‘Taking on new adventures’: Vietnam veteran plans bike ride across country

From coast to coast — on May 19, Winston Hall will start his journey across the United States.”From Washington, D.C., to Seattle, Washington, cross country and it’s 3,700 miles, crosses 12 states,” Hall said.He will bike the Great American Rail Trail — a transnational bike path — through Appalachia, across the Midwest, over the Great Plains and up into the Rocky Mountains.”The only thing I guess I’m concerned about is when you get into Wyoming and Montana and Idaho. You really get into the hilly sections,” Hall said.But it isn’t all worries. Riding across the country, there’s plenty of beauty that Hall is excited to see.”I’m most excited to see really the first part of this ride, which is on the C&O Canal pathway from Washington D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland, and then it turns into what they call the Gap Trail,” Hall said. Along the way, he’ll receive help from an organization called Warrior Expeditions. The group is providing him the resources needed like his bike, repair kits, a tent and connections with their community along the route.”We’re a veteran nonprofit outdoor therapy program that helps veterans transition from their wartime experience through long-distance outdoor expeditions,” Founder Sean Gobin said.Gobin’s expeditions include Warrior Bike, Warrior Paddle — a 2,300-mile kayaking trip down the Mississippi River, or Warrior Hike — the 2,200-mile hike up the Appalachian Trail. For over 10 years, Gobin has provided veterans with the chance to use time and nature for healing.Having the exposure to so many wonderful, helpful, supportive people over the course of thousands of miles really helps to reestablish your basic faith in humanity,” Gobin said.Besides Hall, the 2026 Warrior Bike cohort includes five other veterans who served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Hall served in Vietnam and is older than his companions by at least 20 years. He said that isn’t going to stop him.”I think the most important thing we should do is keep in mind that we ought to be taking on new adventures all the time as we age,” Hall said.Hall applied for Warrior Expeditions a year ago, and Gobin said it’s his age and his service that helped him get selected.”They were the one generation of veterans who, when they returned, were not celebrated,” Gobin said. “A lot of our community supports are Vietnam Era veterans and what they told me was, ‘We will never let another generation of veterans be treated like we were.'”Up and down the trails, veterans will share their homes, their food and their stories with Hall and his fellow bikers as they all digest the memories from their service.”Doing that with other veterans is very helpful because each person kind of knows what the other person’s going through as far as this transition time goes,” Hall said.Hall’s goal is to ride back through Nebraska by mid-June before continuing his adventures. You can follow Hall and the Warrior Bike trip on Warrior Expeditions’ social media. Make sure you can always see the latest news, weather, sports and more from KETV NewsWatch 7 on Google search.NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National | Sports | Newscasts on demand |