That proves you didn't read the same "Walden" I did-- Thoreau wrote it, not Emerson.
"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, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."
That's why Thoreau went to the woods, and it's the same reason I backpack in the mountains and sail my little boat in our local bays. "Walden" is not only my screen name; it's the name of my boat-- and don't you be dissin' my boat, you hear? :) In the woods, in the mountains, on the water, I have only myself, whatever simple gear I've brought along, and maybe a companion to help me to deal with whatever I encounter-- terrain, weather, wind, waves, wildlife-- and it is a great pleasure to live simply in a beautiful place, and realize how little I stuff to be happy, but how essential to my happiness is the grandeur and terribleness of the earth and the forces of nature. I just got back from a wonderful morning sail, and it reminded me all over again that I don't go often enough.
As for the Victorians, I think we're agreed.
Wouldn't dream of it--I didn't mean to say that Walden was a bad book, just that some of the influence on it is the same thing that influenced Nietzsche. (Emerson, Thoreau, I can never keep the Americans straight...)
Glad you had a good time. I understand completely--I miss the big sky back home now that I'm in a (sort-of) urban area.