The Adventures of Superfreak: My Childhood on the Hippie Trail

Caleb Dardick is the author of The Adventures of Superfreak: My Childhood on the Hippie Trail. He has lived in Nevada County since 1973, grew up on the San Juan Ridge, and later served as Assistant CEO for the County of Nevada and Executive Director of the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL).

Caleb’s professional life has spanned public service, nonprofit leadership, environmental advocacy, disability-related community work, and local government. A graduate of UC Santa Cruz, Caleb is also a leadership coach and storyteller. He lives in Nevada City with his wife.

His father, Sam Dardick, was a Nevada County Supervisor and a disability-rights leader; his parents also co-founded FREED, an independent living center serving people with disabilities. Caleb was raised by activist parents with disabilities in the heart of the American counterculture. At five years old, he crossed continents with his family along the Hippie Trail from Amsterdam to India — part of a generation’s sweeping search for freedom.

In The Adventures of Superfreak: My Childhood on the Hippie Trail, Dardick tells the story of his family “dropping out” — capturing the wild promise of the era and the intimate realities of family life on the road.

He writes about what happens after the long search for freedom — about the real work of building community, living with disability, and inheriting a generation’s idealism.

Many of you may recall in 2017, Cathy walked 500+ miles on the Camino de Santiago. Cathy's Walk to End Polio was in honor of Caleb's dad Sam Dardick. Caleb generously created a series of special videos sharing the intimate story of his dad's life with polio.