What's up Nina? Thoughts from a Cystic Fibrosis Survivor & Lung Transplant Recipient

Backpacking

Wow, so was I ever busy. Doing this, that and a bike trek as well. That's why I haven't even had time to post anything about my backpacking adventure! I was able, and fortunate enough to go backpacking in the North Cascades with some awesome people. We started near Mazama, WA (near Winthrop) and only a couple weeks ago (see I'm not that late). Hiking with a pack at almost 7,000 feet and walking to an outlook of 7,488 feet the next day, which is completely incredible since I COULD BREATHE.  Yup I can breathe completely fine at 7,000 feet and some change, CRAZY! I actually would not have guessed that since I couldn't even breathe at sea level before my transplant.

The trail we took was part of the Pacific Crest Trail that from where we were starting, you could actually hike all the way to Canada. (And as much as I wanted to hike to Canada, it was 35 miles away…haha) So I packed up as little stuff as I could, including my medications, some snacks, tent, sleeping bag, warm clothes, sunscreen, bug spray, etc. and we were off! A bit late of a start but we made it to the trailhead eventually. Luckily the weather was perfect, we were hiking at almost ideal times (unintentionally) where is wasn't too hot and we pitched the tents before it was completely freezing. It does get cold pretty fast up there, or so it seems since it was just 80 or 90 when you left the car.

The extra cool part, besides the part where I slept on a baby tree and a boulder at an incline, was that our tents were set up at the top of a mountain where we could see both sides, now that was crazy. But I have just recently started realizing I might have a developing fear of heights, as we traversed across the sides of mountains on a trail that looked like it changed daily from falling rocks, I wasn't sure when I might loose my footing and I became incrisingly wobbly near edges and narrow paths.

Overall the trip was pretty awesome and more than that, definitely not something I thought I would get to experience this summer thats for sure, or actually even be able to do ever. So heres a link to the hiking gallery on my SmugMug, only photos of this trip! Something I could probably do more often!

The Lungiversary Rock!!