{"id":1648,"date":"2015-03-14T23:34:06","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T14:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/?p=1648"},"modified":"2015-03-17T11:19:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T02:19:46","slug":"stay-on-the-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/14\/stay-on-the-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Stay on the trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"150308_replica_cabin_600\"<\/a>\u00a0Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. <\/em><\/p>\n

Ralph Waldo Emerson.<\/p>\n

I went to Concord, Massachusetts on March 8th.<\/p>\n

I had studied up a bit online, discovered the most direct and discernible route out of town to Walden Pond to be Walden Street ( a mile or so straight shot out from town along a paved road) but then had also discovered that not too long ago, the alleged path that Emerson and Thoreau frequently took—a more winding, not-always-so-discernible-path through the woods—had been marked and was also walkable.<\/p>\n

\"150308_statue_henry_450\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At first I thought that, yeah, that true still-in-the-woods walk, the one those two guys\u00a0blazed all those years ago, the one they really walked, sounded most likely to provide\u00a0the most\u00a0legitimate “transcendental” experience . . . but then I realized the irony\u00a0that walking in their footsteps would be.<\/p>\n

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.<\/em><\/div>\n
Henry David Thoreau<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When I got off the train in Concord I had no street map, just a vague image of the town’s layout and the names of three or four main streets in my head, and at first I was a bit discombobulated . . . and finally had to ask someone which street led directly into town. After that, the first major turnoff I came to was Walden Street, so I just\u00a0made a spur of the moment decision to take\u00a0the clear, straight-shot out, to try to get a better feel for the lay of the land as I went along, and then to try to return to Emerson’s Mill Brook back yard through the woods via the (I was soon to learn, fairly-well<\/em> marked) “Emerson-Thoreau Amble.”\u00a0 And that’s what I did.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\"150308_stay_on_trails\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Stay on Trails.”<\/p>\n

That’s what all the signs\u00a0along the path circling Walden Pond say.<\/p>\n

That, too, pretty ironic.<\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/p>\n

There were also signs warning of deer ticks. I wasn’t completely ignorant when it came to deer ticks, but at the moment wasn’t all that clear on how active they might be on a day on which the temperatures snuck up just slightly above freezing. Later when I checked, I discovered that the cold doesn’t usually bother ticks, but that the snow and ice do, as they are creatures\u00a0that like to crawl UP UP UP from the ground.<\/p>\n

\"150308_walden_pond_3_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So those “Stay on Trails” signs, yes, were a bit ironic, and yes, they were mainly intended to keep hikers from contributing to the erosion of the pond bank (that is, creating an unwanted “trail”), but not having a complete and full understanding of how ticks operated, I thought, in this case, it was probably not a good idea to go bashing through unmarked trails, boots sinking deep down into the snow and ice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What Emerson says himself, too, is a bit ironic, I think. Follow your own path. Leave a trail. A trail, I assume, that someone\u00a0else would follow—assumedly so that someone else wouldn’t<\/em> need to.<\/p>\n

Am I missing something?<\/p>\n

Recently, I read Into the Wild<\/em>, a non-fiction account of a young Emory University graduate who decides to take the ultimate challenge—to survive in the frigid Alaska wilderness. In that book, the author calls Thoreau “prissy and staid.”<\/p>\n

\"150308_fitchburg_railway_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe\u00a0the author\u00a0was thinking how the Fitchburg railway ran along one side of Walden Pond, how Thoreau could, if he didn’t feel like working up his on fire to cook on,\u00a0just walk along those tracks and be back at his mother’s house in half an hour, where he’d most likely have a hot meal ready for him.<\/p>\n

Me, I don’t call that prissy and staid at all. I mean, the man tended his own bean field. Lots of times he caught his own fish. He read. He wrote. He built a\u00a0cabin he could live in—for twenty-eight dollars and twelve and a half cents. And at least, when he did<\/em> take advantage of his nearby family,\u00a0he walked thirty minutes for his dinner. How many people do you know who’d walk that far for a hot meal—and that being their easiest way to get a meal?<\/p>\n

Me, I call\u00a0what Thoreau did out there at the edge of Walden Pond a\u00a0reasonable<\/em> experience living in and exploring and contemplating nature. If you’ve read Into the Wild <\/em>or seen the movie, you know that the Emory graduate dies. He starves to death in an abandoned bus in the Alaska wilderness. I don’t mean to criticize him. I merely mean to say that if Thoreau was prissy and staid, I don’t think those are very bad things to be at all.<\/p>\n

Nature never wears a mean appearance. <\/em><\/p>\n

Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/p>\n

\"150308_walden_pond_skiers_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But I get it. When you get to Walden Pond you can take the trail you like to get around it. Or you can just walk across it. Walk across it whichever way suits you. Or you can ski across.<\/p>\n

But if you’re not sure how thick the ice is, then you might want to follow in someone else’s footsteps–or someone else’s ski tracks. It’s not easy, and not necessarily necessary—or wise—to walk in fresh snow two feet deep, when the beaten path will lead you to the same place.<\/p>\n

So make your own path when you can. Dance to your own drummer when it seems right. And when necessary, walk back to your mother’s for dinner. Don’t worry that anyone calls you prissy and staid. You’ll be doing just fine.<\/p>\n

\"150308_thoreau_cabin_view_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The site of Thoreau’s cabin sits above a cove.\u00a0 A nice level bit of ground. Good view of the pond. Not far off from a good fishing spot. If you find a better place than Thoreau did to build your\u00a0cabin build it there. If you think he found the best spot, build where he did.<\/p>\n

\"150308_te_amble_silver_birch_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Seems I remember in Walden<\/em>, Thoreau saying that he cleared hickory and white pine to make a spot for his cabin, but as I was walking back to town through Walden Wood, along the “Emerson-Thoreau Amble” all I saw was black oak, silver birch, and pitch pine.<\/p>\n

Things change.<\/p>\n

But it was lovely.<\/p>\n

A dog out for a walk came out of nowhere and almost ate me.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"150308_snowy_amble_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just \u00a0as I was coming out from the woods, not far from Emerson’s house, it began to snow. It snowed hard, but only for about five minutes. It was a quiet, serene snowfall. A special gift, I took it as.<\/p>\n

\"150308_red_face_bird_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the look in that purple finch’s eye. He<\/em> knew\u00a0the snowfall\u00a0was sublime.<\/p>\n

\"150308_emerson_house_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At Emerson’s house, the day went from gray to blue in about ninety seconds. Just coincidence, you think?<\/p>\n

\"150308_concord_home_blue_sky_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of you know, I’m a sucker for blue skies and snow. For me, anyway, it was the perfect day to walk the streets of Concord.<\/p>\n

\"150308_emerson_grave600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And it was the perfect\u00a0day to walk on to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. To pay\u00a0respects to Emerson, the rock, the giant sequoia.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"150308_henry_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But maybe I was more touched by Henry’s tombstone. It was tiny. Like a child’s.<\/p>\n

Is this the thought of a child?<\/p>\n

\"150308_thoreau_quote_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson. I went to Concord, Massachusetts on March 8th. I had studied up a bit online, discovered the most direct and discernible route out of town to Walden Pond to be Walden Street ( … Continue reading Stay on the trail<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1648"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1679,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648\/revisions\/1679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}