White Pond on the Internet
1. http://50swims.blogspot.com/2011/01/swim-30-whites-pond-concord-ma.html
I have found a little slice of heaven! Unfortunately, it's not easy to get there. White's Pond is owned by an association of homeowners. There is a beach area for members -- which I obviously am not -- but there is also a little path in the woods that gets you to the side opposite the beach. Legal? I'm not sure. Not that you'd ever find it on your own anyway. My good friend Debbie, who has long been known to thwart authority, led me here. And it is spectacularly gorgeous. We swam across, sat on someone's dock for a little while, and swam back. It was kind of a cool, mid-fall day, and I nearly induced hypothermia in poor Debbie. Hopefully she will forget and bring me back next summer!
2.White Pond as a top secret place to swim: http://demaionewton.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/top-7-secret-places-wondrous-places/
Listing this place just might get me into trouble. But, I’ve moved out of the area, so I’ll share it now. Many people visiting New England make a pilgrimage to Walden Pond, David Henry Thoreau’s famous non-wilderness wilderness. The park is usually overcrowded, dirty, has a lousy beach, and is okay as far as pond swimming goes.What you don’t know is that there’s a secret beach that all the Concord residents use (What! Concord people associate with riff-raff. Mercy no!). It’s called White’s Pond and it’s a mile or 2 away from Walden.
3. Forum on White Pond: http://www.city-data.com/forum/massachusetts/644692-white-pond-concord-2.html
4. http://www.wickedlocal.com/concord/news/x833730580/Residents-show-concern-about-using-White-Pond July19, 2008
Concord --
A young boy with the makings of a Mr. T Starter Kit around his neck splashes in the shallows of White Pond as his family swims, fishes and wades nearby — all of them well behaved, but all of them breaking the law. Almost two hours later, the family walks up the middle of Dover Street, disregarding traffic and air drying as they meander to an older vehicle parked nearly a mile away. A body of crystal clear water surrounded by conservation land, private property and municipal land treated as conservation land, White Pond is a picturesque setting and perfect place for a late afternoon swim.
That is, as long as you’re among 650 or so families permitted admittance to the pond through private deeded access or membership to the White Pond Association. Although it is categorized as a Great Pond, and therefore open to everyone, there is no place on White Pond where the general public can enter the water and swim, because the town has adopted conservation regulations for its land there. But people come anyway — some local, some not. Hikers, bikers and others trek through the winding trails down steep embankments to the shore, either not seeing or not caring about the few signs saying swimming is not permitted. “Most of the problems start around Memorial Day and end just after Labor Day, and they focus on particularly hot days when people really want to swim and cool off,” said Fred Lindgren, chairman of the White Pond Advisory Committee. “On hot evenings and hot weekend days, a lot of people come to the pond, and the pond can’t handle that.” Litter left behind after beer bashes is a concern, as are rope swings that break tree branches. But more of a threat to the pond is the erosion of the banks caused by even swimmers with the best intentions. They dig to put down a chair, or sit on plants because the shoreline has been all but washed away by the rising water. People and dogs running down banks where there are no trails leave the ground bare, creating issues of storm water washing into the pond. “This leads potentially to problems with algae growth and oxygen levels in the pond,” Lindgren said. “It’s also not pretty to look at. Ideally, we would have a way for people on a hot day to come and swim here and leave, and not wreck the banks and not use the town land as a restroom.”
5. Indian Summer At White Pond: A video posted in 2012.
See swimming at 1:50. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZC_s0JtWUk
I have found a little slice of heaven! Unfortunately, it's not easy to get there. White's Pond is owned by an association of homeowners. There is a beach area for members -- which I obviously am not -- but there is also a little path in the woods that gets you to the side opposite the beach. Legal? I'm not sure. Not that you'd ever find it on your own anyway. My good friend Debbie, who has long been known to thwart authority, led me here. And it is spectacularly gorgeous. We swam across, sat on someone's dock for a little while, and swam back. It was kind of a cool, mid-fall day, and I nearly induced hypothermia in poor Debbie. Hopefully she will forget and bring me back next summer!
2.White Pond as a top secret place to swim: http://demaionewton.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/top-7-secret-places-wondrous-places/
Listing this place just might get me into trouble. But, I’ve moved out of the area, so I’ll share it now. Many people visiting New England make a pilgrimage to Walden Pond, David Henry Thoreau’s famous non-wilderness wilderness. The park is usually overcrowded, dirty, has a lousy beach, and is okay as far as pond swimming goes.What you don’t know is that there’s a secret beach that all the Concord residents use (What! Concord people associate with riff-raff. Mercy no!). It’s called White’s Pond and it’s a mile or 2 away from Walden.
3. Forum on White Pond: http://www.city-data.com/forum/massachusetts/644692-white-pond-concord-2.html
4. http://www.wickedlocal.com/concord/news/x833730580/Residents-show-concern-about-using-White-Pond July19, 2008
Concord --
A young boy with the makings of a Mr. T Starter Kit around his neck splashes in the shallows of White Pond as his family swims, fishes and wades nearby — all of them well behaved, but all of them breaking the law. Almost two hours later, the family walks up the middle of Dover Street, disregarding traffic and air drying as they meander to an older vehicle parked nearly a mile away. A body of crystal clear water surrounded by conservation land, private property and municipal land treated as conservation land, White Pond is a picturesque setting and perfect place for a late afternoon swim.
That is, as long as you’re among 650 or so families permitted admittance to the pond through private deeded access or membership to the White Pond Association. Although it is categorized as a Great Pond, and therefore open to everyone, there is no place on White Pond where the general public can enter the water and swim, because the town has adopted conservation regulations for its land there. But people come anyway — some local, some not. Hikers, bikers and others trek through the winding trails down steep embankments to the shore, either not seeing or not caring about the few signs saying swimming is not permitted. “Most of the problems start around Memorial Day and end just after Labor Day, and they focus on particularly hot days when people really want to swim and cool off,” said Fred Lindgren, chairman of the White Pond Advisory Committee. “On hot evenings and hot weekend days, a lot of people come to the pond, and the pond can’t handle that.” Litter left behind after beer bashes is a concern, as are rope swings that break tree branches. But more of a threat to the pond is the erosion of the banks caused by even swimmers with the best intentions. They dig to put down a chair, or sit on plants because the shoreline has been all but washed away by the rising water. People and dogs running down banks where there are no trails leave the ground bare, creating issues of storm water washing into the pond. “This leads potentially to problems with algae growth and oxygen levels in the pond,” Lindgren said. “It’s also not pretty to look at. Ideally, we would have a way for people on a hot day to come and swim here and leave, and not wreck the banks and not use the town land as a restroom.”
5. Indian Summer At White Pond: A video posted in 2012.
See swimming at 1:50. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZC_s0JtWUk