voted!

Whoo! I got to the polls twenty minutes after they opened. There was a wait of about 30 minutes, not so bad. Very exciting!

Now I really feel like I have to go find a Starbucks to get my free cup of coffee...

cairn

cairn
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

Another look at the cairn on the site of Thoreau's cabin. It has been here a loooong time. Walt Whitman wrote that he dropped a stone in the pile in 1881. Wow, very neat!

Site of Thoreau's Cabin

Site of Thoreau's Cabin
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

Thoreau's cabin

house site
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

The cabin site was reportedly discovered in 1945, 100 years after Thoreau lived there.

I wasn't expecting anything like this when I visited - I didn't research it at all before hiking over there. I got a great feeling, imagining Thoreau hanging out where I was now tramping, getting eaten alive by the skeeters, just as I was today.

There's a large pile of stones that have been left by visitors to the site in the foreground. People have written all kinds of inscriptions on the stones... it is pretty cool.

Redemption Rock

Redemption Rock
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

Today I did a four hour hike on the Midstate Trail. I started at Redemption Rock, and went south to climb Mount Wachusett, finally turning back at the intersection of Stage Coach Trail with Harrington Trail. The peak of Wachusett is around 2000 feet high, and I think I was coming from somewhere around 1000 feet up. Good times!

Redemption Rock has an engraving which is barely visible in this photo. The reality of the history here is pretty horrifying!