In the mini-woods where my small house sits, with a glimmering dawn diminishing the dark in early a.m. hours these days, I wonder where David Henry – or Henry David, as he preferred to be called – was when he jotted in his journal, “the sun is but a morning star…” Was he in Emerson’s house, where he lived off and on, or in his cottage by Walden Pond, or camped on one of the lake shores or streams in Maine’s vast northern woods?
It is to Henry, an obsessive journal-keeper, that we must give thanks for recording the environmental and topographic history of Maine’s northern wilderness of the mid-19th century with such evocative verbal skill, engendering 21st century adventurers to enthusiastically gather canoes, companions, a copy of The Maine Woods and now Huber’s elegant and resourceful guidebook, and set off for the gift of Maine’s wild wonderland.
Traveling the Maine woods of 150 years ago, when Thoreau made his three ventures into the wilds surrounding Moosehead Lake, was far different from the canoeing adventures of today. He could take trains from Boston to Bangor, or a steamer. He traveled light, acquiring an Indian guide, taking notes on the flora and fauna that he enlarged on back in Concord. Now there are maps – extensive, detailed, beautifully done – and an organization called Maine Woods Forever, which just recently opened the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail, dedicated to protecting the legacy of Maine’s woods and the cultural, historic, and spiritual aspects of Thoreau’s Maine journeys, all guided and influenced by the Penobscot Indians.
The first edition of this book was published 27 years ago, after a canoeing trip Huber took with several friends. At one point they were camped along the Kennebec River, following Benedict Arnold’s trail to Quebec by canoe. They wondered if Thoreau had set footprints along this way. (Thoreau was a known as an avid walker, traveling by foot and canoe on his journeys.)
Huber, intrigued, began to research Thoreau’s Maine travels by following the daily sightings and adventures, elucidated with clarity and elegant prose each evening in his journals. Huber then followed maps he made from the writings, correcting things that have changed such as trails and logging sites.
Thoreau, in his recordings, was precise, measuring everything – distances between two points, moose, trees, ax handles, tents. It is said his last two words, while dying, were “moose” and “Indians.” Huber tells us of Thoreau’s sense of humor. He and his Indian guide, Polis, kept up banter between them: “their peals of laughter resounding across the lakes must have cheered even the loons.”
Although updating Thoreau’s maps in color and detail, Huber includes Thoreau’s references to where he and his guides camped, ate dinner and breakfasted along lake and island shores. Exquisite color photography by Bridget Besaw shows remote areas travelers and readers can still explore.
Huber adds to the possibilities of following Thoreau’s journeying by extensive notes to each chapter, a list of readings about people and places connected with Thoreau and his writings, thus extending potential adventuring reading by winter firesides, planning for further travels. Wilderness has not lost all its enchantments.
Hannah Merker reviews books in Bristol.