The Thoreau 14 - another new List

[Amicus]

The Thoreau 16: another new List

Our New England mountains have had no more illustrious tramper, perhaps, than Henry David Thoreau. His hike to Katahdin (not as far as Baxter Peak, however) is well-known from his The Maine Woods, and was discussed in an interesting thread here recently. That book also includes his account of a hike up Mt. Kineo, and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers includes his first hike to "Agiocochook" (as he called Washington), with his brother in 1839 (tantalizingly just touched on), and his hike to Greylock.

The larger part of his mountain hiking reports, however,are to be found in his Journal, which he maintained assiduously throughout his short life, amassing some three million words, which have been published in 14 volumes. I have recently discovered a wonderful book which may be well-known to some of you - Walking with Thoreau - A Literary Guide ot the Mountains of New England (Beacon Press, 1982, 2001). In it, William Howarth, a prominent Thoreau scholar, has collected all of Thoreau's descriptions of his mountain hikes, adding an Introduction and commentary.

Thanks to the efforts of Prof. Howarth, I was able easily to compile the following list of mountains which Thoreau hiked and then wrote about:

Mass.

1. Wachusett

2. Greylock

Maine

3. Katahdin (which he called "Ktaadn")

4. Kineo

New Hampshire

5. Wantastiquet (in Chesterfield)

6. Fall/Kilburn (in No. Walpole)

7. Washington (f/k/a Agiocochook) (see below)

8. Pierce (f/k/a Clinton) (see below)

9. Eisenhower (f/k/a Pleasant) (see below)

10. Monroe (see below)

11. Red Hill (Moultonboro)

12. Lafayette (by Old Bridle Path)

13. Monadnock (his favorite)

14. Pack Monadnock (which he called "Gap M.")

15. Uncannunuc (his spelling - see below)

New York

16. South Mountain in the Catskills (speculative but likely)

His first hike to Washington followed the Crawford Path, and his terse account does not say whether his brother and he ventured to the summits of Pierce, Eisenhower and Monroe, which were probably a little off the Path. On his second, in 1858, he ascended by the route of the Auto Road, approximately. The "carriage road" was then being built and and had reached the half-way point. His group descended by Tuckerman Ravine, where their campfire touched off a conflagration (not the only such accident for Thoreau).

In his Introduction, Howarth includes "Uncannunuc" in a list of mountains climbed by Thoreau. I omitted it at first, however, because Thoreau does not explicitly say that, in the excerpts included in the book. In a description of the Hooksett Pinnacle, however, Thoreau makes the following statement, which implies that he had climbed U., so I have added it:

"As Uncannunuc Mountain is perhaps the best point from which to view the valley of the Merrimack, so this hill [the Pinnacle] affords the best view of the river itself."

I found an excellent little website that combines excerpts from Thoreau's account of his 1858 journey to the Whites with fine illustrations, including a speculative map.

I recommend tracking down Howarth's book, or Thoreau's Journal (the 1858 trip is in Vol. 11), through your local library or bookstore. Thoreau's perceptions are always refreshingly acute, even when he is a bit off on his facts. (He was very strong on botany, a bit weaker on geology and geography.)

Thoreau also took one camping trip in the Catskills, but left no detailed account, according to Howarth. [Note, however, Mark Schaefer's research, below, which shows that he at least got close to the South Mt. summit.]

En route to Pinkham Notch in July 1858, Thoreau climbed Red Hill, from which he admired "Ossipee Mountain" to the east. He spent a long afternoon riding along its W and NW sides, before crossing the Bearcamp River and stopping for the night in Tamworth Village. I put this on the original list, but have deleted it, since I have seen no evidence that he tried to climb it. [Aug. 09]

 

[bcskier]

Walking with Thoreau - A Literary Guide ot the Mountains of New England (Beacon Press, 1982, 2001). In it, William Howarth, a prominent Thoreau scholar, has collected all of Thoreau's descriptions of his mountain hikes, adding an Introduction and commentary.

Is this the same book?

Thoreau in the Mountains

bcskier

 

[Amicus]

Is this the same book?

Pretty much, from the second-hand info I've seen. Walking with Thoreau is an updated edition, with a fair degree of rewriting, it seems. (I already have a library order in for your earlier version, mainly because I've read that it contains some maps - which might be interesting, although I doubt it - that were not carried over into Walking...)

 

[rocket21]

This is a unique idea for a hiking list!

 

[SteveHiker]

how could you leave out the mighty Hooksett Pinnacle?

Certainly not as lofty as any you cite, but you can avoid 13 and any controversy with Ossippee.

 

[Amicus]

how could you leave out the mighty Hooksett Pinnacle?

I actually thought about that, since Thoreau did admire the view from its top (as you clearly know). I decided that if I included that 480-footer, however, I'd have to add all those little bumps around Concord, Mass. - a morass I wished to avoid.

In effect, I have gone with 1K in elevation as the cut-off.

