'The mind is very, very strong, and I really believe it'
»Play Video
But he has just one major goal.
"They said, 'You will never walk again,"' he said. "I want to get up, and I want to walk."
Plummer was told he'd never walk again after falling off a rooftop 18 years ago. Doctors said he would be a quadriplegic for life.
"You're angered and then you're scared, because you think, 'What am I going to do now? Who's going to take care of me? How am I going to take care of myself?"' Plummer said.
The Spanaway resident first learned to take care of himself, and then decided he would learn to walk again, no matter what the doctors say.
He's taking small steps, which come in the form of what he calls the Two-Fun, a contraption that's, in part, a recumbent bike, and also a head-turner.
"(People) go, 'Wow, look at that thing! What do you call that thing? Whatchamacallit?'" he said.
Three days a week, Plummer takes his contraption to the trails near Seattle. He pedals in the front when he can, and a friend, family member, or physical therapist pushes or pedals in the back when he can't.
Plummer still has partial movement of his limbs since his spinal cord wasn't severed completely. He is what doctors consider an incomplete quadriplegic.
He says the weekly bike rides have helped increase muscle tone, which, in turn, he hopes will help him walk again one day soon.
"It doesn't really matter what your disability is," he said. "I get on the bike. I'm away from my wheelchair. You're breathing the fresh air. You can focus on mind-to-body connection. You always feel good when you get done exercising."
Heidi Rupp is a physical therapy student at University of Puget Sound. Sometimes, she's also Plummer's riding partner.
"I've seen definitely an increase in endurance. It's so encouraging to see somebody that has a huge dream and to be living that out, and to be inspiring other people by that," she said.
Plummer has also outfitted the bike so that a companion can not only ride a bike, but also rollerblade behind him. He hopes to inspire people to do the same: dream big, push hard and try even harder.
"The mind is very, very strong, and I really believe it," he said, "and it's helped me a great deal."
