Though it doesn’t precisely fit our definition of trail memoir, because it doesn’t recount the hike of a well-defined footpath, there is little doubt that John Muir’s My First Summer in the Sierra is a forerunner to all books in the genre.
Muir’s experience of living in the woods and mountains, and his state of mind there, embody the essence of trail memoir. He is away from society, embedded in wilderness, on a great adventure, exploring the terrain and his own limits, reveling in the journey one day at a time.
Constructed from journal notes made in the summer of 1869, Muir’s book recounts adventures in between the obligations of a sheep herding job that he reluctantly accepts in the Yosemite region of the High Sierra. Wandering the mountains during his time off, he studies the flowers and trees, follows the streams, swims in the lakes, and climbs the many peaks.
When Muir returns to the lowlands after his summer in the Sierra, the reader doesn’t doubt that he has been through a transformative experience.
“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us. Our flesh-and-bone tabernacle seems transparent as glass to the beauty about us, as if truly an inseparable part of it, thrilling with the air and trees, streams and rocks, in the waves of the sun, — a part of all nature, neither old nor young, sick nor well, but immortal.” –John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
Trail Memoir 