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OFF THE BEATEN TRAIL

Into The Wilderness ...

Thoreau's Walden Pond

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T O P I C R E V I E W
James N.	Posted - February 08 2012 : 5:49:29 PM This time of year, as Winter begins to turn into Spring ( at least it has here in Texas - all my daffodils and jonquils are coming up! ) I begin to think about getting out "on the road again". The overall weather and temperatures remind me of another "flying vacation" I took fifteen years ago to Massachusetts for the purpose of visiting around the time of Lexington - Concord. As once before, I used Longfellow's Wayside Inn near Sudbury as a base from which to see nearby Colonial and Revolutionary sites. One clear, brisk morning on my way to Concord, I stopped to see Walden Pond, famous for its association with American radical author and poet Henry David Thoreau, the Sesquicentennial of whose death in 1862 just happens to be this year. Of course, Walden is also the title of his most famous essay, published in 1854, detailing the two years ( 1845 - 47 ) he spent here in the woods in a tiny cabin of his own building. Now a State Park, the bucolic scene is preserved for all who wish to "get away" from the bustle of nearby Boston for at least an afternoon, if not years! Image Insert: 88.5KB Image Insert: 74.91KB Image Insert: 79.04KB Image Insert: 57.77KB Image Insert: 82.71KB Though I understand the relatively small "pond" CAN be crowded, the chilly morning I visited there were no others there, except a couple of dedicated fishermen, one of whom can be seen in the last photo. As you can also see, there was a sheet of ICE on part of the pond's surface, though this was in late March.
3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
powerdude	Posted - February 15 2012 : 10:26:50 AM Thank you for the posting James. This only convinces me on my full desire to see Walden Pond and relate certain passages in his book to locations within the State Park Visiting Walden Pond is certainly on my bucket list. Thanks, Patrick
Monadnock Guide	Posted - February 08 2012 : 6:53:15 PM Thanks James, great post - although it's been a LOT of years, those pics bring back some memories. I've both visited & fished Walden Pond back in the early '60's when I lived in Mass. ... Nice spot, glad it's been preserved. Ice on ponds/lakes etc. in March is common, around here "ice out" isn't usually until mid April. - That pond is surprisingly deep in one area, - somewhere around 150 ft. I believe.
James N.	Posted - February 08 2012 : 6:31:24 PM When Thoreau lived here, on land "borrowed" from his Concord neighbor Ralph Waldo Emerson, the War in Mexico was raging. One day here, he was arrested for failure to pay his poll tax, with the excuse that it went directly to support the war, thereby indirectly supporting slavery! The Northern Radicals and abolitionists, of whom Thoreau was a prime example, believed the Mexican War was a shameless ploy by Southern Democrats ( led by Tenneseean President James K. Polk ) to "grab" additional land into which slavery could spread. The net result was that Emerson and other friends paid Thoreau's taxes, thereby freeing him ( and his conscience! ); and the episode provided grist for another of his famous essays, On Civil Disobedience. It is now necessary to park in a lot from which a nature trail extends entirely around Walden Pond, stopping at a carin of stones and several concrete posts supposedly marking the "exact" spot Thoreau built his tiny one-room home. For those unwilling or unable to access the spot, a reconstruction and "lifesize" statue ( also tiny! ) stand near the parking lot. Image Insert: 79.75KB Image Insert: 80.97KB Image Insert: 88.02KB The bottom shows the approximate "view" Thoreau had of Walden Pond from his front door. The sign in the middle photo succinctly states his oft-quoted reason for coming here in the first place, words which make him immortal and an everlasting Hero and example to "rugged individualists": I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

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