Chapter 1, Cache Lake, Portage to Contentment Summary and Analysis

Cache Lake is small and hidden away within the wilderness; only the author and the occasional trapper and Indian has ever seen it. The author, Jim, comes upon it unexpectedly while travelling up through a series of lakes; when he finds it he stops, motionless. He has seen thousands of lakes, but this one is different. For reasons beyond him, Jim paddles ashore, starts a fire and boils some tea. He then realizes that Cache Lake is where he had always wanted to be.

Jim is able to come back regularly, given his work, and on his way back he is able to meet up with Chief Tibeash, a Cree Indian Jim knew years before through his father. The Chief teaches him to uses his senses to imbue every sound in...