Journeys and Journals from the World's Great Explorers. In a new kind of "choose your own adventure," series, enjoy original accounts of 18th and 19th century pioneers that make up The Essential History of Exploration & Mountaineering. This unique historical collection is presented by Conrad Anker, a modern-day explorer whose own expeditions and adventures have spanned the globe. Written in a time before computers, GPS, and Wikipedia, these meticulous treatments of voyaging, mountaineering, and nature create a living image of what it is like to truly appreciate the unknown. MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA Naturalist and preservationist John Muir's ecological masterpiece has preserved His personal illustrations of lakes, mountains, trees, and wildlife are contained in this genealogy of the Sierra Nevada Range.From the geologic ancestry of the mountains of California to its flora and fauna offspring, Muir rejoices in the "Wild West" of the late 1800s. Poetic and captivating, this book is an act of literary preservation that enables readers to physically experience the irreplaceable beauty of the outdoors. Mountaineer Conrad Anker is a California native who grew up scaling El Capitan and has established his own line, "Continental Drift," climbing the 3000-foot monolith in a day.