JOHN MUIR

Posthumous

John Muir (1838 – 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", he was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America.

 His letters, essays, and books describing his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park, and his example has served as an inspiration for the preservation of many other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he co-founded, is a prominent American conservation organization.

 In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. As part of the campaign to make Yosemite a national park, Muir published two landmark articles on wilderness preservation in The Century Magazine, "The Treasures of the Yosemite" and "Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park"; this helped support the push for U.S. Congress to pass a bill in 1890 establishing Yosemite National Park. The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings has inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas.

 John Muir has been considered "an inspiration to both Scots and Americans." Muir's biographer, Steven J. Holmes, believes that Muir has become "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity", both political and recreational. As a result, his writings are commonly discussed in books and journals, and he has often been quoted by nature photographers such as Ansel Adams. "Muir has profoundly shaped the very categories through which Americans understand and envision their relationships with the natural world", writes Holmes.

 Muir was noted for being an ecological thinker, political spokesman, and religious prophet, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for many people, making his name "almost ubiquitous" in the modern environmental consciousness. According to author William Anderson, Muir exemplified "the archetype of our oneness with the earth", while biographer Donald Worster says he believed his mission was "saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism".  403  On April 21, 2013, the first John Muir Day was celebrated in Scotland, which marked the 175th anniversary of his birth, paying homage to the conservationist.

BRIAN ROBINSON

The feat accomplished by this wilderness hiker is so profound that it is difficult for most to even imagine it:

In 10 months, he became the first person to complete the Triple Crown of hiking in a single year, completing the Pacific Crest Trail (2,650 miles), Continental Divide Trail (2,560 miles) and Appalachian Trail (2,160 miles). No one had previously completed more than one of these trails in a single year.

This adventure took 300 days, averaging 31.9 miles per day, crossing 22 states, 16 national parks, 57 national forests and 67 wilderness areas. He completed it despite chronic foot pain and being stricken with Bell's palsy.

By agreeing to interviews with People magazine, The Chronicle and other media, Robinson has done more to promote wilderness hiking than anyone since John Muir.

Robinson lives in Cupertino. He quit his job in Silicon Valley and completed the expedition without commercial sponsorship.

A personal glimpse: "I did it be- cause I needed a challenge. I wanted to do something I could be proud of for the rest of my life. Most people said it was impossible. It required 100 percent mentally, physically and spiritually."

ED RICE

Ed Rice was founder of the International Sportsman's Exposition, a world-champion fly fisher, and, at the time, the only living member voted unanimously into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.

Ed grew up outside of Chico. Like many country boys, Rice fished and hunted everywhere within range. By the time Ed was in his 20s, his range expanded around the world.

He fished in 40 countries on six continents, across North America and had 88 different weeks in Alaska.

In the process, he caught 242 species of fish on a fly rod, more than anybody in the world. Rice is believed to be the only fly fisher to have caught (and released at the boat) the grand slam of the Caribbean twice in three days -- the tarpon, bonefish and permit.

As a maverick promoter, Rice invented the most copied sports show in the world. He featured instruction by experts, a model in North America. He also was the only promoter in America to donate free booth space to conservation groups and fly in world-renown anglers from across the hemisphere.

Rice created sport shows in Sacramento, San Mateo, Eugene, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix and Southern California.

He was also inducted into the Federation of Fly Fishers Hall of Fame.

For his last trip, he asked fellow Hall member Tom Stienstra to take him to Rufus Woods in northeastern Washington. Though he was blind, he still was the top rod on the lake.

At one trip there, he had 14 straight casts with 3- to 10-pounders. He missed the set on one, then had another run of 11 straight. All catch and release.

At one point, driving up the lake, he asked Tom to move aside at the wheel. "Are there any boats ahead of us?" he asked. "No? Then I'll take the wheel. Move aside my boy." He pushed forward on the throttle and powered ahead while Stienstra watched for obstacles.

"Man, that fresh air in my face . . . feels good."

CAROLE LATIMER

No other person in America has introduced more women to the outdoor experience than Latimer. As a guide, outfitter and owner of "Call of the Wild, " Latimer has taken more than 3,000 women camping, backpacking, hiking and kayaking, many for the first time.

In the process, she has summited Mount Whitney 23 times, including rock- climbing the east face, traversed most of the Sierra Nevada, and ventured across the hemisphere, including trips to Denali, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Grand Canyon and Rocky Mountains.

Latimer has pioneered a unique approach to camping for women by emphasizing self-reliance, gourmet food, sleeping comfort and staying clean, such as ways to bathe in a garbage bag. By teaching Leave No Trace, she has demonstrated the ethical use of wilderness for thousands of new- comers. In addition, her wilderness meal recipes have generated a cult-like following across America.

Latimer lives in Berkeley, where her business is based.

A personal glimpse: "Women blossom when they leave behind the expectations of their everyday lives, and meet the challenge of the outdoors with the support and enthusiasm of other women."

