The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservation organization. Published in 1911, only three years before his death, Muirs My First Summer in the Sierra recalls his first trip to the range more than forty years earlier. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. In the Midwest, the unofficial start to summer with barbecues seems a little far-fetched as people are still shoveling and having to clear snow off their grills before they even think about using. The forecast for temperatures in the 60s and possible rainshowers next week around the Tahoe Basin could be heralding the beginning of the feared snow melt after an epic winter in the Sierra. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. John Muir (1838 - 1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. He lived in the cabin for two years, and wrote about this period in his book My First Summer in the Sierra. Seeing it for the first time, Muir noted that "He was overwhelmed by the landscape, scrambling down steep cliff faces to get a closer look at the waterfalls, whooping and howling at the vistas, jumping tirelessly from flower to flower." He climbed a number of mountains, including Cathedral Peak and Mount Dana, and hiked the old Indian trail down Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake. When he came to California and finally settled in San Francisco, John Muir immediately left for a visit to Yosemite, a place he had only read about.
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