 

[NewHampshire]

Things may have changed since, but last I heard gaining access to Hooksett Pinnacle was problematic.

Brian

 

[sweeper]

I've got the 'Walking w/T', and Excellent book with most of the stories in the books you've posted.

I like the one about the stay in Tuck where they burnt the side of the Ravine.

The Kaatdin story was great also. Poling up the Penob and the discriptons of the logg'n camps were great

 

[rocket21]

I wonder if he has any references to Great Blue Hill? He lived/taught in Canton in his younger days, so I assume he probably hiked that peak a few times.

 

[Amicus]

I wonder if he has any references to Great Blue Hill? He lived/taught in Canton in his younger days, so I assume he probably hiked that peak a few times.

Howarth has included no references to the Blue Hills that I recall (and there are none in his index). Still, if I had access to an index to all 14 volumes of Thoreau's Journal, I would expect to find at least a few mentions of them. Perhaps worth checking on a Library visit?

Roy: I thought about including a prediction that you had already completed the list, so you surprise me not in the least.

I still have Kilburn and Wantastiquet to go[, and "Uncannunuc" makes three]. As Roy knows, K. and W. are on the Connecticut River in southern N.H. As it happens, I was at the foot of Kilburn just a few weeks ago, on a Memorial Day weekend River camping trip, and took this picture of it, from a canoe. Wantastiquet is the site of one of those Upper Valley Land Trust river-access campsites and we had originally planned to camp there (but instead ended our trip in Putney, VT, 10 miles upstream). So, both could be hiked in conjunction with a pleasant canoe trip.

 

[Amicus]

Two more

A closer reading of Howarth's chapter on Monadnock - by far his longest, as that was Thoreau's favorite mountain and he made a number of trips there, some lengthy - reveals that Thoreau climbed Pack Monadnock (but not North Pack, it seems) in 1852, on his way west to Monadnock.

Also, while Thoreau does not state explicitly, in his writings included in the book, that he climbed "Uncannunuc," Howarth says that he did and Thoreau does at one point imply that, so I have added it, as well.

 

[RoySwkr]

I still have Kilburn and Wantastiquet to go[, and "Uncannunuc" makes three]. As Roy knows, K. and W. are on the Connecticut River in southern N.H.

Uncanoonuc is a drive-up assuming it's the S Peak he climbed

Fall Mtn is a ridge with a HP at each end, fortunately Mr. A has experience in determining which peak Thoreau actually climbed.

Wantastiquet has a lovely view ledge with monument but the true summit is a bushwhack beyond the large radio tower. Of course Thoreau was not a peakbagger and probably didn't go there so listbaggers maybe shouldn't either. The first time I hiked up was from a field with a state forest sign but now the trailhead is tucked away behind homes and a WalMart. The best time to climb it is Wantastiquet Day in early May when you got a free T-shirt and lunch. Wantastiquet was supposed to go in the Day Hikers Guide to Vermont since it is visible to a lot more people in VT but it was left out at the last minute, if you don't believe this look at the area maps in the First Edition which show it.

 

[NewHampshire]

Uncanoonuc is a drive-up assuming it's the S Peak he climbed

There are 2 hiking trails up to South peak. One follows the old incline railroad grade, the other was built (?) by Boy Scouts, or at the very least whoever built it it is now maintined by the Boy Scouts. I have only been up this one and it is quite tame to say the least. I hear the old Incline route is a bit sportier.

Brian

 

[Amicus]

Fall Mtn is a ridge with a HP at each end....

Thoreau seems to have hiked the whole ridge, from north to south, during a visit to Bronson Alcott (who lived in Walpole) in 1856. He carried "a heavy valise on my back", and because his "shoes were very smooth," while "descending the steep south end" he "got many falls, battering my valise."

Fortunately, Mr. A has experience in determining which peak Thoreau actually climbed.

Or didn't climb, as the case may be. Roy refers to my failed attempt to establish that Thoreau reached an Ossipee summit. I am persistent, at least, even if often misguided, and willing to admit my mistakes.

Wantastiquet has a lovely view ledge with monument but the true summit is a bushwhack beyond the large radio tower. Of course Thoreau was not a peakbagger and probably didn't go there so listbaggers maybe shouldn't either.

Thoreau called this "Chesterfield Mountain" (although he had heard its "Indian name" of "Wantastiquet"). He climbed it in Sept. 1856 with "Miss Frances and Miss Mary Brown." He says he reached the summit and Howarth takes him at face value, but Howarth thinks the "summit" is marked by that monument, so he isn't a peak-bagger either.

The summit was more wooded in Thoreau's time, according to Howarth. Thoreau had a view west and north, including Ascutney (51 miles north), but he says that trees blocked Monadnock.

Roy, New Hampshire and others familiar with the "Uncannunucs":

Thoreau thought that the "Uncannunuc Mountain" that he climbed (it seems), was "perhaps the best point from which to view the valley of the Merrimack." Which of them does that sound most like?

