The Subway

**Warning: LOTS of photos ahead! (But not as many as in my FB album, I promise!)

The Subway! (This is the iconic image.)

One of the big adventures of my trip to Utah last week was hiking the Subway! The group was half Utah peeps and half DC peeps. Baby Brother came with me (It was our last big "adventure" before he leaves on his mission in less than two weeks!! Plus, it's his favorite hike of all time.), and we drove down with John.

Hittin' the open road while doing homework (me), talking NBA (BB and John. Also, me.),
and listening to country music (all of us, but BB against his better judgment).

The beginning of the hike:

So happy, so innocent... Little did we know what lay ahead. Just kidding! It wasn't that bad. :)

Signs that this is the beginning: still laughing, still smiling.

Ponytail still bouncing.

Sometimes, it's easier to scooch down on your bum...
'til you get GIANT HOLES in your leggings! :( No photo evidence will be displayed.

Sometimes, you NEED to stop to take silly pictures when you see a cool rock.

The trek was all downhill at this point.

Then came the WATER!  A good 40% of this hike involved either SWIMMING (EEEEHHHHH!!!) or walking through water.

Ready to get our feet wet! (Thank you, Rhiannon, for letting me borrow the neoprene socks!)

Forging the river.

Getting ready for the first swim part.

Let me just say that for me, this was ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING. I legitimately panicked and could not make it on my own. Had it not been for my heroic baby brother, I wouldn't be here at my laptop typing this story right now.

Soaking wet siblings, post-swim.

My brother's favorite shoes.

And his awful, awful tan lines.

Did I mention that my Baby Brother is my hero? I really wouldn't have made it through the swimming parts without him. And to top it off, he carried my backpack across the high water parts so many times, I lost count! Look at this guy!

My Baby Brother, the Hero.

The second part was more intense. We had to rappel INTO the water and then take off swimming. Once again, I just... couldn't do it... and my baby brother got me through...

And then we took these pictures.

I decided I would swim the third part on my own... It was my bravest moment, and even though it wasn't a very long swim, I'm still amazed I was able to do it.

Proof that I did it.

Some of the other people said the water was FREEZING (one girl even called it ICE COLD), but honestly, I was so... just... terrified of the water, I have no clue whether that was true or not. They also said the hard parts were worth it, because we got to see views like this:

I'm still not sure if I agree with the "worth it" part, but it was definitely GORGEOUS.

There was a second part where we had to rappel.

And the scenery WAS spectacular! Photos don't really do justice to just how beautiful it was.

  

The rest of the hike was not nearly as eventful, but we did have to go through (surprise, surprise ... NOT.) MORE WATER.

And now a word of warning.If any of you ever do this hike, please note that THIS is the sign that tells you which way to go to get OUT of the canyon:

The sign is miniscule, and we are still counting our lucky stars that someone was able to spot it. Otherwise, we might STILL be stuck in that canyon, looking for the way out!

The last part of the hike was VERTICAL. This photo was taken halfway up the canyon wall, looking down.

And here is our "after" group shot:

All in all, I have to say that if you're not afraid of water and aren't afraid of being EXTREMELY SORE the next day, do this hike at some point in your life. It's absolutely GORGEOUS. I think I may do this one more time in my life, so that I can truly master the water parts, but I don't think that will be for SEVERAL years. Many thanks to Karly who organized the trip!