GALEN ROWELL

Rowell, a photographer and trekker, mastered an ability to capture unrepeatable moments in the outdoors on film, and with it, won world renown for his celebration of the natural world and its beauty. He supported many Bay Area conservation groups and conferences by donating his Mountain Light photo gallery as a base for meetings and conferences.

Rowell made his first roped ascent in Yosemite Valley at age 16, the first of more than 100 new climbing routes in the Sierra. In the years that followed,

Rowell extended his adventures to the world's highest mountains on all seven continents. These included the first one-day ascents of Denali in Alaska and Kilimanjaro in Africa, and the highest summit ever gained on skis in history, Mustagh Ata, 24,757 feet, in China. He also completed a landmark 285-mile cross-county ski traverse of the Karakoram Himalaya in winter.

He captured moments from these and many other expeditions in magazines and large-format books, including the best-selling "Mountain Light," and "Bay Area Wild." Rowell and his wife, Barbara, a pilot and accomplished trekker died in a plane crash in 2002, following his induction to the Hall.

A personal glimpse: "What I do is a continuing pursuit in which the art becomes the adventure, and vice-versa."

DICK POOL

Dick Pool started as a tackle inventor with innovative underwater film techniques and then advanced as a leader for the conservation of California salmon and steelhead for more than 30 years. He developed an underwater system to film and watch salmon lures being trolled, and with the information then invented the Salmon Rotary Killer and helped open up the world of downrigger trolling on the California coast.

Pool has served on numerous state and federal salmon advisory committees and has testified as an expert witness on salmon issues before the California Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives. His appointments include the California Fish and Game Upper Sacramento Salmon and Steelhead Advisory Committee; the advisory committee on winter-run salmon for the National Marine Fisheries Service; and the Board of Directors for the American Sportfishing Association.

“When we figured out how to film trolled lures and then watched a big salmon make 17 passes at a lure without getting hooked, it was like watching the greatest secret show on Earth,” Pool said.

JOHN POIMIROO

A publicist of public lands and promoter of all things Californian, this El Dorado Hills resident is California’s ambassador to the outdoors. As editor of CaliforniaFallColor.com John Poimiroo chronicled fall color across the state introducing hundreds of thousands to California's most colorful season. As California’s state tourism director in the '90s and an outdoor and travel writer/photographer thereafter, he promoted every corner of California.  

The son of a Yosemite ski patroller, he followed in his father's tracks as Director of the Olympic Valley Ski Patrol where he oversaw patrolling at the last ski jump held on Squaw Valley’s 80 meter Olympic jumping hill. He now directs the American River Bike Patrol (the nation’s best bike patrol) and is a ski patroller at Donner Ski Ranch. He has skied throughout the Sierra, bicycled the length of California, sailed competitively on inland waters and off the coast - competing in several national class championships, fished many of its streams and lakes, and trekked throughout Yosemite National Park and countless California State Parks. 

While at Yosemite, he established the Yosemite Photographer’s Holidays and coordinated media relations for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to The Ahwahnee and radio reports for KNBR/NBC Sports of the first paraplegic ascents of El Capitan and Half Dome by Mark Wellman.

He's directed communications at Squaw Valley (now Palisades at Tahoe) and at operations serving Yosemite NP, Redwoods Nat'l and State Parks, Angel Island SP,  Lassen Volcanic NP, the eastern Sierra, and Ski Lake Tahoe.

Poimiroo was a founder of the California Roundtable on Recreation, Parks and Tourism, the Western States Tourism Policy Council, the National Parks Promotion Council, was a principal in establishing the California Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights, was inducted into the California Tourism Hall of Fame and was named the finest State Tourism Director in the United States in 1998.

Among his over 80 lifetime awards, he was twice named Writer of the Year by the Outdoor Writers Association of California, received an SATW Bill Muster Award for travel photography and an SATW Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award for his website, CaliforniaFallColor.com (the nation’s highest awards in travel and outdoor photography and writing).

He explains his passion for California's outdoors by saying, “I travel California’s byways and back roads, photographing and documenting glory previously unimagined in a journey to inform others about California’s wonders.”

MAXINE MCCORMICK

Mover & Shaker

The San Francisco native became, at age 12, the youngest world champion in fly-casting history during the championships in Estonia in 2016. She was the first child to win a gold medal at a world-class event since 13-year-old American diver Marjorie Gestring won gold in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 2018, McCormick followed that up by winning another gold medal at the world championships, this time in England, for Trout Accuracy and Salmon Distance. Her success, personality and eloquence have captured the imagination of media and the public in the U.S. and Europe.

"The No. 1 question people ask is, 'How did I get into casting?' " McCormick said. "I tell them how my dad fly fishes, and one day, I was like 9, he took me to the casting ponds (at Golden Gate Park) and I tried it. I liked it right off."

FRANCIS TAPON

One of the world’s greatest hikers and wilderness heroes, Francis Tapon is one of a handful of Americans to have hiked the Triple Crown: the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail, and the 5,600-mile Continental Divide Trail. He has walked across the United States four times via its three mountain ranges, and across Spain twice. He climbed to the highest point in 50 of 54 African countries between 2013 and 2018 and has written Hike Your Own Hike and The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us.