My First Summer in the Sierra [Paperback]

John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, had not yet become a famed conservationist when he first trekked into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, not long after the Civil War. He was so captivated by what he saw that he decided to devote his life to the glorification and preservation of this magnificent wilderness.My First Summer in the Sierra, whose heart is the diary Muir kept while tending sheep in Yosemite country, enticed thousands of Americans to visit this magical place, and resounds with Muir’s regard for the “divine, enduring, unwasteable wealth” of the natural world. A classic of environmental literature,My First Summer in the Sierracontinues to inspire readers to seek out such places for themselves and make them their own.“As more and more of us grow aghast at what we have done to the world we started with, Muir’s reverence and devotion will seem keenly germane, and our regret may be transmuted into a fight for the future.” —Edward HoaglandMike Davisis the author ofCity of Quartz, Magical Urbanism, and, most recently,Dead Cities, and co-author ofUnder the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See. A MacArthur Fellow, he lives in San Diego.My First Summer in the Sierra
 
1869
 
N the great Central Valley of California there are only two seasons,—spring and summer. The spring begins with the first rain-storm, which usually falls in November. In a few months the wonderful flowery vegetation is in full bloom, and by the end of May it is dead and dry and crisp, as if every plant had been roasted in an oven.
 
Then the lolling, panting flocks and herds are driven to the high, cool, green pastures of the Sierra. I was longing for the mountains about this time, but money was scarce and I couldn’t see how a bread supply was to be kept up. While I was anxiously brooding on the bread problem, so troublesome to wanderers, and trying to bl#.