Sunday - September 9th. & Kathy's Birthday

Today we were scheduled to hike The Subway.  The Subway is located in a remote wilderness area of Zion Park called Kolob Terrace.  Kathy had studied long and hard for a special hike for us and when both our attempts to obtain hiking permits for The Wave hike failed, Kathy was successful and obtained a permit for The Subway.  Just to give you some perspective, there are two ways to hike the Subway; upper or lower.  The upper hike starts at the top where the hiker needs to rappel down a canyon wall and hike to the Subway and continue through the lower trail.  It's a one way hike and a car needs to be left for them at the trailhead we started from.  Canyoning skills are required, knot tying of course and 60 feet of line.  Swimming is also involved since the water inside the Subway is around 5 feet.  Nyla and Kathy's hike was the lower trail - canyoning experience not required.  Our hike was 5 miles from our starting point to our destination, explore the area for awhile and then then turnaround and hike out for 5 miles back to our starting point. 

Here's the hike summary; We had a steep descent over 500 feet to the canyon floor.  We had to look for the trail that others before us had taken, or make up our own.  It was recommended that one may want to hike in the river.  There were gigantic boulders that we had to "boulder hop" across if we chose that as the means to move up river.  Eventually the walls of the canyon narrowed to the point that you had to walk in the water but it was very shallow.  We had to be concerned primarily about slipping on the rocks.  We knew we were close when we saw nothing but water cascading in tiers and once we moved upward and around a bend, we saw the keyhole shaped entrance of the Subway.  We were the only people at the Subway and we couldn't believe our good fortune of having the whole place to ourselves.  We explored the area, sat and had some food.  We took pictures and decided we should head back.  Neither one of us wanted to admit that we were a little tired (OK - I mean exhausted) and knew that body parts were starting to ache.  Also the sun was shining in the canyon so let's add hot temperatures into the mix plus knowing what we had to go through to return.

To summarize the trip back; while we were careful not to get our boots wet on the way up, after while we just didn't care.  Our boots will never be the same.  We slipped, we slided and one of us kept hitting her head on trees and rocks.  Thank goodness her head is hard.  Another one of us ripped her pants on a stick and now is ready to hike the "Peek-A-Boo" trail.  We saw snakes and we didn't even care.  No screaming like a girl from us!  We needed to save screaming energy for our hike back.  When we arrived to the point where we needed to ascend up the canyon wall I was very happy but knew we still had a long way to go.  On the way back up we would hike until I thought my heart was going to explode, rest, drink some water and move on.  When we finally made it to the top, it seemed to take forever to get to the parking lot but knowing there was ice cold water waiting for us, it was all the motivation we needed.  Please know that we had plenty of energy bars, snacks and water to sustain us.  When we arrived back to our cars we were greeted by the ranger who after some nice chit chat asked to see our permit for the hike.  All papers in order, off we went in search of a Dairy Queen because we deserved it - plus it was Kathy's birthday.  I told Kathy we would evaluate the hike in about a week when the pain has subsided, the cuts and bruises have healed and just like a woman who forgets the pain of child birth, we too may someday forget our pain.

It's amazing how a shower can rejuvenate you back to feeling human (which the white washcloths are permanently stained red-brown now) and Kathy wants you to know that she has checked this hike off her list and will never be doing it again! 

So we had much to celebrate Sunday night; our successful hike (meaning no one broke a bone or died), a wonderful vacation and Kathy's birthday.  We went into town and had a wonderful dinner including top shelf Margarita's, fish tacos, deep dish veggie enchilada and well deserved desserts. 

Inside The Subway

The Cascades Before the Subway


We are now on our way home and we stopped at the dam end of Lake Powell and went through Monument Valley.  We will see you all very soon.

This will most likely be our last posting and my calculations indicate we hiked a total of 62 miles.  In closing I would encourage everyone to take advantage of our beautiful National and State parks throughout our country.  We have so much to be proud about our Parks and by the number of foreigners that we met, they must like them too.  Thank you for taking the time to keep track of us.  We had a great time and I hope you were able to experience a little bit as well.

XOX,
Nyla & Kathy