In the beginning of September I went to Boston to collect some data at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. I stayed at the Boston Backpacker's Youth Hostel on Friend street, which I would recommend despite being hit on by the manager. The place has a dozen names so it's more important to know that it's on Friend street at North Station.
I had never been east of New York City before so after my work was finished I wanted to see what else there was to see. I decided to rent a car and drive for a couple days. That turned out to be way more expensive than I had expected. Between the airline ticket, car rental and hostel I could have driven my own truck there for cheaper.
I picked up my car at 1pm on Saturday with 48 hours and unlimited miles to see New England. My goal was to visit Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
Walden Pond
I went directly to Concord to see Walden Pond. Ceri asked me, "So that must be kind of a pilgrimage for you, huh?" It's the birthplace of Ecology, environmentalism and American naturalist thinking/writing. Looking at a bird book I had purchased at the Harvard Bookstore I discovered that David Allen Sibley lives in Concord as well. I am a biologist that believes that ecological balance is the most important issue for our survival. So, I guess it really was a pilgrimage.
I wasn't quite sure what to think actually. It was $5 to enter the parking lot with no guarantee of actually find a place to park. After finding a questionable parking spot I packed my lunch and binoculars into my backpack and set off through the woods in the wrong direction.
My immidiate reaction was that this was far from the solitude Thoreau must have experienced. About 500,000 people visit every year. It was difficult to take a picture of the pond without a swimmer or kayak in the water. It's kind of crazy.
I walked around the pond, most of which was fenced off because of erosion on the banks. Some people were jumping the fence to get to the water. I wasn't sure if Thoreau would have approved or not.
Mostly I was thinking about how things had changed in the past 160 years. At the time Thoreau moved there it was the only spot of woods left with most of the surrounding area having been deforested for lumber and conversion to agriculture. The area around Walden was too sandy for agriculture and so was spared. Today it seems like there a quite a lot of trees to there might actually be more forested. I had always thought of Thoreau as living in solitude for the two years he was there but in reality, he was only a couple miles from town and his parent's land. It was a 10 minute walk to the rail road. Today that rail road is a commuter rail and probably sees less traffic now than when it was used for mail and freight.
So that's what Walden Pond was like for me.
I was wanting to get to Portland, Maine that night so I only spent two hours at Walden Pond. The drive to Maine is short but it actually took me about 6 hours to get there. I made the silly mistake of taking the surface road rather than pay the toll on the interstate. In New England the average speed limit is 35 is seems. It has a way of testing your patience.
I slept in the trunk of the rental car in a Denny's parking lot in Portland. It was quite comfortable actually. Portland is on a sort of peninsula and has a bike path running most of the way around it. The next morning I got up and walked on the path watching birds and people walking their dogs. Portland I quite nice, I wouldn't mind living there sometime.
At around noon I started toward the white mountains in New Hampshire. There are no interstates in that direction so it was once again very slow traveling. I was able to stay calm by listening to NPR. Click and Clack accompanied me to the Mt. Washington vistas.
The rest of the trip was driving and little stopping. As slow as I was going I thought I should just head back to Boston. But I stayed focused on the goal traveling down I-91 in Vermont to I-89 back into New Hampshire and listening to the episode of This American Life where Diane Cook's boyfriend Jorge doesn't want to be "That Guy" and John Hodgeman describes his experience at the Mall of America. I slept at Walmart in Manchester.
As I drove south into Massechusets the next day it was it was 9am and I knew there wasn't enough time to go to Connecticut and Rhode Island, but it was only like 40 miles away and the goal was to go to the states I hadn't been to before. So I drove through about 5 miles of Connecticut, got lost in Providence, RI and the whole time I was watching the clock and gas tank pushing to get back to the rental place before 1pm Monday. I was speeding towards Boston and thought I would have a good 1hr and 15min before my car was due back, but no, I got lost like 4 times just trying to find the place. It was very frustrating. At one point I could see the parking lot where I needed to get to but there was a fence across the road. It was really unbelievable how far I had to drive to get to the other side of the fence. Boston is full of one ways and crooked streets 5 or 6 point intersections. Don't drive in Boston if at all possible. I got to the rental place at 12:59 and thought I would be fine. But I had to use the restroom and the screwed me in the end. When I gave my receipt to the lady to check me in it was 1:05 and I had to pay for another day of insurance and an hour of car rental, which happens to be only half the price of a full day rental.
So, I guess it's nice to have seen all of those states but it cost way too much. Over all I really liked the northeast. I would like to go back to hike in the mountians. I'm pretty sure renting a car is something I never want to do again with my own money.
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