“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...”

What might he have thought had Thoreau made it to the redwoods? From one of the many trails in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, just after dawn, when the spiders' webs between trees remained intact, the light was strong but warm and soft, and all the sounds of the woods were laid low in the quiet.