CASPER, Wyo. — Dean and Lorri Zenoni rolled into Rawlins, Wyoming on Friday morning, having gotten up early to beat the wind and heat for a 55-mile segment of a 2,495-mile ride of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route they are on to raise awareness and funding to support wounded, ill and injured combat veterans.
“I served 24 years in the Marine Corps and my career kind of ended because of injury,” Dean, a retired master sergeant said in a phone call on Friday morning. During his time with the Marine Corps, Dean completed four tours in Iraq and served on deployments in Somalia, Haiti, Cuba, Liberia and “numerous other locations,” according to Semper Fi & America’s Fund.
Team Zenoni left from the Roosville Border Station at the United States-Canada border on June 11 and will finish their 62-day trek at the U.S.-Mexico border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico on Aug. 11.
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Dean says he is riding to raise funding for Semper Fi & America’s Fund, specifically for a sports program they offer to help veterans as they transition from military to civilian life, because the organization has been instrumental to him in his own transition.
While he was recovering from injuries as part of the Marine Corps’ Wounded Warrior Battalion West at Twentynine Palms Base in California, Semper Fi & America’s Fund helped introduce him to cycling as a form of healing and therapy.
“Semper Fi & America’s Fund was there for me,” Dean said Friday. “The biggest thing that helped me with them was the sports program. Their sports program can adapt almost anything for anybody.”
Finding cycling has helped him find a higher quality of life and deal with less depression. Dean said that one of the most difficult aspects of recovery is finding the motivation to stay active and that cycling proved to be a kind of positive stress that has become an important part of his life.
“If i am lazy, my injuries get worse,” Dean said, noting that one of the injuries he deals with is a cervical spine injury. He’s undergone surgeries and said that when dealing with injuries, it can be easy to get out of shape. Dean has also dealt with other issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and says that struggling to stay motivated is a problem he has heard from other veterans he interacts with.
“I would say it is pretty common,” he said. “The root cause could differ some.”
For him, finding an activity like cycling has helped: “You need some sort of catalyst to get you out there on the right track.”
Dean officially retired in 2011 and says that “at this point I’m doing pretty well.” He and Lorri have done other things to try to raise awareness and funding for combat veterans.
“We used to road cycle,” Lorri said Friday. The couple now call Sandy, Utah near Salt Lake City home. They used to belong to a veterans race team in Utah and worked to help other veterans find lifestyles that improve their physical, mental and emotional health.
Dean said that while road cycling was good for him, that comes with some dangers in riding along busy roadways and he was looking to move in a different direction. The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route not only fit into the couple’s switch toward more mountain biking, but Dean said the distance of the route fits what he hopes to do to support fellow veterans.
He said that other people completing bike rides for fundraising efforts might ask people to donate as they complete 5K and 10K rides. The 2,495-mile ride Team Zenoni is on includes plenty of 5Ks and 10ks.
Lorri says that she’s noticed that when Dean is active, he experiences less pain and that helps improve the couple’s relationship. She says she’s committed to doing anything she can to support her husband and that riding with him from Canada to Mexico to raise funding for Semper Fi & America’s Fund is a part of that.
Lorri said that she and Dean have done their homework about Semper Fi & America’s Fund and are confident that the nonprofit actually uses the funding in the way they say they will, saying that they spend on average less than 7% of funds raised on administration costs.
“The money goes to the veterans and we have seen it first hand,” Lorri said, adding that while Semper Fi & America’s Fund initially was specifically focused on helping Marine Corps veterans, they now offer support to veterans of all branches of the military.
People can donate specifically to Team Zenoni for their Great Divide Mountain Bike Route ride online. The couple has also been sharing where they are along their journey via Explore.
Dean said one of the things he likes about the fund is that they are all inclusive. When a service member is injured and gets assigned to Semper Fi & America’s Fund, they are also assigned an individual counselor who helps connect them with a variety of services the organization provides. That includes:
- Service Member and Family Support Program
- Transition Program
- Integrative Wellness
The couple invites anyone, particularly veterans, to come join them for a portion of their journey, with the caveat that people should be sure they can take care of their own transportation needs.
The couple have been camping along their journey, staying in hotels from time to time. That’s what they are doing in Rawlins. Their journey will continue south and the couple will be in Wyoming for about two more days before they go into Colorado, stopping in Steamboat on Monday for a recovery day.
“Colorado has a high population of Semper Fi & America’s Fund members,” Dean said, adding that any veterans with some vehicle support could join them for a portion of the ride and see if mountain biking might be an activity that they would want to do.
While people can support wounded, ill and injured veterans through donations, there are some other things people can think about doing.
“Kind words go a long way with me,” Dean said. He added that another thing people can do is try to connect veterans with resources they might not be aware of.
Lorri said that another thing that people might think about is trying to foster connections with veterans in their own communities.
“If there is a veteran in your neighborhood, ask them if they want to go do something with you,” she said. While veterans are different, Lorri said that many may tend to self-isolate. People could consider asking veterans in their community to go fly fishing, to go have lunch or to go take a walk around the park.
Dean said that another thing the community can do is try to connect veterans with someone who has something in common with them.
“Just figuring out how to connect them with someone who has something in common with the guy or gal…that would probably be the best,” he said.
Dean said the best part of the ride is looking forward to each day and knowing that he’ll be active each day: “It takes away a lot of the other stress.”
The couple carries their tent and sleeping bag on their bikes. They also carry about seven days worth of food with them at a time. On the menu:
- ramen
- tuna
- protein shakes.
- dried dates
- dried mangos
- trail mix
- candy bars that don’t melt
Lorri says she likes to mix peanut butter packets into her ramen: “It makes me feel like I am eating gourmet.”
The couple has a small cook set that they simply use to boil water to minimize cleaning and equipment needs. The couple have someone in Utah who is mailing them boxes of food at scheduled points along their journey.
The two carry about 2-3 days worth of water at a time. If there are water bodies in the area, they may carry less to keep the weight they are hauling down, filtering water from reservoirs or streams.
Dean said that Friday’s ride, while hot, was less strenuous than on Thursday since it was more downhill. The two rode the 55 miles into Rawlins in about five hours.
The couple have seen pronghorn, wild horses, fox, coyotes and a moose along the way.
“I think we’re the only people that haven’t seen a bear, which we are good with,” Lorri said, noting that there have been bear attacks this summer in areas they have passed through.
In Wyoming, the couple both found the Teton Range beautiful: “The Tetons are breath-taking,” Lorri said.
Other natural beauty which stood out include Towgetee Pass and Union Pass.
The couple are getting up early each morning in order to complete their planned distance for the day by about noon in order to avoid the hot afternoon hours. In Rawlins, they arrived a little before 11 am and waited for Anong’s to open to try their Thai cuisine.
Dean said that the journey has been fun and reiterated that “bringing awareness to the Semper Fi & America’s Fund is really what we are trying to do.”
The couple has also been sharing photos and other updates via Facebook.
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