My First Summer in the Sierra - John Muir

“Through a meadow opening in the pine woods I see snow peaks about the headwaters of the Merced above Yosemite.  How near they seem and how clear their outlines on the blue, or rather in the blue air; for they seem to be saturated with it. How consuming strong the invitation they extend!  Shall I be allowed to go to them?  Night and day I’ll pray that I may, but it seems too good to be true.  Some one worthy will go, able for the Godful work, yet as far as I can I must drift about these love-monument mountains, glad to be a servant of servants in sho holy a wilderness.”

This excerpt from the book struck me the moment I read it and made me pause.  I read it several times because I thought it was so beautiful.  Muir writes from a place of passion and love for nature.  His passion and respect for nature is unparalleled to anyone I’ve ever read or met.  I get the feeling he is so grateful to just be able to be there and take it in with his own eyes.  I enjoyed Walden but feel there was a component or focus on solitude Thoreau was putting out there that Muir doesn’t project.

This book is set in the summer of 1869 as Muir found some employment as a sheep herder.  He explains he only took the work because it would bring him up into the Sierras on an adventure.  He told his employer he wasn’t a sheep herder and probably won’t be much help but the sheep owner insisted, so he took him up on it.   I believe this was his first trip into the Sierras and the start of a great love affair he would write about many times.

He tells the adventure organized by day from morning breakfast to midnight star gazing and all things in between.  Because Muir loves flora and fauna he spends a great deal of time describing in detail what he is seeing.  Was pretty incredible how much he knew.  I’m not that into flora and fauna so I could have done with way less detail, focusing on the macro vision of what he saw versus the micro version.  My only solace was it was obvious how much he loved it based on the wonderful way he described it.

While his job was shepherding he spent most of his day on walk-about all over the range.  He would walk out long distances being gone from morning to late at night exploring things like Yosemite Falls and El Capitan.  He had access back then that we don’t have today so his descriptions are unique.  For example his description of Yosemite Falls is from a rock near where the river plunges down the falls - he sat there for quite a while taking in the view.  He did this pretty much most days from the beginning of June to the end of September.  Each place he visited he wrote the most profound descriptions of what he saw and felt.  I could visualize being there with him.

I love the outdoors and have read many good books and classics and Muir’s works are right up there with the best of them.  His writing draws me into the story with him which is exactly what I want.  I recommend this book to anyone that loves nature and the outdoors, and loves to hear it told in beautiful detail.