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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man was approaching the midway point of a coast-to-coast bicycle ride this past week.
Paul Spilker, 79, of Cottonwood Heights, began his journey on March 14 at the Santa Monica Pier in California and hopes to reach the coast of Virginia by the end of the month.
"My resolve is firmer and it feels more secure in my head and I can do it better now than the first week I was out," Spilker told KSL-TV during a Zoom interview Monday evening from Henryetta, Oklahoma.
Spilker said he'd been averaging about 80 miles per day as he passed along Route 66 from California to Arizona to New Mexico.
He said the next legs of his journey would take him into Arkansas and Tennessee.
For Spilker, doing a cross-country cycling trip seemed like a very distant goal. In October 2020, he was involved in a bicycle accident on his way back home from Provo Canyon while on the Murdock Canal Trail in Utah County between Lehi and American Fork.
"Passing a group, I didn't think I was going very fast and thought I was being careful enough, but obviously I wasn't," Spilker said. "The young rider, I was told, was about 7 years old and did a left, 90-degree turn right in front of me and I couldn't even get to my brakes before my bike ran into his bike and stopped dead, but I kept flying. I landed on my right hip and broke it and my two pubic bones and gave myself a hernia."
Spilker refused to let the accident slow him down forever, and he slowly and carefully made his return to cycling last year.
"I got 2,021 miles for the year 2021 last year, so this year, I'll get my 2,022 before my ride's over and the rest will all be additional," he said.
He said he was doing the cross-country ride for himself and to raise money for Huntsman Cancer Institute — an organization he has supported through numerous charitable rides and the "Huntsman Heroes" program, raising $12,500 in a decade's time.
He has been encouraging people to donate via a specially designated website or via a QR code.
Family members gathered in Morgan County to interact with Spilker and reflect on his journey to date.
"Ever since he started biking, it's always been a dream for him, and he's now accomplishing that," said 12-year-old grandson Kyler Duke.
Kyler and his 16-year-old brother, Brock Duke, were amazed by their grandfather's journey.
Spilker said he hoped his ride might serve as a lesson for them as well.
"If you put your mind to it, you can make it happen," Spilker said.
