Into the woods for self-reliance, fun, or a frost

A simple cabin in the woods is a fixture in the American imagination, burnished by accounts of young Abe Lincoln's log house and Thoreau's cozy sanctuary at Walden. A rustic cabin reminds us that we can shed the bed linens, the proper fork, and the stuff in the basement, and life will go on.

Living without modern conveniences requires a good bit of hard physical work. In the midst of gathering wood or pumping water, the mind drifts into contemplation. Tensions uncoil.

Some prefer to retreat in solitude, while others like to hole up with their spouse or a friend. Still others, like the three generations of Art and Jane McNary's family, who recently spent two nights in log cabins at Mohawk Trail State Forest, seize the chance to gather the clan. "This is the first time we've done this, and we'd do it again," said Art McNary of Sutton, as his great-grandsons Jessie and Connor Johnston, of Norwich, Conn., ran around the campfire.

That said, these Spartan settings - hike-in cabins with plank bunks and no flush toilets or showers - aren't for everyone. Waiting for water to boil on a woodstove can feel like an eternity when morning coffee hangs in the balance. Without running water or electricity, it's impossible not to flex some rarely used muscles.

At the cusp of winter, forest cabins in New England are readily available for a night, weekend, or a week's experiment in roughing it. These three, sampled in October, offer varying degrees of comfort and lie within three hours' drive of Boston.

Merck Forest & Farmland Center

On a hilltop in Rupert, Vt., across from Upper Barn cabin, one of seven cabins and six lean-tos on this 3,000-acre tract of hilly forest and fields, the blades of a wind turbine catch blasts of air with a stuttering rush. The young hardwood forest - beech, oak, maple, and birch - is punctuated with hemlock and pine.

The center, run by a nonprofit educational organization that demonstrates sustainable forestry and farming, is laced with hiking trails and old logging roads. Picnickers and day hikers can visit for free, dawn to dusk, year-round, and look in on the farm's pigs, sheep, horses, cattle, and chickens.

The two Barn cabins, which stand about a dozen yards apart, together can sleep as many as 11 people. (If a party occupies only one cabin, the other is not rented out.) These are the closest (about half a mile) to the parking lot, where campers must leave their vehicles and hike in with gear and supplies, including water. The longest hike to a cabin is about two miles.

Merck's cabins are self-service, meaning that occupants sweep and tidy up before leaving, pack out trash (no receptacles on site), and restock the wood box from the firewood stacked in nearby sheds. Outhouses are scattered along the trails near campsites (toilet paper not included).

Inside, conditions are primitive: no electricity, kerosene lamps, bedding, pots, or mattresses, just plank bunks, a fire poker, and a broom. (Even swept, the rough wood floor holds the grit of countless hiking boots.) With extra padding and bodily exhaustion, the bunks are tolerable.

Matches, a dog-eared deck of cards, and a visitor log book are the only amenities, and reading the log entries is as entertaining as gin rummy: "I saw four bears today!" (October 2006). "A HUGE porcupine cleaned up the crumbs for us" (August 2007). In December 2007, a jilted boyfriend writes a poem that ends with the discovery of solace by the fire.

Mohawk Trail State Forest

In the Great Depression, President Roosevelt formed the Civilian Conservation Corps and dispatched unemployed men to build roads, bridges, fireplaces, picnic areas, and campsites in state parks all over the country. Massachusetts alone put 10,000 of these "Pine Cone Johnnies" to work. Here in Charlemont and at nearby Savoy Mountain State Forest crews built log cabins that have stood for 60 years. Ax marks on the log ends bear witness to their labor.

This forest's six cabins, three of which are wheelchair-accessible, share a spur of the park road near a bathhouse with sinks, flush toilets, and showers. Each building sleeps three to five, and bunks have mattresses. Inside, a kitchen area with cabinets and counters allows campers to store and prepare food. (Note: Bring metal boxes to keep out mice.) Screened doors and windows, a stone porch with a picnic table and benches, and a fire ring out front lend an atmosphere of old-fashioned camaraderie.

Though they lack running water, the cabins do have electric lights, stone fireplaces, and reliable woodstoves. The forest staff sells bundles of firewood, or campers can bring their own. Walled off from the stove, the bunkroom adjoining the big central room can get downright arctic, but heavy-duty sleeping bags (and wearing a warm hat to bed) solve that problem.

Outside the cabin walls lie rivers, gorges, and stands of old-growth trees. Miles of trails, including parts of the ancient Mahican-Mohawk Trail, crisscross the 6,000-acre forest.

Temenos Retreat and Conference Center

The name derives from a Greek word for the sacred space around a temple, and this 78-acre forested mountain property on Mount Mineral in Shutesbury has a long history as a healing place. Between 1840 and 1876, this land was the site of a health spa, where guests came to "take the waters." Rich in iron and manganese, the water here was believed to confer healthful benefits. The present retreat center, founded in 1973 by a Quaker couple, consists of four cabins, the director's house, and a lodge. The lodge, which has running water, is closed in winter. The cabins are available year-round to groups and individuals.

As at Merck Farmland & Forest Center, none of the cabins has electricity, running water, or indoor toilets, and guests clean up for the next occupants and pack out trash. Privies stand at a convenient distance from one or more cabins, which are connected by a former woods road and foot trails through the forest.

Despite that guests must hike in from the parking lot - less than a quarter-mile in summer, more than a mile in winter - this self-serve operation is relatively luxurious. The cabins, each unique, but all outfitted with a deck and a roofed porch, sleep three to four people, and on mattresses. (Pillows are provided, but guests must bring their own linens and bedding.) Each cabin is stocked with cookware, dishes, utensils, candles, a propane burner, and a kerosene lamp, plus a woodstove, fueled from a full woodshed outside. A dining/writing table, chairs, and a (tapless) sink round out the amenities. The porch serves as the kitchen, with cabinets that double as refrigerators in winter. The center's director lives in a cabin on the property.

The site is rich in natural and human history. A labyrinth - a circuitous meditation path - fills a circular grove of pines. Ledges jut from the hillside along the trail, bearing names and dates carved by visitors to the long-gone health spa, when creature comforts were much like those at Temenos today.

Jane Roy Brown can be reached at regan-brown.com.