This morning we drove to the Walden Pond State Reservation and hiked around Walden Pond. Walking from the parking lot to the pond, we came across a replica of Thoreau’s cabin—definitely minimalist. We wanted to see the actual site of the cabin, so we walked around on the Pond Trail to where the foundations for Thoreau’s fireplace were excavated in 1945.
 Replica of Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond |  Actual site of cabin |
 View of Walden Pond from Thoreau's doorstep |  Rocks have been placed by visitors as memorial to Thoreau |
The pond set among the woods and rolling hills was lovely, but the experience of being where Thoreau lived and thought and wrote was really awesome. Also interesting were the waterless, chemical free, composting toilets and gray water recycling in the restrooms, which I thought rather in keeping with the spirit of Walden Pond. The state department that handles parks and such is the DCR, the Department of Conservation and Recreation. This was a first in our experience—usually it’s Fish and Game or Wildlife or Parks and Recreation, so putting conservation in a prominent place is quite unusual.
After lunch we visited the Minute Men National Historic Site Visitor Center, where we saw the multimedia presentation “Road to Revolution.” It told the story of the events of April 19, 1775, and the first shots of the Revolutionary War. The part of the story that really struck me was the confusion and ambiguity that surrounded the first shots. No one knows which side fired the first shot or why, but the whole situation was a powder keg waiting for a spark.
We stopped at the Wayside House Visitor Center and read about the lives of the poets and authors that lived there, including Nathanial Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott. Then we drove to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to visit Authors’ Ridge, where Thoreau, Alcott, Hawthorne, and Emerson are buried. We found notes and mementos at the grave sites, which clearly draw literary visitors. It is awe-inspiring and rather solemn to see where these great thinkers and writers have been consigned to the earth.
 Henry David Thoreau |  Louisa May Alcott |
 Nathaniel Hawthorne |  Ralph Waldo Emerson |
Tomorrow we’ll drive to the North Bridge Visitor Center and see where “The Shot Heard Round the World” was fired.
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