Walden Pond Full-timer Revisited

Campground in Bridger-Teton
National Forest. There was a
well for water. $5/night.

Those of you who have visited my blog site before know that it had been called the Musings of an Old Conservationist.  In fact, the address is still  www.oldconservationist.blogspot.com, but I realized that I was doing more than just conservationist/environmental posts. That's when I thought about my Nov 3rd post entitled Walden Pond Full-timers.  While most of what we do as Walden Ponders is conservation, environmentalism, or wilderness exploration there is a lot more of our life that I like to share. Hence Walden Pond Full-timer Revisited.  But I don't want to forget those of you who are new to my blog site and wonder about the name Walden Pond Full-timer.

If you are familiar with the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau you will remember that he left the village to live in a cabin he built himself by a small lake called Walden Pond. In his book entitled Walden Pond: Or , Life in the Woods Thoreau writes,

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”

Home at Glacier National Park where we work as volunteers.

This is so descriptive of the attitude toward life that Pamela and I share that it gave birth to the term "Walden Pond Full-timer" or "Walden Ponder". Couple this with our love of nature, volunteering at national parks, hiking, kayaking, bicycling and scuba diving, you have a snippet not only of our lives but of the life of the Walden Ponder.
Pamela and I are far from unique in this group. This is why we do not claim the term as self-descriptive but include ourselves in the group. We have many friends, mostly volunteers in the National Park Service, who can be described as Walden Ponders. They live their lives in everything from camper trailers to large recreation vehicles. Despite the wide variety of trailers and RVs the first point of description is that we spend all or the vast majority of the year living in our trailers/RVs. Many of us will spend some weeks of the year visiting our children. This is one of the basic definitions of a 'full-timer' and therefore what makes a Walden Ponder a full-timer by definition. The second point of description is that you will rarely see any of us in one of the ubiquitous RV parks - KOA and the like. When we are on the road moving between long-term locations, you will usually find us boondocking (1) at a Pilot/FlyingJ, Walmart or other public parking area where we're allowed to stop overnight. If we are lucky we find a lovely little national or state forest campground which is out-of-the-way. Most such places are actually US Forest Service sites just off of two-lane highways but well out into the country like the Bridger-Teton campground pictured above. Our long-term places tend not to be the RV cities but campground host sites in national parks and similar more remote and secluded places.

The third point of description is that a significant percentage of us will avoid interstates. Our trailer, whose name is 'Willy', has tires rated for 65 miles per hour. This is very common. Why would we want to drive down an interstate where the speed limit is 70-80 miles per hour being constantly passed by traffic and seeing the same thing mile after mile?  If a state or federal highway has a 55-60 mph speed limit and passes through beautiful country and interesting towns, why wouldn't one want to go that route if time wasn't an issue?  Since most of us are retired, time generally isn't an issue. 

Ready to roll. 

The ubiquitous RV park.  

The fourth point of description is that most Walden Ponders are more self-contained than the standard full-timer. Looking at the picture to the left where we are ready to pull out, the truck is packed with all of our toys - two kayaks, two bicycles, scuba gear in a special locker, and extra camping equipment. Willy has everything he needs to run for 5-7 days without any outside utilities or water.  That is probably the greatest and least observable distinction.  The standard full-timer generally moves from full-hookup (all utilities including wifi, TV, etc.) to full-hookup with paved pull-through spots, sometimes paved patios, in a treeless city of RVs like the one to the left.  These are great if that's where you want to stay. When you stay at such campgrounds there is no need to have any more water or power than necessary for your time on the road. 

To be a Walden Pond Full-timer is to not only to accept the challenges of life on the road, but to seek out remote, relatively uninhabited, often wilderness areas where you, like Henry David Thoreau, want to "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life," seeking a life-style surrounded by nature such that we learn all that our species has forgotten and, when our days are over, die knowing that we have indeed lived.   

Out our door at a NFS campground

NOTE: Question are encouraged if you are interested in being a Walden Pond Full-timer as well as stories and comments from Walden Ponders that I can share. 

FOOTNOTES. 
(1) Boondocking - this is where one camps where there are no utilities; e.g. no electricity or water.  Often, when one boondocks, there are no toilet facilities either, but most of us have those in our campers.  Pamela and I have boondocked for almost an entire week at one time.  We had battery for lights and to power the pump which pumped water from a holding tank to the sinks and toilet. You will notice that camper trailers generally have one or more propane tanks up front.  This is used for cooking, hot water and furnace.