A rowdy Scottish kid brought up by a puritan father. An inventor of clocks and a few other things. A hiker before hiking was a thing. Walking to the gulf, visiting Cuba and then making his way to California. The man lived a full life.

What a gulf separates multiple generations and families. He was in Scotland until the age of 11 and was put to hard work and schooling. Learning Latin and memorizing swaths of the bible. The punishment for misdeeds was violent and physical and the expectations were high.

It is fun reading his memories of his youth. He writes of the strictness of his parents, the habits of the animals around him. He recognized the human emotions in the animals around him, from the pig that lost a piglet to the favored horse Jack who helped herd the cows and was part of the family.

He wasn’t a saint, apparently fighting was an important part of growing up Scottish and daring each other to perform acts of bravery.

Moving to Wisconsin introduced him to a whole new set of wildlife and land to explore. He wrote of the long 16 to 18 hour days of work on the farm and how he learned to swim. He liked to stay up as late as he could to read but his father was always quickly sending him to bed, but when his dad said he could get up as early as he wanted he proceeded to get up at 1:00 am and began to use his time inventing wooden alarm clocks and making thermometers, barometers and becoming quite an inventor.

Taking these creations to the state fair eventually led to him getting into the local University and then his long walks began. He called himself a botanist and love to study and identify all the plants on his walks.

The daily entries can be rather dull, so I skipped over large portions of the books, but you do find some interesting passages. I find I much more enjoy hiking in the Sierra’s then reading John Muir’s descriptions.

I definitely agree with his statement:

“… people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home”

The mountains and trails is where I find a great amount of peace and comfort.

So thank you Mr. Muir for working so tirelessly to preserve it for us and our children.