Lazy or "laid back"?

I think I thought Thoreau was tremendously talented and took to nature's trails to transform himself into a thinker. (It's late so alliteration just had to tag along. I think I'm okay now.) I have appreciated the sincere feelings that have been shared. It would seem safe to say that we all agree on how much more of an appreciation we have gained for John and Abigail Adams. I, as at least a few others, have also found how much more I am learning and enjoying history now than I did when I was in high school. Back to Thoreau for a moment I must head. I have found that by the same amount that I have increased in my desire to read about our historical beginnings, I have decreased in my desire to read any more Thoreau for a while, at least. I am amazed at how much I can enjoy his language and images and still get tired of his "going on and on and on." I must admit that I decided to find out if he was just writing to be writing when he talked about the dimensions of Walden Pond. He said it was 1/2 mile in diameter and a mile and 1/2 (or was it 1 3/4?...I don't have my book home this weekend) in circumference. So I worked it out mathematically, hoping to prove his figures weren't right. To my chagrin, he was right! That means he may have been speaking more truth and less fiction than I was giving him credit for. No matter, there is one more concern I have about Walden Pond. Did I understand Thoreau right that there was a spring at the bottom of the pond which was the source of water for the pond (plus, of course, precipitation). Then he explained about the fish in the pond and his bathing in the pond. That was okay, I guess. I used to go swimming in a lake where fish had been known to nibble at the swimmers' legs, but I would never have drunk the water. To think of the excrement from the fish, the bugs, and anything else that happened into the water, and then to think of Thoreau's drinking that water as the best water around just gave me a sickening feeling. While he mentioned a fellow down the way "distilling" his water, I never read where Thoreau did anything but drink it "fresh." If I have misunderstood this point, I will be happy to be corrected. Otherwise, I must still question whether Thoreau was just being lazy, rather than laid back, in his "natural" habitat.