Walden's Pond

[Mr.X]

Question: Has anyone tried diving Walden's Pond? I drove by on a rainy day. It's not anywhere close to a pond...a small lake maybe.

Department of Conservation and Recreation - It's Your Nature

Cheers,

X

 

[GradyDiver]

I was told by one of the guys at Burlington Scuba (I believe it was Butch) that someone had asked a diver to look for a ring (or something) that they had lost in the public beach area. They were able to do it, but it required a permit which I believe was granted because of the lost item.

I don't know that they allow diving regularly there. Also, the only area where you can get a car close to the water is at the boat ramp and they do require that you have a boat with you (no power boats in Walden). The main parking lot is accross the street and you will need to walk a few hundred yards and down a hill to get to the beach area, I believe the deep water is on the other side (I've heard it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 90', but an online topo map should be easy enough to find).

If you do find out that you can dive, let me know. I live in Bolton (moved out of Concord about 6 months ago) and I have an inflatable which qualifies for the boat launch.

Good luck!

 

[Mr.X]

I was told by one of the guys at Burlington Scuba (I believe it was Butch) that someone had asked a diver to look for a ring (or something) that they had lost in the public beach area. They were able to do it, but it required a permit which I believe was granted because of the lost item.

I don't know that they allow diving regularly there. Also, the only area where you can get a car close to the water is at the boat ramp and they do require that you have a boat with you (no power boats in Walden). The main parking lot is accross the street and you will need to walk a few hundred yards and down a hill to get to the beach area, I believe the deep water is on the other side (I've heard it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 90', but an online topo map should be easy enough to find).

If you do find out that you can dive, let me know. I live in Bolton (moved out of Concord about 6 months ago) and I have an inflatable which qualifies for the boat launch.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

Personally, I think it would be an interesting dive from a historical / archeological perspective. Hmmmm. Could be another project in the making?

Cheers,

X

 

[poe67]

Here's a pretty decent topo... http://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/wri014153/report.pdf

 

[Damselfish]

I'd guess they don't normally allow it, as I drive by there often enough and have never seen signs of divers. Paddled there one day and didn't see any divers around then either. Not that that's conclusive. (Of course, there's that whole civil disobedience thing... )

Here's another map-
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/habitat/maps/ponds/pdf/dfwwalde.pdf

 

[Mr.X]

Hi Poe67 & Damsel,

Thanks for the maps. It's interesting. It's probably not too different from diving small lakes in that region. However, the historical connection to Thoreau makes it interesting.

Cheers,

X

 

[spectrum]

My experieince in fresh water is that if you can get in there it's worth a few dives to check things out. Freshwater tends to harbor a lot of history and you will probably find some surprises. At worst you got to be neutral for a few hours.

Pete

 

[bythesea]

For what it's worth I asked one of the guys on the biology side at DCR. I would hazard it's do-able in an arranged group way but not likely for the individual diver. If they haven't got a paper rule it should be easy to talk them into it. Diving is legal on bodies of water over 10 acres so no reason to not allow access to Walden as long as we don't look like a bunch of crazy Indiana Jones wannabees. Obviously there are many significant historical sites that get dived daily with the assumption that we won't steal artifacts. Unless the Patriot Act applys to ponds we should be presumed innocent There would also be a good case for limited commercial access. The Cape Cod National Seashore lets oversand dune tours operate on limited access trails to provide the public a controlled access to sensitive areas. The general theory being that it's better to have someone with a serious economic incentive for good behavior at the wheel, rather than some yahoo with a monster truck ripping things up.


e-mail text
"Brad,
I can tell you that you will need to contact that park supervisor Denise
Morrissey. Some of the parks allow diving, some do not. Walden has
historically been off limits due to the historical value. Too often
artifacts are removed. We do have diving in Lake Cochituate in Natick.

--------------------------------------<>
James Straub
Department of Conservation & Recreation
Lakes & Ponds Program
251 Causeway St
Boston, MA 02114
(617)626-1411 fax :617-626-1455 "

 

[Damselfish]

I read they've they've actually considered banning swimming at Walden, never mind diving. Not that it's happened and I doubt it's likely. The trouble is the place is so busy the mindset is to have restrictions and keep it from being damaged more. There is so much foot traffic on the path around the edge that there's been serious erosion problems.

 

[lord1234]

I have looked into it a bit...it requires a lot of jumping through hoops...basically they allow PSD folks to practice their rescues there for ice stuff during the winter, but otherwise no organized diving.

BTW: Lake Cochicuate diving is NASTY from what I heard. 0 vis.