CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Some may find Trevor Thomas courageous, some may find him crazy.
The Charlotte man has hiked thousands of miles, through all kinds of weather. He’s suffered broken bones, nearly drowned in rivers and fought hypothermia, yet he presses on.
“Every day, rain or shine, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
He hikes 10 to 25 miles daily.
“I will listen to my surroundings,” Thomas said.
He is preparing for the most challenging distance hike of his life.
“I can actually feel the terrain through the soles of my feet,” he said.
He’ll hike more than 3,000 miles from Mexico to Canada.
“How do people react when they find out you are blind?” we asked.
“Usually utter disbelief,” Thomas replied.
His nickname on the trail is Zero/Zero, he lost his vision five years ago when his immune system attacked his eyes.
“It just got worse and worse,” he said.
For this extreme sportsman, his world got smaller and smaller, until he heard a speech by another distance hiker, who just happened to be blind.
“I instantly knew that life is not over,” he said.
He let go of what he couldn’t do and made the most of what he could. In 2008 he hiked the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.
“I did the Appalachian Trail for me to reclaim what I needed out of life, to let myself know that I could do anything I wanted to,” he explained.
But that wasn’t enough, so in 2010 he tackled the 2,800 mile Pacific Crest Trail through California, Oregon and Washington, joined by a team and a video camera.
“In all the day went well, it really challenged my skills,” he said on the tape.
He’s busy now whittling down sixty hours of videotape for a one-hour documentary.
“We hiked a month in the rain and snow, it’s not a nice afternoon, sunny, nature walk,” he said.
This trail runs through the Goat Rocks in Washington.
“It’s about as wide as a coffee table and about two and a half feet wide, and then you have winds blowing at 60 miles per hour for added fun,” Thomas said.
Many days were grueling, slow moving and dangerous. But Thomas says it was definitely worth it, that’s why he is so dedicated to getting ready for the next challenge.
“We don’t do it for the picture at the top of the summit, you do it for the achievement, I mean, anybody can get a picture at the top of the summit, you go to the ranger station at the bottom of the hill,” he said. “I can’t see the pictures we get at the summit but I can feel it, I can hear it. It’s an accomplishment and that’s why I do it.”
