  Two dimensional loop erased random walk (LERW) is a random curve, whose
continuum limit is known to be a Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) with parameter
kappa=2. In this article we study ``off-critical loop erased random walks'',
loop erasures of random walks penalized by their number of steps. On one hand
we are able to identify counterparts for some LERW observables in terms of
symplectic fermions (c=-2), thus making further steps towards a field theoretic
description of LERWs. On the other hand, we show that it is possible to
understand the Loewner driving function of the continuum limit of off-critical
LERWs, thus providing an example of application of SLE-like techniques to
models near their critical point. Such a description is bound to be quite
complicated because outside the critical point one has a finite correlation
length and therefore no conformal invariance. However, the example here shows
the question need not be intractable. We will present the results with emphasis
on general features that can be expected to be true in other off-critical
models.
