6/9/2020 Concord: Walden Pond

Welcome to Susan's Bay Circuit Diary! This blog follows my adventures with my dog Sulu hiking the Bay Circuit Trail.  Feel free to subscribe (see the little "subscribe" oval above). The rest of the past posts can be found using the little menu on the left.  If you are curious how this all started, go here.

Sulu was at the groomer’s today, but the weather was cool and conducive to getting outside, so I decided to do the no-dogs-allowed Walden Pond loop that would complete Map 7. 

I  (so weird not saying we) parked at the visitor’s center and used the free electric car charger as we did before.  Since it’s officially the Season, we had to pay the $8 parking fee. 

A boring walk up the road led me to the trailhead, closer to busy Route 2 than I remembered.  It’s the continuation of the Emerson Thoreau Amble (see May 3 and May 5).

 Walking up the well-blazed trail, I encountered Thoreau’s bean field, which is apparently iconic in the literature. 

I confess that it’s been a long time since I read Walden.  It was first assigned in high school. I reread it as an (younger) adult, and had no patience for Thoreau’s navel gazing.  Not too far up the trail (Thoreau was not an idiot) was the cabin site. It is surprisingly small. 

Then there’s a sign with numerous cairns where the faithful have left a stone. 

From there the BCT follows the Pond Path around the pond.  On a weekday morning in June, the park wasn’t very crowded. The water was a pretty deep blue green.  

Foot traffic around the pond has been limited to one way (counter-clockwise) to facilitate physical distancing.

All the way around the shoreline is punctuated by stone step entrances and a few small sand beaches.  

There were a few families on the shore, some swimmers, and small paddle craft.  Coming around to the other side, huge drifts of yellow pine pollen hugged the shore.  About three quarters of the way around the pond, the BCT leaves the Pond Path and strikes out south and east. The trail and direction names indicate things that used to be there: farms, roads, favorite spots of people long gone.  

I assure you the trailhead on the other side of the street did not look this obvious last month.

Once I reached the road and the place where I took up the trail before, I decided to head to the beach to take a look.  Small knots of people staked out blankets, some in the water, while Canada geese walked boldly among the families on the shore.

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