Team Far Sight, now a two-man outfit 560 miles through a
historic expedition along the 2,800-mile Pacific Crest Trail,
reports treacherous terrain, an onslaught of obstacles and an
incredible experience.
A Bradford native taking on the challenge of the trail, Chad
Zandy, checked in Wednesday and gave an update of the group’s
progress on the journey, which he described as “amazing is an
understatement.”
At approximately one-sixth of the way through the trek, Zandy
said about 2 p.m. Pacific Coast Time the team had just reached the
town of Mojave, Calif., in the central flats of the Mojave
Desert.
It is now only Zandy, who is known as “Fire Marshall” for the
expedition, and Trevor Thomas, 40, who goes by trail name of
“Zero-Zero,” that continue on since the third and only female
member, Amber Collins, 28, “Girl Friday,” had to quit due to stress
injuries and obligations back at her home in Florence, S.C.,
according to Zandy.
Zandy relayed that from their current location, the Sierra
Nevada mountain range is visible and that they anticipate arriving
there in little over a week.
In two weeks, he said he and Thomas, who lost his sight from a
rare eye disease five years ago, “will be summitting Mount Whitney
— the highest mountain in the lower 48 states at 14,500 feet. It
will make Trevor the first handicapped person to summit the
mountain.”
“We’ve gone from one extreme to the other out here,” Zandy said.
“One day we wake up and it’s snowing at 9,000 feet and then eight
hours later we’re down in the flats of the desert in 100 degree
heat. At one point, it snowed and rained on us in the desert.”
He noted that in addition to the elements, animal encounters can
present problems as well as a cause for excitement.
“Trevor and I were having lunch one day and we were certain we
were being stalked by a mountain lion,” Zandy said. “Memorial Day
will be a day we’ll remember because of a 17-mile waterless
stretch, and Trevor almost stepped on a three-and-a-half foot long
rattlesnake. Luckily, he heard it and was able to avoid it, and I
got a great video of it that will be posted online later.”
The team was looking forward to a 23-mile waterless stretch
Wednesday night, Zandy said, though they will take 6 liters with
them on what will be a hot uphill climb.
Collins left the expedition shortly after the team endured an
intensely arduous trek along Fuller Ridge in the San Jancinto
mountain range east of Los Angeles that resulted in minor injuries
to all group members and extreme mobility challenges.
“We got to a spot where it was just too dangerous to keep going
forward or turn back at 9,400 feet,” Zandy reported. “It was really
scary, some sections we could only go 100 feet an hour because it
was very sketchy terrain.
“We were forced to cross several avalanche shoots which are very
steep and prone to frequent avalanches — that’s where most of the
injuries occurred,” he continued. “We had a lot of problems with
“post-holing” where you just fall straight through the snow which
is around 8 feet deep.”
At one point, after many falls and slips on the shoots, he said
Collins grabbed onto a nearby branch and was cliff-hanging and when
he ran to help her he “post-holed.”
“We tried three different ways to get around Fuller Ridge and
there was just too much ice and snow, and we weren’t equipped with
ice axes because we anticipated much would have been melted off by
the time we got there,” Zandy said.
Team Far Sight was forced to turn around and seek the nearest
“bail-out trail” which he described was “just as dangerous as
Fuller Ridge and covered in ice.”
“So, we bushwhacked and followed the San Jancinto River,” Zandy
explained. “We literally had to climb down the side of a waterfall
and it was the steepest thing I’ve ever attempted to get down.”
After reaching the bottom and gathering new supplies, the team
found themselves at the behest of a forest fire.
“We actually went from ice to fire, and now we’ve been pretty
much in desert ever since.”
Zandy, who is nursing a pinched nerve in his left shoulder and
traveling on with his arm in a sling, is determined to keep going —
using Thomas as an inspiration and intent on finishing the journey
which will raise money for research and awareness of blindness.
“I’m not going to quit, ya know? My friend Trevor is blind and
probably the most resilient person I’ve ever met in my life,” Zandy
said. “We’ve been through a lot of pain and every day presents new
challenges, but we’re averaging about 20 miles a day.
“We want everyone in Bradford to know how much we appreciate
their support,” he added.
The rest of the trail will take the men north through
California, Oregon, Washington and into Canada.
To learn more about the journey and to track their progress,
visit www.teamfarsight.org or find them
on Facebook.
