Dave Blumenthal

I’ve wanted to blog for a while.  Out for a hike or long bike ride, streams of consciousness flow by that I promptly forget about by the time I get home.  But I marked today on my calendar knowing I’d want to make this blog post. 

In the summer of 2010 I was researching how to accomplish a race that would change my life.  I wanted to do the Tour Divide race from Canada to Mexico in 2011.  If you are here, then you’ve likely read my accounts of the various exploits. 

Today, there are so many gear makers, gear reviews and detailed gear lists easily available with a simple Google search.  Almost nothing of the sort existed in 2010.  Riders relied heavily on posts in the old-school (still in use) http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/.  There were no how-to websites detailing everything a rookie needed to know from gear to re-supply.  You painstakingly researched everything on your own.  I was doing just this when I came across the blog of Dave Blumenthal https://type2fun.wordpress.com/   

Dave was preparing to do the Tour Divide race in 2010.  In his blog, he documented his do-it-yourself (DIY) bike bags, sleeping kit and setup.  I went back to his blog often.  Zooming in on pictures to see how he designed this or that, or how he mounted his GPS or his lights... 

On this day, 10 years ago, the following post was made on the Tour Divide website: http://tourdivide.org/blog2010/memory_dave_blumenthal

Dave was gone.  An accident just past Brush Mountain Lodge in Colorado.

A year later, SheilaT and I made our way on CR 82/116 and gratefully, the Brush Mountain Lodge came into view.  We’d traveled 86 miles from Rawlings WY and the iconic lodge was our destination.  As we approached, I saw people sitting on a covered deck and all were wearing matching cowboy flannel pajamas.  My first thought was wow, everyone here gets matching pajamas!  How cool! 

Of course, that was not the case.  It was Dave’s family.  They had come to the lodge, a beautiful and welcoming place run by the immensely loving Kirsten Hendricksen.  They wanted to be at this place on the year anniversary of his passing. 

That evening as riders gathered around the table, Dave’s wife Lexi joined us.  We told stories and ate our fill.  Then, in the morning, SheilaT and I left, cognizant that we would be passing the location of Dave’s accident.  The rigors of the divide quickly took our attention, but we took thoughts of Dave and his family with us.

Now it is 10 years on.  Christopher Bennett has been collecting Tour Divide stories each year since and publishing the Cordillera, the proceeds of which have gone to a college fund for Dave and Lexi’s daughter Linnaea. 

I just wanted to put Dave’s name out into the universe today.  Ride in peace Dave and thank you for helping to light the way.

Great Basin  Photo by Dave Blumenthal