He published the notes he wrote during this time under the title My First Summer in the Sierra. He writes of an extravagant, joyful landscape overflowing with good tidings. Snowmelt creeks are “champagne water.” Bears are “hardy mountaineers.” Nature is “beauty loving tenderness.” Trees and waterfalls sing and bow in worship. “Let children walk with nature” he writes, “and they will see that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.”
