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A more fitting name for Champ Walker would be “Champ Biker.”
The 60-year-old Washington resident and retired East Peoria Community High School history teacher recently finished a 3,415-mile trek on two wheels from the West Coast to the East Coast.
While it was no easy journey, he said it was worth the work.
“There were obstacles, but you deal with them,” he said. “If you don’t, you won’t be successful. It would have been easy a lot of times to hang it up and say, ‘OK, that’s it.’
“It’s kind of a microcosm of life. You have ups and downs, and you deal with them. In the end, it’s all good.”
Walker dipped the rear tire of his bicycle into the Pacific Ocean on Huntington Beach in California May 10 with 26 other bikers from across the country. It marked the official start of the trip, organized by Colorado-based CrossRoads Cycling Adventures.
Forty-seven days later, on June 26, he dipped his front tire into the Atlantic Ocean at Revere Beach in Boston with the 17 other riders who completed the journey.
While he participated in the trek to raise funds for the Central Illinois Alzheimer’s Association, he got plenty out of the trip for himself, too, he said.
“I’ve always had an interest in biking. I said when I retired I was going to bike across the country,” Walker said. “And being a history teacher for 32 years, I was like a kid in a candy shop when we visited all the historical landmarks along the way.”
Walker said he became a serious biker after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery in 1996. His training for the cross-country trek meant biking 30 to 35 miles six days a week beginning in January and bumping that up to 80 to 100 miles as the trip drew closer.
During the coast-to-coast ride, the bikers rode between 60 and 115 miles a day, depending on the terrain.
“I don’t mean to be flippant, but it got to the point where riding 60 miles was like a day off,” Walker said with a laugh. “One day we went 100 miles in 105-degree weather through the dessert and the next day rode 115 miles when it was 100 degrees.”
Other factors caused some challenges, too.
“The constant wind was always a problem,” Walker said. “And we rode several days in the rain. But, of course, the biggest problem was traffic. Some of the roads had no shoulders, and we had to share the road, which some cars did not want to do.
A more fitting name for Champ Walker would be “Champ Biker.”
The 60-year-old Washington resident and retired East Peoria Community High School history teacher recently finished a 3,415-mile trek on two wheels from the West Coast to the East Coast.
While it was no easy journey, he said it was worth the work.
“There were obstacles, but you deal with them,” he said. “If you don’t, you won’t be successful. It would have been easy a lot of times to hang it up and say, ‘OK, that’s it.’
“It’s kind of a microcosm of life. You have ups and downs, and you deal with them. In the end, it’s all good.”
Walker dipped the rear tire of his bicycle into the Pacific Ocean on Huntington Beach in California May 10 with 26 other bikers from across the country. It marked the official start of the trip, organized by Colorado-based CrossRoads Cycling Adventures.
Forty-seven days later, on June 26, he dipped his front tire into the Atlantic Ocean at Revere Beach in Boston with the 17 other riders who completed the journey.
While he participated in the trek to raise funds for the Central Illinois Alzheimer’s Association, he got plenty out of the trip for himself, too, he said.
“I’ve always had an interest in biking. I said when I retired I was going to bike across the country,” Walker said. “And being a history teacher for 32 years, I was like a kid in a candy shop when we visited all the historical landmarks along the way.”
Walker said he became a serious biker after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery in 1996. His training for the cross-country trek meant biking 30 to 35 miles six days a week beginning in January and bumping that up to 80 to 100 miles as the trip drew closer.
During the coast-to-coast ride, the bikers rode between 60 and 115 miles a day, depending on the terrain.
“I don’t mean to be flippant, but it got to the point where riding 60 miles was like a day off,” Walker said with a laugh. “One day we went 100 miles in 105-degree weather through the dessert and the next day rode 115 miles when it was 100 degrees.”
Other factors caused some challenges, too.
“The constant wind was always a problem,” Walker said. “And we rode several days in the rain. But, of course, the biggest problem was traffic. Some of the roads had no shoulders, and we had to share the road, which some cars did not want to do.
“But if it were easy, everybody would do it,” he added.
Walker said he had some reservations about the ride before leaving, but his wife Veronica and sons Christopher and Eric would not let him give up.
Though she said she missed him while he was gone, Walker’s wife got to talk to him on the phone every day.
“It’s been lonely here without him,” she said a few days before he completed his trip. “I will be glad to have him back, and so will the cat.”
Veronica, and anybody else who wanted to follow his journey, could also keep up with Walker on his blog, www.walkerride.blogspot.com. He wrote daily about his trip and uploaded photos he took from different stops along the way.
His roughly 40 followers commented on his posts and even asked Walker questions about his trip that he would often answer the next time he wrote.
“Many people have inquired about what I ate, how many calories I consumed and if I lost weight,” he wrote on his last post June 27. “I tried to consume between 4,000 and 5,000 calories per day.
Even at that rate, I still managed to lose 10 pounds with the expectation I would lose none ... I now need to cut back on the calories, or I will look like Jabba the Hut.”
As for the future, Walker said he does not have any plans for two-wheeled journeys scheduled.
“I’d like to bike along the Great Wall of China, but I don’t think they let people do that,” he said. “I don’t have any long-distance biking plans now, but it’s early.”
He is, however, holding out for an invitation to spend the night in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House.
“I could be President Obama’s poster boy for positiveness,” he said. “I know the economy is bad and times are tough, but my journey across the country made me realize we’ve got a pretty good thing going here.”
But Walker admitted his achievement has not quite sunk in yet.
“The magnitude of that accomplishment eludes my understanding at this point. The people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve encountered will last a lifetime,” he wrote on his blog. “ ... My expectations of what the journey would entail were vastly exceeded. Was there doubt I could accomplish this goal? Of course. Was there ever a time I would have liked to stop and go home? Of course. Why then continue? It was all about setting a goal, knowing there would be obstacles along the way, doing something I enjoy and seeing if I could complete it.”
Donations to Walker’s fundraiser may be sent to the Central Illinois Alzheimer’s Association, 606 W. Glen Ave., Peoria, IL 61614. Be sure to indicate that it is for Walker’s cross-country bike ride.
