Kai meets a new friend, Henry David Thoreau. Replica cabin in background.
- Inside the replica cabin
Walden Pond
- Stone marking the original cabin site
Today we traveled to Walden Pond (which is not really a pond but actually a small lake, but they call it that because in England they call lakes “ponds” and this is NEW England). Walden Pond was made famous by Henry David Thoreau, who lived there in a one room cabin for two years, two months and two days, starting on the 4th of July, 1845. During his stay he kept a journal writing down everything he witnessed and learned from nature.
When we first arrived, we saw a replica of his one room cabin. Inside was a wood stove, a bed low to the ground, and a writing desk with a guest journal in which I signed my name. Right by the cabin was a statue of Thoreau, which was exactly my height. Across the road was the Pond, and we started walking around it. The total distance was one and one-half miles, and it took us a little over two hours in the snow and ice. The Pond was frozen, and we saw an ice fisherman out on it, using an auger to make holes. As we walked the perimeter, we heard a low rumbling, gurgling sound like when you turn over a five gallon jug into a water dispenser and it goes “blub, glub, blub.” It was like the lake was talking to us.
About 2/3rds of the way around, we found the original cabin site, which was discovered on November 11, 1945. There was also a quote from Thoreau, which I read to our family.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life. And to see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
After our hike, we stopped by the gift stop, and my Dad picked up a book for me, entitled: A Mind with Wings, The Story of Henry David Thoreau, by Gerald and Loretta Hausman. I can’t wait to finish reading it!