The Last Season Quotes
"I shall go on some last wilderness trip, to a place I have known and loved. I shall not return." — Everett Ruess, 1931
"The least I owe these mountains is a body." — Randy Morgenson, McClure Meadow, 1994
"Randy knew the country better than the map did." — Alden Nash, retired Sierra Crest Subdistrict Ranger
"Randy was so in sync with the mountains that he could look at a missing person’s last known whereabouts on a topographic map, consider the terrain and ‘how it pulls at a person,’ and make a judgment call with astounding results." — Alden Nash
"John Muir himself couldn’t have done that. But then, Muir didn’t spend as much time in the Sierra as Randy." — Alden Nash
"Only this simple everyday living and wilderness wandering seems natural and real, the other world, more like something read, not at all related to reality as I know it." — Randy Morgenson, Charlotte Lake, 1966
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." — Henry David Thoreau, Walden
"Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it." — Confucius
"The best way to teach the public isn’t with a citation, it’s with communication." — Dick McLaren, Ranger Supervisor
"Do not come and roam here unless you are willing to be enslaved by its charms." — Gordon Wallace, Ranger in Sequoia, 1935 to 1947
"It was impossible for a foot ranger not to lose weight; he simply could not consume enough calories at altitude, especially with a canned-food diet."
"I think Randy had a distinct purpose in life, and back then, he wasn’t exactly sure what that purpose was. He just followed his heart, which wasn’t in the classroom. The mountains were his classroom."
"Wilderness - An area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." — Howard Zahniser
"The master intended for me a life in the wilderness, a life of awareness and discovery of the forces of nature and humanity. A life…that carries me toward more entire manhood, and perhaps one that brings some of this into the rest of the world, counterbalancing some of the forces that presently carry us along."
What is the difference?" asked Randy. "There is no difference—we are the same.
"Randy could make a swarm of mosquitoes seem like the most romantic thing in the world."
"Carried away a pack full of the leavings of Swinus Americanus. Slobs, creating their own bad karma, give me the chance to do Earth a good turn. Perhaps blessed stormy weather, and succession of rangers, and god will have the joint looking natural in 10,000 years or so."
"I find that in contemplating the natural world my pleasure is greater if there are not too many others contemplating it with me, at the same time." - Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
"For decades, the recruitment of backcountry rangers had been what some considered both chauvinistic and militaristic."
"Nash, the father of two daughters, couldn’t see 'any reason whatsoever' why a young woman could not do the job."
"Why shouldn’t a mountain-man beard be allowed in the mountains?"
"An element of loneliness is necessary in wildness."
"The world is ours and as beautiful as it can ever be."
"Randy, I’m sorry, there are things I’m not telling you."
"The meadow isn’t here to make a comfortable campsite for you, so don’t circle rocks upon it and build your fire there."
"How many are being reached? How much progress against the machine mentality are we making?"
"One of the world’s mystical sounds. Ranking with the bugle of elk in frosty autumn forests, and the quavering laugh of the loon off misty, rain-drenched northern bays and lakes."
"If the photographer is primarily involved with his own opinions and feelings about his subject, the photograph will probably contain more of the photographer than of that photographed."
"I prefer to be a witness, over an interpreter."
"It is easy in this pompous age to scan the big things of the world and forget to see the small miracles of life around us; the morning light, the flowers, those intimate details of the world that combine to make it beautiful." - Ansel Adams
"We’re a restless breed, we moderns. Hardest it is to sit still and be attentive to our surroundings. Boredom comes to most of us very quickly."
"I hope when I’m in my 70s I’m climbing over Shepherd Pass, crossing snow, wading streams, eating cold meals, and sleeping on the ground."
"Ranger Morgenson was kind enough to come up from LeConte Station and carry her pack down."
"Throughout these trials, Ranger Morgenson was very encouraging and supportive, which was a great comfort to both my wife and myself."
"He showed deep concern for the situation we were in."
"During this time Mr. Morgenson was extremely kind. He showed utmost consideration of my situation."
"Mr. Morgenson said he was just ‘doing his job,’ but I am sure he has many duties, and having an injured hiker on his hands only complicated his job. Yet he never showed this in his manner, and was always very patient and kind."
"It’s great to know people like you are around when we need you."
"Randy did seem to have an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time for wilderness travelers in need of assistance."
"We can deny this only through an ingenious self-delusion, and delusion is never honest or healthy. As we turn away from the natural Earth, we turn away from a vital part of ourselves. Our health declines."