 

[Mark Schaefer]

The missing Thoreau Journal manuscript volume on the Catskills

Thoreau also took one camping trip in the Catskills, but left no detailed account, according to Howarth.

Thoreau did write of his Catskill trip in his Journal, but the handwritten manuscript volume containing the Catskill trip has been lost. While we don't know conclusively which summits, if any, Thoreau may have climbed, some is known of where he was in the Catskills. The Catskill historian, Alf Evers, pored over Thoreau's other manuscripts for clues. His research was documented in his book The Catskills, from Wilderness to Woodstock, 1972, 1984, Chapter 66 (Professor Guyot Measures the Mountains), excerpt below:

"In 1844 the greatest of American walkers came to the Catskills -- he was Henry David Thoreau. Unfortunately, Thoreau left no easily identifiable sign of his brief walking tour in the Catskills. The volume of his journal in which he recorded the tour -- probably in considerable detail -- has vanished. A few paragraphs which found their way into later journal entries, a letter or two, and a comment by William Ellery Channing, his companion in the Catskills, are all that we have to tell us that Thoreau walked Catskill trails. It is not much, yet it is enough to be worth bringing together if only because Thoreau's trip to the Catskills resulted in a memorable passage in his Walden -- a passage in which the Catskills are not once mentioned."​

Although not mentioned specifically in the final version of Walden, the Catskills are mentioned in an earlier draft; and in Thoreau's journal entries written at Walden Pond. Rather than quote Evers further I will cite later works which drew upon Evers' research and which are available online:

• The relevant Walden journal entries with discussion can be read on pages 20-23 of this article in Art Bulletin, The, June, 1999 by W. Barksdale Maynard.
• Another discussion of Thoreau's Catskill connection to Walden is found in Jane Parker Huber's book Elevating Ourselves: Thoreau on Mountains, 1999. This work cites the early research of Alf Evers and can be read here. It also speculates that Thoreau might have climbed North Mountain (3180') and South Mountain (2460', actually 2480' on the topo) but offers no evidence.

The location of Silas and Mary Scribner's "mountain house", where Thoreau lodged at least one night, is well established from old maps. It is on the south side of Lake Creek, just across the creek from the current base/terminus of Schutt Road. The location later became known as Glen Mary, named for Mary Scribner. In modern days it was once the site of a trailhead parking area (now moved to the top of Schutt Road). The house location is along the Escarpment Trail at the center cross of this topo map. Given the close proximity to the summit of South Mountain, it would seem very likely that Thoreau would have hiked on one of the mountain's hiking paths, known to have been present by 1844.

If you desired to include a Catskill summit on the Thoreau list, perhaps as an optional and asterisked summit, then the 2480' South Mountain would probably be the most historically plausible.

 

[NewHampshire]

Roy, New Hampshire and others familiar with the "Uncannunucs":

As of right now, North Uncanoonuc. But I don't know what the views would have looked like from South back in his time. Right now the high point is fenced off on South, so I don't know if there is actually inything to see from it. And of course the railway grade was not built back then, but South supposedly had a ski slope. My guess is it was North....but it is only a guess.

Brian

 

[rocket21]

As of right now, North Uncanoonuc. But I don't know what the views would have looked like from South back in his time. Right now the high point is fenced off on South, so I don't know if there is actually inything to see from it. And of course the railway grade was not built back then, but South supposedly had a ski slope. My guess is it was North....but it is only a guess.

I'd actually suggest the South peak. As of now, NELSAP has no references of ski trails existing prior to the railroad. Nonetheless, the south peak was, until recent decades, a more popular destination. Whereas North is blocked by South when looking down the Merrimack Valley (I assume that's what they mean, anyways, southeastish), South would have had clear views of it most likely. Considering South is also on the side of the pond, I assume it was the destination hike. Perhaps there were less communications towers blocking view potential when Thoreau hiked it

 

[RoySwkr]

Thoreau thought that the "Uncannunuc Mountain" that he climbed (it seems), was "perhaps the best point from which to view the valley of the Merrimack." Which of them does that sound most like?

I still vote for South which once had a fire tower

 

[Amicus]

If you desired to include a Catskill summit on the Thoreau list, perhaps as an optional and asterisked summit, then the 2480' South Mountain would probably be the most historically plausible.

I'm happy to do so, since I have included "Ossipee Mountain" with perhaps less justification. Henceforth, it will be the "Throreau 16+" (and more peaks may yet be added, if someone trolls the full Journal and finds one or two that Howarth and Huber may have overlooked).

Thanks for all this additional information, and in particular your link to the book by Jane Parker Huber. It is just 100 pages and seems to be out of print, but the extensive linked excerpts also confirm Thoreau's hike to the summit(s) of "Uncannunuc" - more below on that.

As of right now, North Uncanoonuc.

[Ed. - see #25 below for more on "which Uncanoonuc(s)?"]

 

[rocket21]

Perhaps it should be called something like "Thoreau's Treks" so that more peaks can be added as they are discovered, without changing the name?