The annual Vision Quest is back.

Between June 8 and June 22, Professor Scott Wayland’s annual Vision Quest will return. The two-week cycling adventure will span 500 miles through northeast California and southern Oregon. You will see sights such as the Cascade Mountains and Warner Mountains, and the Lava Beds National Monument.

The Vision Quest is a fundraiser designed to raise and donate money toward our nation’s wounded service men and women.

All participants are to donate to a veteran’s charity of their choice. For students, the donation shall be $50 minimum and for faculty and staff, the donation shall be $100 minimum.

Wayland said if you are not someone with a good fitness base, it is probably not an event for you. If you are not up for the journey, you may sponsor and pay for someone who is.

Wayland, an English professor at Bakersfield College since 1996, is a self-proclaimed adventure junky and has been rock climbing, mountaineering, hiking, and hunting at age 15. At the age of 18, Wayland climbed El Capitan.

“It’s just a part of my DNA,” Wayland said.

In 2007, Wayland cycled 4,661 miles, across 15 states and four time zones in 99 days. Later, he published a book, “The Winky-eyed Jesus and Other Undescribables,” describing his journey. The book started off as a blog that he would stop in libraries to update. During the journey, Wayland had an unusual experience with a couple in Ohio. The experience is what gave him the inspiration for the name of his book.

Wayland chose to raise money for wounded veterans after reading the novel “War,” by journalist Sebastian Junger.

“I need to do something more concrete then be sympathetic or cheering them on,” Wayland said. “We have to honor in some concrete way that commitment. I don’t care what your politics are, that soldier still had to go do that thing. So that’s what matters to me.”

To contact Professor Wayland about participating in Vision Quest, email him at [email protected].