The Subway 10-28-14

Scott Chandler

Wildness is a necessity- John Muir
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They say that curiosity kills the cat but it seems that curiosity also finds me canyoneering in Zion. On Sunday I got the fancy to look at the permit system to see how full reservations were and lo and behold there were open permits to visit The Subway. I guess it tis the season for fewer crowds back there. I enlisted my dad for a shuttle ride (and got him a permit to hike up the creek) and I was set to come through the top.

I arrived at the Wildcat Trailhead and found a group of four gearing up. Yay, company... Since I was going to be meeting my dad at the Subway proper I decided to burn some time by visiting the Northgate Peaks and let that group go.

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I hit the end of the Northgate Trail as the sun was coming up. It made for nice light on a couple of the peaks and harsh shadows on the others.
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Back to the Subway Trail I went. Lots of photography happened catching the light and shadows on the slickrock country. The hike down into The Subway is certainly a nice one. Its a shame people can't just follow the cairns set up by the park and still have to blaze their own path. I knocked over a lot of unnecessary rock piles.

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I lucked out and ran into the group of four that I meant to be in front of me at the entrance gully. I gave them an extra 45 minutes and here I was catching them. UGH. After I set off into the canyon I never saw them again, even on the hike out, to which my dad and I took our time.

The section of the canyon above the springs had less water in it than I had seen in the past. That said, I still needed the wetsuit to get through these cold upper pools.

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Then the springs started up and the canyon transitioned into that gorgeous beast that I've come to love. It simply never gets old. It seems that I missed the peak of the fall colors in the canyon by a week or so but colors flew in a couple spots.

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I had heard reports and seen pictures of the corridor below Keyhole Falls being full of sand so I wondered what I would find when I got there. The power of water had run its course and the canal had been scoured clean. The only spot still sandier than I have seen it before was right below the falls. It made that handline pretty nice.

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I tried to hang out in the section between the falls and the lower Subway as long as possible as it is a nice section and I'd never spent much time in there. Sadly its so darn short because I found myself dropping into the place everyone gets to all too soon.

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Not to say I don't love the main Subway.

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I amazingly hit The Subway right when my dad arrived. What great timing. I had to move or I'd get cold in my wetsuit so I ventured to the cascades below the Subway. This section is so nice because there are so many small details and scenes to see.

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After a warm up and lunch when we hit sunlight, the long hike out began. I'm not sure if I will ever hike UP and DOWN that watercourse. It is rough. The boulder hopping has the added factor of sand and wet shoes to make the whole experience a slow and tedious thing. That said, it is pretty.

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I enjoy that hike out so much that I actually don't mind the trudge up to the trailhead. Crazy.

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Fantastic!
 
Great trip Scott! I've only done The Subway once but your images bring back my memories of it loud and clear!
I did it in the middle of the summer I can't imagine how cold it was in October.The time I did it, a group of rangers were started at the trailhead the same time we did. While walking over the slickrock section they went and knocked down every carin they could find, so I asked why. I was told that all carins are user constructed, the park doesn't put any of them up. He further insinuated that the park could be liable for people who got lost or hurt - "but I followed the carins . . . " Since they cant control them they knock 'em all down, but that was more my intrepretation than the words he said.
 
What a cool looking place to explore. Much nicer than the subway in NYC. @DrNed that's really strange. In the Whites, the cairns are actually maintained by the trail stewards. They remove the small rocks jammed in between the larger rocks so they don't lose their structure when ice freezes. These must have been small cairns if they could just knock them over, the ones in the Whites are pretty big.

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I vaguely remember hearing that the park tried to mark the "best route" to minimize social trailing and people getting lost. Sadly people have an affinity for stacking rocks (I think a book could be written on it) and thus it goes overboard and people don't follow them.

I actually got lost on a social trail. I was doing the route from memory but missed a turn and ended up following a user created cairn trail. Luckily I discovered the error before I ended up in the lower section of Das Boot.
 
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Interesting.. Over here they are only really used above tree line since there are no trees to blaze. They're also all you have to go by in deep snow.

Also I never heard the term "social trail" before.. Is that an unofficial, unmaintained trail?

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Interesting.. Over here they are only really used above tree line since there are no trees to blaze. They're also all you have to go by in deep snow.

Also I never heard the term "social trail" before.. Is that an unofficial, unmaintained trail?

Over here on the Colorado Plateau there are a lot of trails that go over large expanses of slickrock where cairns are helpful to keep people on the trail.

A 'social trail' is when there isn't a defined trail to an area and people end up taking different routes to the same place creating multiple trails.
 
Over here on the Colorado Plateau there are a lot of trails that go over large expanses of slickrock where cairns are helpful to keep people on the trail.

A 'social trail' is when there isn't a defined trail to an area and people end up taking different routes to the same place creating multiple trails.

Makes sense, thanks.


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Fantastic and picturesque report.
Must be a cool area for hiking.


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