(Note: I wrote this post two years ago, but it is as relevant for our class today as it was then.)
November 22, 2019
I am writing this post from my lodging near Walden Pond. Let’s begin with a map:
I’m staying across the road at “Thoreau’s Walden Bed and Breakfast” — run by my 97-year-old friend, Barbara Davis. She is retired now, but luckily she still opens the house now and then for long-time visitors like me. (I’ve been coming here for two decades.) In a moment I’ll take you across the street and walk about two miles around the pond. I took the pictures that follow during walks yesterday and today. While sauntering (Thoreau’s word — and John Muir’s for a meditative walk) I thought about various themes in our course.
ACCESS
This is the way that the trail looks all around Walden Pond. I had just been reading your recent discussion posts and quizzes, and many of you commented on Eric Julber’s “Access Theory.” Like most (or all) of you I agreed that, say, gondolas would spoil the natural setting of the Grand Canyon or Yosemite. But I also reflected that in a sense, we have all bought into “access” and it is just a matter of degree. The first great access debate had to do with whether to allow automobiles into the parks. In about 1914 that question was decided in favor of those newfangled contraptions. And of course, trails like this one provide access to Walden Pond. By the same token trails everywhere are pretty much taken for granted as legitimate “wilderness friendly” ways of providing access to nature.
— You probably noticed that this trail is fenced in on both sides. Arguably that furnishes an unnatural aspect to the scene. Here too there is room for debate, room for complexity. Yes the fence prevents folks from frolicking up the hillside, but imagine 500,000 visitors every year clambering up those hillsides. Pretty soon the vegetation would be gone and the hillside would be a muddy mess! Thus, something as “unnatural” as a wire fence may sometimes bee needed to preserve nature.
— Truth be told, long ago I spent some time on those hillsides. Back when I was in college at nearby Harvard (Thoreau’s college too), I would come out to Walden sometimes to picnic with my girlfriend, sitting on one of those hillsides and looking over the lake There were fewer tourists then and no fences.
Site of Thoreau’s Cabin
About one mile around the lake, you come to these pillars that mark the site of Thoreau’s famous cabin in the woods. The cabin itself was sold and moved after Thoreau’s stay, and it wasn’t until the twentieth century that at amateur archaeologist located the site. Back in the day, when I wanted a change of scene from college life, I would get on my mower scooter and “sneak” into this neighborhood, set out my sleeping bag, light my lantern (no tent), and read Thoreau’s Walden.
— Again things were less formal in those days. I wouldn’t be able to do that today. So I’m glad I slept on that sacred ground while I could. My sense of Thoreau’s presence was very powerful, and on a couple of mornings as I awoke beside the water I had a sense of Henry David’s presence, walking from his cabin down to the pond for his ritual bath.
— Remembering those times just yesterday, when I visited this spot again, I thought of the various ways in our class we have encountered the idea the wilderness nurtures spiritual and mental health. I have certainly experienced those times, as did Thoreau, and judging by the comments posted by many of you, Henry and I are not alone! [Note from 2021 — this is as true of the class this fall as in 2019.]
Close up of the Cabin Site
The Walden Rock Pile
Sometime several decades ago, Thoreau fans began bringing rocks from a favorite place of theirs and piling them near the cabin site. Now there are hundreds (thousands?) of such stones in this huge pile. Some include a favorite Thoreau quote, some name the origin of the stone, some say nothing at all, bearing silent witness to the donor’s esteem for Thoreau. I have visited this spot about 20 times in this century, and I always mean to bring a stone, but I keep forgetting! At any rate, my goal is to bring one of the beautifully polished stones that fringe the shoredsof our own Lake Pend Oreille.
Question: If you were to bring a stone to Walden Pond to place on this pile, from where would you choose your stone?