High Sierra Topix

"We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us."


"Nature as a poet, an enthusiastic workingman, becomes more and more visible the farther and higher we go;..."


"Wherever we go in the mountains...we find more then we seek""

Passed this on to my nephew last weekend in a card for his graduation from college (UCSB, my alam mater too) as a history & philosophy major:

"The power of imagination makes us infinite."

Great thread, thanks for sharing!

Sorry for being a year late in responding...but I couldn't pass up this thread.

Rosabella, I also have that book. It's awesome. What a passionate writer!
I used to think I was alone in the world because I was obsessed with a place to the point that I felt it was actually part of me. Most of my friends thought I was a bit 'over the top' when I'd talk about the Sierra.

But then I found John Muir's "In His Own Words". When I read the two quotations below, I not only realized I wasn't alone, but that I was in good company

My first view of the High Sierra, first view looking down into Yosemite, the death-song of Yosemite Creek, and its flight over the vast cliff, each one of these is of itself enough for a great life-long landscape fortune--a most memorable day of days--enjoyment enough to kill if that were possible.

and...

These beautiful days must enrich all my life. They do not exist as mere pictures--maps hung upon the walls of memory to brighten at times when touched by association or will, only to sink again like a landscape in the dark; but they saturate themselves into every part of the body and live always.

Mmmmmmm.........

Couldn't help but resist responding to this thread. I've been thinking about Muir's famous lines:

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you
as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

I do not think that it is true. Our problems I believe follow us wherever we go even into the Sierra. Ranger Randy Morgenson from The Last Season tried very hard to get away from his but was unable to. If only our cares were like autumn leaves, drying out, turning beautiful colors and falling off each year! I don't believe in this metaphor, as beautiful sounding as it may be. I think it has been romanticized to the hilt, which makes complete sense as Muir was a transcendentalist which is a romantic belief. Stephen Crane who wrote Red Badge of Courage had a naturalistic belief and would have frowned upon Muir's quotes. He would have probably relished the harsh realism of Blehm's The Last Season over Muir's romantic My First Summer in the Sierra.

Still, these lines are nice to read as Muir was an amazing writer. I know I could not have come up with these and I doubt if most people today could.

rightstar76 wrote:Couldn't help but resist responding to this thread. I've been thinking about Muir's famous lines:

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you
as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

I do not think that it is true. Our problems I believe follow us wherever we go even into the Sierra. Ranger Randy Morgenson from The Last Season tried very hard to get away from his but was unable to. If only our cares were like autumn leaves, drying out, turning beautiful colors and falling off each year! I don't believe in this metaphor, as beautiful sounding as it may be. I think it has been romanticized to the hilt, which makes complete sense as Muir was a transcendentalist which is a romantic belief. Stephen Crane who wrote Red Badge of Courage had a naturalistic belief and would have frowned upon Muir's quotes. He would have probably relished the harsh realism of Blehm's The Last Season over Muir's romantic My First Summer in the Sierra.

Still, these lines are nice to read as Muir was an amazing writer. I know I could not have come up with these and I doubt if most people today could.

I guess the truthfulness of statement depends on the person and their personal situation. I am much more the realist than the romanticist (I know the difference, too, as my brother is a professional musician), but I can say Muir's lines have tended to ring true for me. I really wall off what's going on in my out-of-mountain world when I am up there. The High Sierra is indeed a refuge for me, as it is, I believe, for so many others. Now this is not to say that the cares that drop off like autumn leaves in the High Sierra don't come back when I return--oh yeah they do--but while I'm up there... Morgenson was much different than most of us who visit the Sierra, because in his case the mountains were a big part of his problems.

Fascinating observation Giant Brookie! The mountains were definitely part of Morgenson's problems. Guess he could have used less time there. The opposite of the rest of us who could use more time there.

In 1977, I discovered that my college library had a full collection, first printing, of Muir's complete works in 10 volumes. It was a joy to read them all. My favorite selection:

"Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, inciting at once to work and rest! Days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God. Nevermore, however weary, should one faint by the way who gains the blessings of one mountain day ; whatever his fate, long life, short life, stormy or calm, he is rich forever." - "My First Summer in the Sierra", John Muir (1911), P82. Journal entry for June 23, 1869.

Just saw this Muir quote this morning and wanted to share.
"Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul."

I want to throw in something from a Jackie Robinson quote. He said a life has no meaning except how it affects others. I don't believe this or anything else because someone famous said it. I just believe this.