"A white gull on a high lake, a dipper in a tumbling, noisy canyon stream—a bird at home with water. To fly and swim. What a grand existence that would be! Man is a poor creature."
"I live in a valley at 9,700 feet in the High Sierra. I won’t tell you where it is, for what I have to say about it may entice some of you to come, and there are enough already."
"He works well in remote wilderness stations far from direct supervision and with difficult lines of communication."
"Randy’s paperwork and reports indicate a thoughtful caring attitude towards the job and wilderness."
"All the meadows in Evolution Valley were grazed this summer, and they all looked it. Yet Franklin Meadow apparently was not, and in October it was a place of knee-high grasses, ripe and open panicles drifting on the moving air, luminous-bronze in the backlight."
"I don’t use place names in order to protect these innocent places."
"I just want to know what I can do for you, Mom."
"In spite of all the ribbing and sarcasm, the backcountry rangers were good at what they did."
"He would have to have turned into a person none of us knows to do either of these things."
"And the insinuation that he might be ‘hiding out’ is patently absurd."
"People only change themselves. There’s no magic phrase to cause Satori. Only we can contain these things, prevent its getting worse, control it gently; and stand my ground—not be pushed, manipulated, or threatened successfully."
"That just stuck out for me—lucky 7. I started that night out with real high hopes that we’d find him."
"The two systems, night vision and thermal, work well together: what one can’t see, the other can."
"Nobody had alerted them about the night operation, which Durkee summed up with two words: 'voodoo spooky.'"
"The moon was nearly full and the surrounding granite basin was lit in ghostly Sierra light."
"The parks’ helicopters weren’t equipped to fly at night."
"Around 3 A.M., Bagnato said, 'I have a campfire.'"
"Both pilots felt confident that the solo hiker huddled next to the fire was the missing ranger."
"‘Why are they assigning me these high, impassable ridges that any meadow stroller like Randy would just shake his head at?’"
"Sanger’s immediate reaction was 'I wouldn’t want to get caught poaching by this person.'"
"Randy loved high places and had finessed his way up into many of the parks’ zones generally reserved for the resident mountain sheep."
"Shaking, Sanger walked to a nearby stream to wash his hand and watched blood swirl into the current from two puncture wounds."
"‘For Randy,’ says Sanger, 'I composed myself and returned to the handler, who was extremely apologetic.'"
"‘It’s a good thing. She looked to be a quicker draw.’"
"‘We all make it through our garbage, if we make it’ said a character in a recent novel."
"‘I always thought Randy felt the same way, but he was living a lie. Learning that was a big disappointment.'"
"‘Gravity plus granite equals a god-awful mess.’"
"‘Randy knew the dangers involved with a SAR,’ he says, ‘and I thought he damn well better be hurt, because if he left the mountains and somebody else gets it, there might be some serious repercussions.’"
"‘The SAR at that point was just this amazingly powerful and emotional event that I will never forget for the rest of my life.’"
"‘It encompassed the entire park. Frontcountry personnel, backcountry rangers, researchers, trail crew, scientists: we were all, in our own way, doing everything possible.’"
"‘We had dinner and just reveled in our mutual appreciation of the power and beauty that surrounded us.’"
"I’m finally starting to wonder if it’s been worth it."
"You can bend, fold, spindle, or mutilate it."
"Nothing ever came of the strange individual who had been yelling at himself."
"If I am among the mountains, yet in a sour mood or with my thoughts elsewhere I hear not their voices—feel not their Presence and Forces."
"An extremely clear, perfectly cloudless day."
"Sitting on a rock for the noon radio check, halfway down the South Fork, I feel no questions, no troubles, just a great oneness with all welling up inside me."
"The least I owe these mountains is a body."
"It was a cosmic spot where a tired ranger could lean back against his pack, look at the flowers, and have lunch while listening to the roar of the falls beginning 50 feet downstream."
"Ice, like other things in this world, only appears solid and immobile."
"Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds."
"The land was paramount. The land always had been."
"Here’s your one chance to get lost, fall in the creek, find a beautiful place."
"If things are well for the rosy finches, what ill can befall me?"
"I am suddenly close to something very great and very large, something containing me and all this around me, something I only dimly perceive, and understand not at all."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."
"To be thoroughly aware each day that I’m alive, to be deeply sensitive to the world I inhabit and the world that I am, not to roam roughshod over the broad surface of this planet for achievement but to know where I step, and to tread lightly."
"I would rather my footsteps never be seen, and the sound of my voice be heard only by those near, and never echo, than leave in my wake the fame of those whom we commonly call great."