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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;rrekowjr, post: 1441964, member: 27204&quot;]Growing up in Northern California and being a Boy Scout allowed me a few great trips to National Parks including both Yosemite and Redwood National Park. Instead of telling of one of my memorable trips from my youth I thought I would take the time to tell a story about a person I admire. </p><p><br /></p><p>Here is a little information about the man known as the &quot;Father of the National Parks&quot;, co-founder of the Sierra Club and the guy who&#039;s house was a simple 5 minute walk from mine in Martinez, California....John Muir.</p><p><br /></p><p>Born in Dunbar, Scotland on April 21st 1838, John Muir emigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1849 who started a farm near Portage, Wisconsin. At 22 he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Madison where he studied Botany, Geology and Chemistry but never graduated. In 1867 he nearly lost his eyesight when a tool slipped out of his hands and struck him in the eye. This experience seemed to have inspired Muir to find his calling in getting out and exploring nature. While walking nearly 1,000 miles to Florida in hopes of finding a boat ride to South America he got Malaria. Instead of making his way south he instead caught a boat to New York and booked passage to California.</p><p><br /></p><p>Upon arriving in San Francisco in 1868 he immediately made his way to Yosemite where he would etch out his place in history over the next 40+ years. Through his travels, writings and activism as a preservationist and lover of the wilderness and nature this Scottish born lad would become known world wide, would eventually accompany then President Theodore Roosevelt on a tour of Yosemite in 1903 largely by themselves and eventually have his image and name shown on the California State Quarter in 2005.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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