being there

by beth kohn
Green house

WITH HIS WEATHERED hat and prophet-style beard, Sierra Club founder John Muir cut an ascetic figure who looked as if he felt most at home tramping tree-lined trails through the mountains. Who would have guessed that such a grizzled character lived in the Victorian refinement of a 17-room Italianate estate?

During the last 14 years of his life, the renowned conservationist associated with itinerant adventures and down-to-earth tastes did in fact live in an opulent home in the East Bay town of Martinez. Don't despair: He wasn't a closet hedonist – his father-in-law built it. But between forays into the wild places he thought of as "the people's cathedrals and churches," Muir spent his days managing his family's successful fruit ranch – and authoring many of the nation's most important wilderness preservation campaigns, which laid the foundation for the modern environmental movement. Today, the grounds of his last home are preserved as the John Muir National Historic Site, a semisecret garden oasis within a small but bustling city and a revealing snapshot of Muir's accomplishments.

Framed by towering twin palms, a tiny bell tower cupola caps the two-story hilltop house where Muir greeted the early morning and gazed over acres of thriving orchards. At the dark wood threshold, you leave behind the dry heat of Martinez and enter an upper-middle-class Victorian sanctuary furnished with upholstered parlor settees and dashes of fussy lace.

But Muir's idiosyncrasies persist. He refused to hang curtains in his bedroom because he enjoyed rising with the sun. His cozy "scribble den" has been left in its typical state of disarray, books strewn on every available surface and crumpled papers overflowing from the wire wastebasket. A bowl of dried bread balls, his favorite snack, sits among framed portraits on the mantle.

Muir's legendary wanderlust took him on frequent trips to the High Sierras and around the world. But when at home, Muir loved to walk the undulating hills near the ranch. He hated the expression "hiking" – preferring to call it "sauntering" – and he exhorted others to "throw some tea and bread into an old sack and jump over the back fence." In that spirit, I set off for the nearby Mount Wanda area of the site with half a loaf of challah squished into my day pack. At the apex of a gently rising trail, birds of prey screeched and swooped between Mount Wanda's bald knob and panoramic views of the Carquinez Strait, Mount Diablo, and oak-speckled hills.

And fruit trees. Although Muir's name is usually linked to towering redwood forests, the orchards still flourishing on the property make it especially rewarding to visit in summer, when many of them are ready for harvesting. Rangers pick the ripe fruit, and if you time it right, you can stroll the orchards while munching on samples.

Before settling in Martinez, Muir spent a handful of years in Yosemite, and its natural beauty altered the course of his life. He witnessed the devastating effects of unrestricted logging and grazing, and he turned the full force of his pen to the preservation of the American West he so loved.

Elegant yet plainly worded essays gained him widespread acclaim and influence. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Muir to guide him through Yosemite, and photos of their famed camping trip hang in Muir's home next to pictures of early Sierra Club outings. But despite his personal connections and years of dogged work, Muir lost his final battle in 1913, when Congress authorized San Francisco to dam and flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley for the city's water and electricity. When he died a year later, some said it was from a broken heart.

E-mail Beth Kohn at fiercesf{at}igc{dot}org.

Trip planner

John Muir National Historic Site Look for peaches and pears during August. Perseid meteor shower walk on Mount Wanda, Aug. 12, 8-11 p.m. Sept. 24, "Ranch Days" an annual re-creation of life on an 1880s fruit ranch. County Connection bus no. 116 runs hourly to the John Muir site from the Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek BART stations (Mon.-Sat., www.cccta.org). Wed.-Sun., 10 a.m.-5 p.m., 4202 Alhambra (at Hwy. 4). (925) 228-8860, www.nps.gov/jomu.

Sauntering spots Explore the Martinez trails in spring, when the hills are green and the possibility of heat stroke is still a few months away. Mount Wanda (www.nps.gov/jomu) is an easy two-mile round-trip partial loop on fire road and trail, mostly shaded by oaks. Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline has more secluded trails near the coast (www.ebparks.org/parks/carquin.htm).

Recommended Muir reading Our National Parks (1901), essays on the western parks and the declining state of US forests. The Yosemite (1912), a guided tour of the land that inspired Muir, including a passionate call to save the Hetch Hetchy Valley.