Day 21

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States: Utah
Miles driven: 119
Miles hiked: 9.5
Slept: In back of the truck on the side of Highway 89 near Kanab, UT.
10 words or less: THE SUBWAY!

SUBWAY SUCCESS

Before the sun came up we were on the road, back to the trailhead and determined to make this trip happen…of course it was more like hoping we’d get favorable weather. It’s funny how one day changed our mood. We were all very upbeat. Claudia and I were much more at ease. We got this! At the trailhead we met another hiking party of 5 or 6 people and asked to follow along with them. They’d done this hike 5 times before and, unlike so many other people we came across, they actually looked the most prepared (except for the dude in hiking sandals).

In hindsight we probably over-prepared. My pack was so fucking heavy! But I didn’t want to freeze my ass off if we got stuck in there overnight, didn’t want to go hungry, oh gawd did I over-pack! I didn’t even need my wind breaker. Though I suppose if I hadn’t brought all the extras and emergency supplies and back up everything, I would have needed it.

It’s hard to describe this hike and do it justice. This hike had everything. Wooded trails. Slick rock trails vaguely marked with cairns. Washes. Steep climbs up and down large boulders – steep like as in nearly vertical, or at least it felt that way. Rappelling down obstacles, waterfalls and walls. Swims through deep slots and potholes. Climbing over and swimming under flash flood debris. Endless river bed crossings. It had everything! All of us were so elated, so excited to be where we were. Sheer joy! You can see it on our faces in the photos. It was a really great bonding experience with two people I hope to get the chance to hike with again some day.

We were talking the day before about the trapped hikers, trying to figure out how they could have been so late exiting the canyon that they got trapped. I’ll tell you how I think it happened. They did what we did, which was to spend too much time frolicking around the cool stuff in the Subway portion and taking a ton of really awesome photos. Ha! We did that and had to navigate around a shit ton of flash flood debris all along the way. It should have been no surprise we finally got to the car a little after 5pm. Nine and a half hours to hike about 9 miles. Totally worth it!

At the end, there’s what I’d call a vertical rubble field with laughable switchbacks. I was laughing with madness by that point, anyway. It seemed endless! I started singing in my head my own version of the Subway $5 footlong sub song…”9. 9 miles. 9 fucking miles looong!” When you finally exit out the top, you think Yay! I made it! But then you have to walk about a bajillion more steps to your car. No mile is longer than the last mile.