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Pikas, Mountain Goats, and the Milky Way · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings,
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Williams and the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist, Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Every week I share my observations and adventures with the human
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound, and the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode highlights my wife's and I's recent backpack trip into the Cascades.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about my work,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Including my new book,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: In the Range of Fire and Ice,
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: A Human and Natural History of Washington's Cascades,
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: You'll also find a link to my Substack newsletter and my previous five years
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: of newsletters, as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure,
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: and welcome to Podcast 97 of the Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: of pikas, a mountain goat, and the Milky Way.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: October 22, 2026.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Marjorie and I had a lovely trip up into the Cascades this past weekend,
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: the highlights of which were pikas, a mountain goat, and the Milky Way.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: We were backpacking just past the Kendall Catwalk,
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: the famous ledge of rock blasted into a sheer rock face in 1975 and spent
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: the night near Ridge Lake.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we have heard or seen as many pikas on any recent hike as we did on this one.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: They seemed to be everywhere they were supposed to be,
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: that is, amid the fields of scree, which would be a great name for a rock band.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: We saw many sprinting across their home landscape quickly and agilely,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: as if they were on a flat-level surface,
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: instead of one laced with pitfalls and boulders
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: that dwarfed their fist-sized bodily.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Below, I note the phenomenal all-terrain abilities of mountain goats,
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: but pikas rival their larger alpine dwellers in their adroit movements across
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: a challenging, uneven landscape.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: We also had the joy of being serenaded by pika as we fell asleep,
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: one of the most defining sounds of the higher mountain communities.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Most were their typical single call notes,
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: but occasionally one of them had what pycologists describe as a long call.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: It consisted of call notes,
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: either singular or up to three, strung together for 10 or 15 seconds.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Males typically produced this sound while pursuing a mate,
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: though both sexes produced these long calls in autumn, often in territorial issues.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: No matter why my little pals were making such noises, they were a true pleasure to hear.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: As we settled into our camp,
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was looking at a steep cliff glowing in the sunset light when I noticed
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: a brilliant white blob amidst the fall foliage.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I suspected it was a mountain goat and confirmed it with my camera.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Gotologists refer to topography such as this as escape terrain,
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: which I like to think of as steep and fractured craggy cliffs
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: where I would be unhappy, being the wimp that I am.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on the study you read,
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: escape terrain slopes range from greater than 25 degrees to up to 80 degrees.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: As the name implies,
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: it's the area where mountain goats go to get away from predators,
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: and new research shows that having access to it may be essential in areas
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: where predation risk is high.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Short, stocky,
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  SPEAKER_00: and heavily muscled,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: mountain goats excel at moving through their rocky, cliff-studded landscape.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: They have a relatively light skull,
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: at least compared to bighorn sheep, and narrow bodies, both of which aid in balance.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: When mountain goats climb,
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: not only do their legs aid in propelling them up,
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: but they also use their massive neck muscles and a sort of locked humerus
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: to help pull themselves up a cliff.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: But their greatest asset is the one with the most contact with the ground.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Each of their four hooves has two pointed toes made of hard keratin wrapped at
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: the base in a pliant course pad that extends beyond the keratin.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: This combination of pointed,
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: hard, and textured acts like Velcro, providing traction on a variety of surfaces.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: In addition,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: mountain goats can spread their toes and grip uneven terrain, sort of like a wrench.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bit of a stretch,
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: but mountain goats could be called a well-muscled mountain octopus,
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: equipped with eight clinging devices,
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: a superb sense of balance, and a low center of gravity.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: In his excellent book on mountain goats,
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Douglas Chadwick called them possibly the best and most complete mountaineer
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  SPEAKER_00: that ever existed on any continent.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Milky Way One of the advantages of an autumnal camping trip is an early sunset.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not only did the 620 disappearance of the sun mean darkness at a sane hour,
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: as well as many hours of dark,
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: It also meant getting up several times in the night,
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: thus giving us several opportunities to revel in the Milky Way.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Although not as bright and brilliant as we had seen it earlier in the summer
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: in New Mexico,
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: when the Milky Way was truly milky,
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: this weekend's hazy band of galaxies still thrilled us.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: When I see the Milky Way,
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I can't help but feeling an atavistic and jealous reminder
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: of our ancestors' night skies,
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  SPEAKER_00: along with wonder and awe inspired by the countless particles of space,
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: many with potential for life, such as on our planet.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: More than these deep senses, though,
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: seeing the Milky Way lets me know that I've reached a place of quiet darkness
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: where I can experience the profound beauty of the cosmos.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Doing so always makes Marjorie and I joyous and content.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Slight change.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Word of the Week.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Kendall Catwalk.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: For several decades,
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: the Pacific Crest Trail lacked its namesake Crest for the 50 miles
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: between Snoqualmie Pass and Deception Pass.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then, in 1975,
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: legendary trail builder Elmo Warren and his team completed what is now known as
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: the Kendall Catwalk, which Warren called the hardest piece of trail ever built.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: The route follows the proposed Cascade Crest Trail,
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: which was planned in 1935 but never built,
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: most likely due to money and safety issues.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: To build the walkway,
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Warren's teams used gas-driven Pianjar drills and dynamite to blast
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: the six-foot-wide trail into what was known as the Comb.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: They followed a route of red paint that had been dropped on the rock from a helicopter.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: The paint had been contained in beer bottles.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: According to one article,
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: this 600-foot section cost $10,000 per foot to build,
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: whereas another article stated that the entire 51-mile section between Snoqualmie
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: and Deception Pass cost $800,000.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have not been able to determine who Kendall was,
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: though the peak name has existed since at least 1894 when it appears on
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: a King County map.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: No one died or was injured during construction of the catwalk,
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: though two people were injured and one died blasting the sections to the north
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: to Ridge Lake.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Curiously, the name Kendall Catwalk does not start to appear in print until 1995.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: author and voice of the Street Smart Naturalist,
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind,
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: a weekly newsletter and podcast focusing on the human
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound, and the Pacific Northwest.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more details about my walks, talks,
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: and books,
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: including In the Range of Fire and Ice,
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: along with a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: check out my website, geologywriter.com.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget to slow down, pay attention, and enjoy the world around you.