Heath Calhoun rolled into Wheat Ridge on Sunday after pedaling over the Continental Divide with his hands. Calhoun lost both legs after an ambush on an Iraqi road 19 months ago – but a rocket grenade wasn’t enough to stop him.
Calhoun is one of more than 35 disabled veterans and friends who signed on to ride at least part of a 4,200-mile, coast-to-coast trek to raise $5 million for severely wounded servicemen and -women.
While some are riding just a section of the route, Calhoun left Los Angeles in late May and plans to have hand- pedaled all the way to Montauk, N.Y., by July 19.
“I had to do it the whole way,” said Calhoun, who lives at Fort Campbell, Ky., with his wife and two small children. “It’s a never-say-die attitude.”
Soldier Ride 2005 is the brainchild of Chris Carney – a bartender from East Hampton, N.Y., who was frustrated after trying to raise funds for a local disabled veteran.
“I kind of got tired of hearing people say, ‘Our thoughts and prayers are with them,”‘ Carney said Sunday.
“Thoughts and prayers aren’t getting it done,” Carney said. “… If everyone with thoughts and prayers gave $1, these guys would be a lot better off.”
That led Carney last year to start the bike ride, which raised about $2 million in 2004 for the nonprofit Wounded Warrior Project.
Carney and Ryan Kelly, who lost a leg to a bomb on a road near Ramadi, Iraq, two years ago, are making the cross-country trip with Calhoun.
The riders said the trek is important to raise spirits and hopes, as well as money.
Wounded veterans receive excellent care while they are in the hospital, Carney said, but “when they go home, everything stops.”
The riders say they want to show their fellow wounded soldiers that life doesn’t end with the loss of a limb.
Artie Guerrero, a Golden resident and a rider, lost the use of his legs after being shot in Vietnam. He said it took years to adjust to a new life.
“I had to learn to do everything all over again,” said Guerrero, who was an accomplished gymnast when he graduated from West High School in 1962. “The adjustment is hell.”
It took four years, Guerrero said, before a program encouraged him to get out and do things. He is now an avid skier and rider.
Guerrero and Carney said they don’t want it to take so long for today’s veterans.
“A lot of these guys probably won’t tell you as much,” Carney said of his fellow riders, “but I think a big part of this is going to be walking into Walter Reed (Army Medical Center) and saying to the other amputees, ‘Look, life goes on.”‘
The trek also has inspired a wide range of bicycle engineering adaptations.
For example, while Calhoun depends on a hand-pedal model, Brian Neuman, who lost his arm in Iraq seven months ago, uses a prosthetic device reminiscent of “The Terminator” to grab his handlebars. Other riders have devices to make up for lost legs.
“The bikes they are riding are actually a collection of every adaptation they can have on a bike,” said Sandy Levine, a spokeswoman for the group.
After riding about 15 miles Sunday, the group of about a dozen riders stopped off at LoDo’s Bar and Grill before heading to Coors Field, where they were introduced before the Rockies game.
This morning, a group of them will start making their way to Kansas City. The prospect of open prairie will be welcome after the baking desert and the Rocky Mountains.
“We’re looking forward to the flatlands, for sure,” Carney said.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
