Up North

Up North is a certain way the wind feels on your face and the way an old wool shirt feels on your back. It's the peace that comes over you when you sit down to read one of your old trip journals, or the anticipation that bubbles inside when you start sorting through your tackle box early in the spring. In this unforgettable collection of essays, Sam Cook portrays the enchanting North Country as a state of mind as much as a geographical area. Up North captures the mystic moods, seasonal subtleties, and colorful characters that fill the region from the Minnesota canoe country to the vast expanse of the Northwest Territories. Organized by time of year, Up North describes every season's pleasures--sled dog racing in winter, hooking a northern pike on the first spring fishing trip, building a summer campfire, watching the aurora borealis in fall. Up North is an invitation to explore canoe country through Sam Cook's eyes and your own. "My favorite book for thedreamers or for any outdoor person who enjoys a good story... Sam Cook is a master at weaving a tale."

In 1976 Sam Cook trekked north from his native Kansas to work for an outfitter in the Superior-Quetico canoe country. Now, as the Duluth News-Tribune's award-winning outdoors writer, he uses Duluth, Minnesota, as "base camp" for creating his humorous, powerful, and compassionate columns