Lung Transplants Can’t Keep Hiker Off Trail

Dennis Cof dfey is lucky to be alive, let alone hiking solo hundreds of miles along the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, as he’s been doing this summer.

The 50-year-old from Tacoma, Wash. was diagnosed with emphysema in 1988 and was hospitalized for respiratory failure in 1994. He had to be hooked up to a ventilator to breathe, his weight plunged to 92 pounds, and when he was eventually released, he needed supplemental oxygen to survive.

The following year, he received his first lung transplant. He received a second lung in 1997.

“I smoked up my first set of lungs,” Coffey said, as he waited at the Green Springs Inn east of Ashland for a resupply package to arrive. “Looking back, I wonder why I did that. I tell people I had to have my transplant because I smoked.”

Although Coffey began smoking when he was 19, he was a long-distance hiker for years. He even hiked 750 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches from Canada to Mexico, soon after his emphysema diagnosis. He continued to smoke, and his health continued to deteriorate.

With his new set of lungs, Coffey has been able to return to hiking, although his pace has slowed and he has had to become an expert in lightweight backpacking.

He made his own pack, a 17-ounce tent and a 16-ounce down sleeping bag, dehydrates his own hamburger to carry on the trail, and drinks olive oil at dinner time to supplement his caloric intake.

“My total pack weight, excluding food, fuel and water, is 6 1/2 pounds. I’m the envy of all the hikers out there,” he said.

The others’ packs weigh that much before they start packing, he said.

Prior to his lung problems, Coffey could cover 20 miles per day but now averages about 13.

At high altitudes, he must slow considerably to less than 5 miles each day. That means he takes his long-distance hikes without the companionship of another long-distance hiker, who would quickly outpace him.

“Everybody goes faster than me,” he said. “At my pace, I go 45 minutes and then have a 15-minute break. I spend a lot of time being appreciative of being alive.”

Even at his slower pace, Coffey said it is satisfying to look at a map and see how far he has come.

He began his journey earlier this summer near Bishops Pass, Calif., took a jaunt to the south to climb Mt. Whitney, and then continued north, closing in on the border between California and Oregon.

Because part of the trail was closed due to the Quartz Fire in the Applegate Valley, Coffey hitchhiked his way to Ashland, where a driver dropped him off at the doorstep of the Ashland Community Hospital.

He must undergo blood tests every month to make sure immune-system suppressants he takes because of his transplants don’t cause his kidneys to shut down.

Coffey then hitchhiked to the Green Springs Inn, adjacent to the Pacific Crest Trail.

After picking up supplies, the devoted hiker continued toward his destination about 500 miles away--the Oregon and Washington border.