The route of 1846 and the
insert shows the trip to Katahdin: "I left
Concord in Massachusetts for Bangor and the backwoods of Maine, by way
of the railroad and steamboat, intending to accompany a relative of mine
engaged in the lumber-trade in Bangor, as far as a dam on the west branch
of the Penobscot ... From this place, which is about one hundred miles
by the river above Bangor ... I proposed to make excursions to Mount Ktaadn,
the second highest mountain in New England, about thirty miles distant,
and to some of the lakes of the Penobscot"
The 1857 route shows the start of
the trip described in the Allegash and East Branch
essay: "We had at first thought of exploring the St. John from its source
to its mouth, or else to go up the Penobscot by its East Branch to the
lakes of the St. John, and return by way of Chesuncook and Moosehead. We
had finally inclined to the last route, only reversing the order of it,
going by way of Moosehead, and returning by the Penobscot, otherwise it
would have been all the way up stream and taken twice as long." Thoreau
also took this route to Moosehead Lake in 1853, as described in the Chesuncook
essay. The large lake to the west of Katahdin is Chesuncook Lake.
Thoreau Reader: Home - Maine
Woods
