I left some books behind on move overseas in the late 1960s, including my treasured 1964 copy of Starr’s Guide to the John Muir Trail. The Sierra Club publication got a little mildewed over time but two thoughtful friends in Mill Valley, Ca., found it and returned it to me in 2015, with this 1966-1967 Fillmore Auditorium flier gracefully covering the damage. I had to regain some of my psychedelic perspective to read the handbill for the December 30 and 31st performances of the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Apparently I bought a second copy in the interim and here are the front of the 1967 edition and the back of the 1964.
I spent more time hiking and backpacking in the 1960s than participating in psychedelia. I’ve attended only one rock concert in my life, in fact. It was Cream, with Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in the late 1960s. I thought Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin were the second act but AI and my memory aren’t synching on this point.
By the way, the life of Walter A. “Pete” Starr Jr. is worth reading about. Here is the Wikipedia entry:
Walter A. “Pete” Starr Jr. (1903–1933) was an American lawyer and mountain climber.
A graduate of Stanford University, Starr was a respected lawyer in San Francisco, but he is better known for his abilities as a mountain climber and an explorer of the Sierra Nevada. Starr was well known for his hiking ability in the mountains, sometimes walking up to 50 miles a day for several days in a row. Starr was a life member of the Sierra Club.
In August 1933, he failed to return from a month-long hike in the Minarets. The search that followed, which led to the eventual discovery of his body by Norman Clyde, is one of the most dramatic true tales of the Sierra exploration. His body was buried where it was found.
Starr’s final notes were compiled and edited by his father into “Starr’s Guide to the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Region” which was published a year after his death by the Sierra Club. This book has been edited and revised many times and served hikers and climbers for many years as the standard reference to the trails of the Sierra. A revised version is currently available.
Walter Starr is the namesake of Mount Starr in the Sierra Nevada.
dream ranch 