The mountains are calling ... sorta

hi from the High Sierra and a story about John Muir

It’s a Really Good Tuesday. I’m writing to you from Yosemite National Park in a cabin at the bottom of a towering granite rock wall that extends up nearly a mile into the sky. With any luck the day will hold a short hike with the fam, a bit of painting in a meadow, and some squirrel chasing (the toddler’s preferred outdoor activity).

You can’t hang out in Yosemite for very long without running into John Muir. His image and words are on placards and postcards, in travel guides and all over the visitor’s center.

John Muir is considered by many to be the most famous American conservationist and naturalist. He wrote hundreds of articles and authored 10 books that changed the way people and policymakers saw the great outdoors. Muir’s efforts led to the creation of Yosemite National Park and the establishment of the Sierra Club. A few years back I got curious about how John Muir became, well, John Muir and I started reading books he wrote about his early life. The portrayal of his life oozes with purpose and shows such a singularity of purpose and I wondered, how exactly does one find that? 

There’s been much written on the topic of following curiosity to find your purpose, but in reading Muir I was struck by how much of his decision making was based on necessity. And by necessity, I mean Real Life. Before Muir left home he asked his dad if he’d spot him some cash if he ran into trouble. His dad said no way you’re on your own kid. Off John Muir went anyway, knowing he had to figure it out.

There's a series of books that chronicle his early life and nothing about those years made it seem predestined or inevitable that he’d end up where he ended up. He didn’t become John Muir because of meaningful experiences in the Sierras as a child. He didn’t become John Muir because his father was a mountaineer. He didn’t become John Muir because he read about California in a book and felt an undeniable call west. It was so much simpler than that. By various modes of transportation and because he needed to eat and because he had a habit of going on long walks, he ended up in the Sierras. 

There is perhaps no more overused Muir quote than “the mountains are calling and I must go.” It sounds mystical and internally driven and purposeful and whimsical. But the quote is truncated and the postcards and t-shirts emblazoned with these eight words miss the point of what Muir was trying to say.

The full quote is this:

“The mountains are calling and I must go, and I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.”

The sentence is from a letter Muir wrote to his sister and he wasn’t talking about how he really needed to getaway and frolic in the mountains. He was saying he needed to get back to work on something he cared deeply about, even though Real Life was making that a challenge. Sound familiar? 

Perhaps the takeaway is that purpose or passion or Dream Projects are less like a siren call than we imagine or than the postcard would have us believe. Maybe they’re more like a thousand mile walk.

What strikes me about Muir is that he kept moving. Walking a thousand miles from the midwest to Florida, boarding one boat to Cuba and then another to New York. Eventually finding passage to California, docking in San Francisco and then walking across the San Joaquin Valley. And once he found his way into the Sierras, he kept finding a way back.

The shortened quote makes it seem like Muir heard a siren call that drew him into his life’s work. But it really wasn’t like that at all. The thing that struck me in reading My First Summer in the Sierra was just how much time Muir spends worrying whether he’ll be back. You are John Muir! Of course you will be back! But in real time and in Real Life, there is no of course. There is only uncertainty and desire and the step you choose to take next.

Getaways are great. I’m enjoying mine right now. But it’s the decision to keep walking, to keep coming back, to keep working within the constraints of Real Life that adds up to a life that we have reason to value.

PS: Let me know if you’d like a John Muir a postcard :)

Create in Community With Others

Each week on Substack, paid subscribers share one thing they’re proud of that week. Get closer to admitting the dream you want, holding tightly to the belief it’s possible, and daring to take one tiny action toward it - by doing it with us.