Those beavers were definitely Marmots. I love Marmots, and Pikas! Two adorable animals. This looks a great trip, did you find yourself acclimating to the elevation as you spent more time out there? The impression I got from your third day was that it was a "no". Hmm, there are a lot of peaks in the Northwest that split that elevation difference...
As someone who spent a lot of time with friends acclimating (or not) to the altitude, the rule of thumb we professed was seven days. We had the only olympic-sized swimming pool at 7000 feet or higher so we had athletes show up from around the world. None of them stayed for less than two weeks. When I came down to sea level for the first time, it took ten days to acclimate the other way. I had been running 8 miles a day at 7200 feet so my first week in Bellingham involved like 12-mile runs. It was nuts.
Yep, I never felt like I acclimated to the altitude. I never felt it exactly, it wasn't a sense of not getting enough air or anything, it was just that a four hour hike had me feeling exhausted. I reminded myself I hiked for thirteen hours last December in tougher conditions (but half the pack weight) from 1800' to 4800'. I don't think it was just being a bit wimpy, it was a physiological response. If you have any suggestions for 8-9000' peaks, I'm all ears! I do want to explore the PNW, but it was off the list here in May because I didn't want to deal with changing winter/spring conditions.
Well, I can probably send you thirty options in that elevation range...
I will gladly take any suggestions, but don't put too much effort into it as I have a lot of ideas for stuff this year, and there's no way I can do it all. The South Sister in Oregon is something that seems maybe doable. It's a little higher than I'm thinking, but it's in the ballpark. I want to start chipping away at the rest of the Northeast 111. That alone would keep me busy for four or five years.
I once ran a 10k two days after donating a pint of blood. The experience was very similar to attempting to run at 7200 feet having been acclimated to sea level.
I used to bike to work a few times a week, an easy five mile ride to my old office. One year after giving blood (not the same day but definitely the same week), the ride was awful. It was almost painful. I'm at about 900-1000' above sea level here, and that memory is surprisingly similar to how I felt hiking at 10,000' after living my whole life at 1000'.The experience was very similar to attempting to run at 7200 feet having been acclimated to sea level.
It stands to reason. Give a pint of blood, knock out 12% of your oxygen transport capability. Go from 1000 feet to 4000 feet, you go from 20.1% oxygen to 17.9%. a thousand feet to ten thousand feet is taking you from 20% oxygen to 14%... that's a 30% hit. Probably not quite like giving up three pints of blood, but also not like shotgunning a Red Bull either. Had you driven there you would have noticed your car sucks, too. We knew from dyno tests that a normally-aspirated motor makes about 75-80% of the power it would at sea level. I built a full-roller V8 and drove it to school. It broke in about Utah and went from "satisfying" to "fun." Coming down out of Snoqualmie pass it went from "fun" to "oh holy shit I've built a monster." I probably gained 200 HP in 1500 miles.
Yup, those numbers look about right. Can't wait to run a 50k at 6,000ft...
Hah, I'm going to be there in mid July. Enchantments in a few weeks!!!
That's a trip report I can't wait to see! I occasionally look at guided hikes up Baker or Adams.