Utahn has kept pace for 22 years

Early this morning, just about the time this newspaper hit your front porch, Garry Bond was completing his morning walk, as reliable as the sunrise he greets every morning.

He's a familiar sight on the south end of Salt Lake Valley, a small man with iron-colored hair who waves at every passing car.

"Aren't you the guy who walks every day?" he is asked by strangers.

For the record — and it probably is — this morning's walk brought his streak to 8,244. That's how many consecutive days he has gone for a walk. Or 22 years.

On Feb. 1, 1989, he went for a walk, and he hasn't missed a day since then. He was 52 at the time; now he's 74.

To keep The Streak alive, he's endured every challenge. 20-below temperatures. Driving rain. Falls. 98 degree, 98-percent humidity in Oklahoma. Chicago blizzards. Darkness. Flu. Wild beasts.

He's walked in 46 states, including Alaska. He's walked in at least 13 foreign countries, including China and most of Europe.

Covering three to four miles a day, he figures he's walked about 26,000 miles in all — or once around the world and then some. His weight has dropped to 152 pounds.

He often walks with his wife, Kathryn, these days, but over the years this has been mostly a solo venture for him, alone with his thoughts and observations of the world around him. He's managed to find the slow lane in a nanosecond-driven world. He has no use for iPods or music in his ears.

"Too distracting," he says. "Then I'm not taking in what's out there."

He's seen deer standing on their hind legs eating apples. He's seen mountain lions, porcupines, skunks, fox, coyotes.

"I know exactly what point on the mountains the sun goes down here in the valley on the first day of summer," he says. "And I know where it sets in the winter."

Nothing is better than a stroll after a spring rain. Unless maybe it's an autumn walk in Vermont. Or a jaunt in the Irish countryside. Or a walk through Tokyo's cherry blossoms.

"When I've been on vacation, I can't wait to get out walking to see what's happened in the neighborhood while I've been gone," he says.