‘ Truth’ elusive on journey of 5,000 miles over 4 years
Chuck Bohman walked the same 5-mile route for 1,000 days but still saw plenty of new sights.
They ranged from the sublime (thousands of flower petals floating down the Olentangy River) to the mysterious (dozens of empty Ancient Age whiskey bottles, always discarded in the same place).
I wrote about Bohman in 2014, when he was a bit more than 2,000 miles into his project to hike the equivalent of the Appalachian Trail (2,160 miles from Georgia to
Maine) and back — and then some — without having to sleep in a tent.
I rejoined him on Wednesday, the 999th day of his project. (He hit 1,000 the next day.)
From his home in Delaware, we walked north on Pollock Road, crossed the Olentangy River and walked south on Stratford Road. Bohman, a tall man wearing neon green, waved to each passing vehicle in a gesture that, on the narrow berm, was part greeting and part survival tactic.
Bohman, 63, started on his incremental journey after retiring in 2013 from his
optometry practice.
A world traveler, he interspersed many vacations with his
1,000 days of walking. But when he was home, he walked just about every day.
Sometimes, he cleared branches from the roadway or gingerly collected the occasional syringe to dispose of later. On Day 999, he spotted a discarded sex toy and hid it under a tree (“Don’t need kids finding that,” he said).
He pointed out the ditch where for years he would find the Ancient Age bottles. He wonders whatever
happened to the drinker.
On Easter morning this year, he was sitting at a river overlook when the flower petals — released as part of a ritual from the Nithyananda Vedic Temple on Pollock Road — passed by in a flotilla of color
Bohman, a man with a spiritual bent, said he began his walks as a meditative exercise.
“Maybe some great truth would reveal itself to me.... I’ve kind of come to accept that there is a truth, and that I am never going to know what it is. That’s my enlightenment.”
The physical benefits, such as weight loss, have been less mystical: “I’m probably in the
best shape of my life,” he said.
His next project, he said, might be a charitable endeavor aimed at helping people struggling with addiction. Some of his family members, he said, have been affected by that problem.
Although his 5,000mile goal is complete, he will probably keep walking — and explaining why to the curious.
Early on, motorists found him enough of a novelty to stop and ask whether he needed a ride, Bohman said.
“I said, ‘No, I’m just doing this for fun.’”