Dave and Dale's epic adventure
Dale Heider (left) and David Lensing plan to make their third Rim-to-Rim hike on Sept. 25 to celebrate Heider’s 75th birthday. The hike will also be raising funds for Mary’s Meals, and organization providing food for children in impoverished nations.
By APRIL KELLEY
Dave Heider knew he wanted to do something ‘Epic’ to celebrate his 75th birthday which was actually on May 31. He didn’t want to have a big party or buy a fancy gift, he wanted to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back out and he wanted his friend, David Lensing to go with him, again.
That’s right, again. The two men have made the trek called a Rim-to-Rim or R to R hike, twice before, once in 2018 and again in 2022. This time is even more special though as the two will be hiking for a cause when they make the trip one more time on Sept. 25.
The two, who both attend St. Mary’s Catholic Church, first bonded over their love of bike riding and have gone on many extended rides including participating in RAGBRAI and other biking events.
It seemed only natural that when Heider first decided to make the rim-to-rim hike in 2018, Lensing would be his first choice to join him.
Heider explained why he chose to go the first time.
“I had been to the Grand Canyon before and you stand up on the rim and it’s a mile deep and 10 miles across and it’s just an awe inspiring place. People come from all over the world just to see this,” Heider said.
Lensing for his part had never seen the Grand Canyon before that but was on his list of things he wanted to do.
“It’s one of the seven wonders of the world and so I fell in love with it after that,” Lensing said.
While the hike seemed epic to begin with, Heider felt that he wanted to make this hike, possibly his last one to the bottom and back in this fashion, to be special. The answer of how to do that came to him on a day he decided to go on a biking trip.
“I was going down to the High Trestle Trail in Des Moines and ride down and back. That day I stopped at the post office and there was a lady ahead of me and she didn’t have enough money to pay for her postage to send the package, so I paid for it for her,” Heider said.
“Later, on the bike trail I came across an elderly gentleman and he was pulling a cart and it appeared like he had all of his belongings in that cart going down the bike path heading to Des Moines,” Heider continued.
“Then on the way back, where I had parked my car there was another gentleman and he had thrown a sleeping bag down and I had talked to him for a little bit and he was going to sleep there for the night,” Heider concluded.
Those three things spoke to him telling him he had to do something to help people.
On the way home, he remembered a gentleman who had attended a church gathering Heider attended who had talked about an organization called Mary’s Meals.
Mary’s Meals is an organization providing meals to children living in some of the world’s poorest communities. Their premise is simple. Provide a nourishing meal once a day to school children with the hopes they will come for the meal and stay for the education, helping to lift them out of poverty. Mary’s Meals serves more than 2.5 million children every school day for just over $25 per year per child.
In that moment, Heider decided to tie his Grand Canyon hike with a fundraising campaign for Mary’s Meals.
“What better way to make this hike more meaningful,” Heider said.
Read the full story in this week's issue of The Humboldt Independent!
