Thinking about the last Nurturing post (“The Search For Uninhabited Backcountry Lakes”), I thought it might be interesting include the rest of the Everett Rues quote from the letter to his sometimes girlfriend, and a couple of other Everett Ruess quotes.

Dear Doris [Myers],                                            August 30  Castle Crags

     I have been feeling so happy and filled to overflowing with the beauty of life, that I felt I must write to you. It is all a golden dream, with mysterious, high, rushing winds leaning down to caress me, and warm and perfect colors flowing before my eyes. Time and the need of time have ceased entirely. A gentle, dreamy haze fills my soul, the rustling of the aspens lulls my senses, and the surpassing beauty and perfection of everything fills me with quiet joy and a deep pervading love for my world.

     My solitude is unbroken. Above, the white, castellated cliffs glitter fairy-like against the turquoise sky. The wild silences have enfolded me unresisting. . .
- Love from Everett Ruess
from the book A Vagabond For Beauty

I have seen almost more beauty than I can bear.

I prefer the saddle to the streetcar and star-sprinkled sky to a roof, the obscure and difficult trail, leading into the unknown, to any paved highway, and the deep peace of the wild to the discontent bred by cities. Do you blame me then for staying here, where I feel that I belong and am one with the world around me? It is true that I miss intelligent companionship, but there are so few with whom I can share the things that mean so much to me that I have learned to contain myself. It is enough that I am surrounded with beauty

While I am alive, I intend to live.

I have been in many beautiful places, and did not wish to taste, but to drink deep.

Everett Ruess disappeared in the desert of the American Southwest at the age of twenty. No sign of him was ever found. There is speculation that he was murdered for his burrows and also that he spent the rest of his life living with a Navaho woman.

To read all of my favorite Everett Ruess quotes, visit here.

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