Connection Between Thoreua and AT

[HeadiesHiker11]

I have to write a paper for my American Literature class and chose to write about Henry David Thoreau. I was wondering if fellow Thoreau fans find any connection between the Walden Woods years and a thru hike. The relation i was going for is based upon Thoreua being fed up with the modern world and living in the wilderness. Although Thoreua was living a primitive lifestyle he was still just a few miles from town. The AT seems like a similar version of escaping into the wilderness while at the same time not deserting the modern world alltogether.

Comments and ideas would be helpful

[emerald]

While there may be similiarities, I think the two are very different. It's difficult for many to appreciate just how much 2000 miles of hiking is until one has actually done it. Instead of becoming intimate with a single location, a through hiker is constantly in motion, experiencing new places all the time and there is not as much time for contemplation as some might believe. It involves total immersion and commitment to the task.

[Manwich]

I don't think you're going to find a direct link but you can certainly run with the ideas of the parrallels of thru-hiking versus Thoreau's intentions.

The neat part about HYOY is that you can pretty much make up any reason you want to justify your hiking, which is useful for American Literature Class.

[Mags]

This book may be a good start:

http://www.amazon.com/Searching-Thor...7211034&sr=8-1

I juts read it ~2 wks ago.

It does not deify the man. Rather it shows how Thoreau dealt with the wilderness (warts and all). Sometimes eloquently, sometimes sanctimoniously. Always thought provoking.

From the AT perspective, talks about Maine (Katahdin esp), the Whites and Greylock.

[Lone Wolf]

I have to write a paper for my American Literature class and chose to write about Henry David Thoreau. I was wondering if fellow Thoreau fans find any connection between the Walden Woods years and a thru hike.

no connection at all

[emerald]

Read "Walking." You may find it has more in common with an AT through hike than Walden.

You can easily find it online. Someone likely will post it or locate and post it here yourself for those who come along later and read this thread.

[Mags]

http://thoreau.eserver.org/walking.html

[emerald]

See also "Ktaadn." You may not have known the last water source for a northbound AT through hiker is Thoreau Spring on Katahdin's tableland.

[rafe]

Not much connection, in my opinion. Even in Thoreau's day, Walden Pond wasn't much of a wilderness, and Thoreau didn't really "rough it" very much. He could saunter into town for tea and cakes whenever he felt like it.

[dradius]

no connection at all

only 701 more to go

[weary]

I have to write a paper for my American Literature class and chose to write about Henry David Thoreau. I was wondering if fellow Thoreau fans find any connection between the Walden Woods years and a thru hike. The relation i was going for is based upon Thoreua being fed up with the modern world and living in the wilderness. Although Thoreua was living a primitive lifestyle he was still just a few miles from town. The AT seems like a similar version of escaping into the wilderness while at the same time not deserting the modern world alltogether.

Comments and ideas would be helpful

It's going to be a bit of a stretch. But Henry was a lover of mountains. He was among the early explorers of Mount Washington and Katahdin, and walked from Concord to Mt. Greylock. All peaks now traversed by the Appalachian Trail.

Thoreau's mountain essays have been collected and commented on by William Howarth, in "Thoreau in the Mountains," published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 1982.

Also useful may be "An American Landscape" excerpts from Thoreau's Journals, selected by Robert L. Rothwell, published by Marlowe & Company in 1991. Many of the selections describe Thoreau's comments and experiences on the mountains of New England.

Weary

[Mags]

It's going to be a bit of a stretch. But Henry was a lover of mountains. He was among the early explorers of Mount Washington and Katahdin, and walked from Concord to Mt. Greylock. All peaks now traversed by the Appalachian Trail.

If you look at it form the angle of discovering "wildness" (as opposed to wilderness) that can be found on the AT, then examining Thoreau's haunts could be helpful in an abstract way.

The first book I referenced asks that question. In the very developed lands of New England, can wilderness be found? (sometimes) Can wildness be found? (absolutely)

A good question to ask on an AT hike. Something Thoreau pondered in the not-so-wilderness cabin at Walden. But he did find wildness...

Could be starting point for a paper on the Appalachian Trail. Is it wilderness? Why or why not? Does it have wildness like Thoreau talked about? Does a person find this type of wildness on their own thru-hike? Etc.

[weary]

Read "Walking." You may find it has more in common with an AT through hike than Walden.

You can easily find it online. Someone likely will post it or locate and post it here yourself for those who come along later and read this thread.

Excellent advice. As is Mags. "Could be starting point for a paper on the Appalachian Trail. Is it wilderness? Why or why not? Does it have wildness like Thoreau talked about? Does a person find this type of wildness on their own thru-hike? Etc."

Weary
__________________

[kayak karl]

no connection at all

if you can connect buffets and hiking, i think he can do this

[emerald]

Some would have us believe transcendentalism lead to the conservation movement. I'm not sure a case can be made for it since transcendentalism was a movement confined to writers and in its time didn't have a broad appeal whereas conservation was more about political changes which altered how we interact with the landscape.

It may be there were two distinct schools of thought attempting to grapple with the same issue in different ways.

It find it interesting: in our attempts transcend the world, we are drawn back to it -- what's wild and its natural beauty -- which connects us to the world and those places where we have these experiences. Our natural response is or should be to revere and protect these places. In the end, we come back to where we began in more ways than one.

[Lone Wolf]

only 701 more to go

you have a thing for me honey? you follow my posts a lot

[weary]

Some would have us believe transcendentalism lead to the conservation movement. I'm not sure a case can be made for it since transcendentalism was a movement confined to writers and in its time didn't have a broad appeal whereas conservation was more about political changes which altered how we interact with the landscape.

It may be there were two distinct schools of thought attempting to grapple with the same issue in different ways.

It find it interesting: in our attempts transcend the world, we are drawn back to it, what's wild and its natural beauty, which in turn connects us to the world and those places where we have these experiences. Our natural response is or should be to revere and protect these places. In the end, we come back to where we began in more ways than one.

Don't underestimate the power of the printed word.

Henry in one of his essays (walking?) argued that every town should have a thousand acre preserve that would have no economic benefits, but would be just a place for people to walk and observe, allowing nature do whatever it wished.

When I proposed that our town create a land trust 35 years ago, I had Thoreau's recommendation in the back of my mind. So far our land trust is 800 acres and counting.

Of course as I've reported, others have joined the effort and we now have 5,000 acres of protected lands. Most of our townspeople seem to think this is a great accomplishment. But I'm still working on another couple of hundred acres to meet my special goal.

All I'm suggesting is that in one town, at least, Transcendentalists have had an influence. It's my guess that transcendentalists have had a major influence everywhere. That's why Henry's, and his mentor, William Waldo Emerson's, essays are still being read, and taught in the colleges and universities.

I sense that Thoreau is read more seriously than the leaders of the movement. Certainly, the Thoreau Society is pretty unusual, encompassing both academics and the little old ladies in tennis shoes that come along on the walks I guide. I love it when they come on the walks. It gives me an excuse to slow down. I find it suddenly difficult to keep up with 20-year-olds these days.

WEary

[John B]

Not much connection, in my opinion. Even in Thoreau's day, Walden Pond wasn't much of a wilderness, and Thoreau didn't really "rough it" very much. He could saunter into town for tea and cakes whenever he felt like it.

Sounds just like the AT.

[dradius]

you have a thing for me honey? you follow my posts a lot

well cupcake, with 19,000+ posts it is kind of hard not to. plus, I find the bulk of your posts so incredibly insightful I can't help but to comment on them. either way, I've finished

[Lone Wolf]

ok sweets