Volunteers sought to welcome Warrior Expeditions veterans

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Here we go again. It’s that happy time of year when Sequim will welcome a group of veterans who are biking across the country. The program is called Warrior Expeditions. If you participated and helped last year you fully understand what that is and you realize how rewarding it was to support these awesome Warrior veterans.

The Sequim Gazette supported the program last year with an article written by Kathy Cruz describing the program and asking the Sequim community for support. If you didn’t participate last year, you’ll find a shortened description of the program below.

Recognizing the therapeutic value of long-distance outdoor expeditions, Warrior Expeditions created the Warrior Hike, Warrior Bike and Warrior Paddle programs to help veterans transition from their wartime experiences. Warrior Expeditions provides veterans with everything required to complete a long-distance outdoor expedition at no cost to the veteran.

This includes outfitting veterans with some of the most highly rated equipment, clothing and supplies available from the outdoor retail industry. In addition, Warrior Expeditions provides gear and skills training needed to successfully complete the expedition and shadows veterans during the first leg of their journey to answer questions and troubleshoot issues. And in probably the most valuable support, Warrior Expeditions coordinates lodging and food from community supporters located along the trail, as well as occasional supplemental local transportation or other logistical support.

The Peninsula Trails Coalition (PTC), supported by the Military Officer’s Association of America (MOAA) Olympic Peninsula (OLYPEN) Chapter, has been involved with supporting the Warrior Bike program from the very beginning. The Warrior Bike cyclists traverse the 3,800-mile Great American Rail-Trail (GART) that crosses 12 states from D.C. to Washington state and takes place during the months of May through August. The route consists of 130-plus host trails and is over 50% complete. All connecting routes are provided by Warrior Expeditions.

Being at the western end of the GART has been a huge boon to the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) and the PTC. One of many reflections of that status is that PTC has the unique opportunity to be the facilitating organization each summer to support a handful of military veterans who have concluded their service and have decided to bicycle across the entire country along the GART.

In partnership with the PTC, members of the MOAA OLYPEN Chapter have been able to help facilitate the completion and celebration of this journey. Now entering its sixth year, we have had volunteers that work together facilitating the final week of each cyclist’s journey, from the time they take the ferry from Seattle until they’re celebrating their completion in La Push. It’s our honor to thank these veterans for their service during the end of this journey.

So, as we did last year, we’re looking for volunteers who would be willing to host these veterans as they pass through Sequim with lodging, meals, and other support — typically a single overnight and a hosted dinner and/or breakfast.

We’re also looking for volunteers who could provide transportation from La Push, at the end of their journey, to either Forks or back to Port Angeles. This noteworthy program culminates with the arrival of this year’s six cyclists, in singles and doubles over the course of August and September, and we would welcome additional help with this project.

Also, as we did last year, we’re trying to energize the Sequim community to provide a welcoming party as they enter Sequim and as they finish their journey in La Push. We’d love this welcoming party to be even bigger and better than it was last year. It’s really an incredible accomplishment by these veterans that deserves to be celebrated and very rewarding to support them.

Comments received from the Warriors last year were that the Sequim community provided one of the best welcoming groups of any other city they had traveled to.

This year’s group consists of Winston Hall of Elkhorn, Nebraska, US Army aircraft mechanic; Justin Abramo of New Port Richey, Florida, US Army combat medic; Patrick Smith of Patrick SFB, Florida, US Army infantryman; Jayson Goetz of Satellite Beach, Florida, US Air Force rescue pilot; Mary Montigny of Portsmouth, Rode Island, US Navy Seabee technical security specialist; and Mitchell Villafania of Hammond, Louisiana, US Army scout pilot.

Stay tuned to the Sequim Gazette where occasional updates will be provided to the community concerning the locations of the riders as they traverse the United States.

This is a great way to thank veterans for their service. If this opportunity is of interest to you, please contact Daryl Knuth at 301-233-7147, the point of contact for the MOAA OLYPEN Chapter for this project.