Woodswoman

"Many have dreamed of building a cabin in the wilderness and living there alone in the solitude of a region that is far from civilization. Here is the unusual story of a young wildlife ecologist who had done just that. When her marriage ended in divorce, Anne LaBastille bought twenty-two acres of virgin forest on a lonely lake in New York State's vast Adirondack Park, and there built the log cabin that has been her home ever since. Woodswoman is a sensitive account of her adventures in North Woods living and of the wild animals, plants and people she knows so intimately. Her 'back yard' is the six million acres of cloud-splitting high peaks, sunny beaver meadows, somber spruce forests, and clear lakes and streams of the forever-wild Adirondack State Park, the largest wilderness tract east of the Mississippi. Her bark-walled cabin is snug but primitive. In winter she chops a hole in the lake ice for water, and hauls and splits her own firewood; with no road to the cabin, all travel must be by boat, canoe, snowmobile, or on foot. Can a young woman find a rewarding life under such conditions, shouldering work and risking dangers usually faced only by woodsmen? In the wilderness, adventure is never far away. Anne LaBastille's years at Black Bear Lake have had their share of narrow escapes and near disasters, especially during the implacable cold of winter in the North Woods. But despite hardships and dangers, Anne LaBastille has found romance and professional fulfillment on her lake in the Adirondacks. In her chronicle of life in the wilderness, she shares with her reader moments of rare beauty and an underlying warmth--a spirit of adventure that is both a challenge and a revelation." -- Book jacket