Inspiration: Bedrock & Paradox

If I had to choose a favorite blog, Dave Chenault's Bedrock & Paradox would definitely be on the short list.  Reading the blog would be worth it only for the photography--Dave spends his most of days in the breathtakingly beautiful mountains in and around Glacier NP--but the eye candy belies the strength of the writing it illustrates.  Dave is a masterful writer with a keen sense of genre, and if the random streams of consciousness that I post on here ever come close to being one tenth as good as what he puts out week after week, I'll consider myself accomplished.

I first found Dave's blog in 2007, when we were both pondering over flared drop bar setups (namely, utilizing the On-One Midge) for our respective bicycles.  Dave published some awesome comparison shots and I always liked the look of his old Karate Monkey singlespeed with Midges.  That may have been where I first got the idea to pad the drop area of the midges with Oury Grips.  He also had awesome trip reports, mostly involving endurance MTB riding and racing around the Four Corners states. 

Since then, our interests have diverged as he moved to the north (Montana) and shifted his focus to lightweight backpacking and ski touring, while I have come to be less influenced by the endurance MTB crowd in my own thinking about cycling.  But I have kept reading his blog and have never failed to be interested by whatever he is writing about.  His blog, and the experiences it describes, combine the many of the elements that I aspire to include in my own writing:

• High level, detail-oriented tech geekery about whatever activity is being pursued, with a high degree of self-sufficiency and creativity--Dave is a MYOG (Make Your Own Gear) master.
• Well written and interesting trip reports, attempting to share the quasi-mystic quality of human-powered travel over great distances and challenging terrain.
• A knowledge of and ability to use his academic background in continental philosophy and social theory to make sense of the experiences he describes in his trip reports, as well as to connect his own experience and pursuits to a broader understanding of the worlds presented to him.

In sum, Dave's writing is never just about mountain biking or skiing or hiking, but how our mode of travel, the way that we choose to use our bodies, helps us to relate to the environment we inhabit.  Today's post is just another example:

 "Why" on Bedrock & Paradox

Thanks, Dave.