'll just tell one anecdote about it, then let you read the reviews that preceded mine.
I live in Chiapas, Mexico, where many foreigners come to know the Maya and volunteer in sustainable-development projects. A Muslim friend who's involved in such work came to me one day, excited about the fireless cookers he'd just seen. I was happy to tell him about the one in Cache Lake Country. He promptly obtained his own copy.