The Subway was off the hook!

[Tyler]

Finally got that permit and trip penciled in and did it. We followed it the day after a giant flash flood had hit it (stranding several hikers in the night before). More to come on the TR, but wanted to share these traditional photos. TONS of sand and the water was obviously very brown, but it was still cool to see it the way we did. We had the entire canyon to ourselves that day (nobody else came through).


The Subway by root_family, on Flickr


The Subway by root_family, on Flickr

 

[Nick]

Awesome man. So how'd you end up doing it? I got the impression that they weren't letting people in since Sandro and Ann Marie didn't go.

 

[Tyler]

Awesome man. So how'd you end up doing it? I got the impression that they weren't letting people in since Sandro and Ann Marie didn't go.

We checked out our permits the day before (as usual) and they gave us the warning about us being responsible. When we got to the trailhead there was a group of 3 people from CA there (although two of them sounded like they were speaking German). This is where we found out that a group was stranded in there from the night before and that it was un-safe to go. They had still intended to hike down to the water and then back out. We decided to do the same thing. We passed them at the Northgate peaks sign and heard them asking "who has the permit" and then they started heading back (they forgot it). We never saw them the rest of the day.

I'll admit that us going through with the plan was risky, but by the time we got to the water the sky was clearing up and the forecast going in said the flash flood warning would go away toward the end of the day. While in the canyon I was a bit nervous at first because we were stopping and taking a lot of pictures before we had even hit the bigger stuff, so I was hurrying the group along until we got to the Subway section (where I knew we would be fine from then on out), but the sky was totally blue by then.

 

[Tyler]

Wow! Check out this video of North Creek where it meets the town of Virgin. This was this past Sunday when the hikers were stranded in the Subway hike. No wonder they were stranded (must have had to get up pretty high). The destruction of the canyon itself was impressive seeing large trees in the middle of the creek, etc.

 

[wnorton]

Great shots!



From wnorton using an iPad and Tapatalk HD.

 

[Sandro]

Awesome man. So how'd you end up doing it? I got the impression that they weren't letting people in since Sandro and Ann Marie didn't go.

We gave up for Aug. 20 but found open spots for the 21st. We were very lucky because the 21st was a great sunny day and we could do the hike !

 

[Tyler]

We gave up for Aug. 20 but found open spots for the 21st. We were very lucky because the 21st was a great sunny day and we could do the hike !

Nice. Looks like it was still really muddy.

I forgot to mention that the underwater arch was filled with sand/mud. Would have been nice to check that out.

Did you do the bypass over that logjam where the choke stone was in the slot?

 

[Sandro]

Nice. Looks like it was still really muddy.

I forgot to mention that the underwater arch was filled with sand/mud. Would have been nice to check that out.

Did you do the bypass over that logjam where the choke stone was in the slot?

Do you mean the log stucked under the stone ball ? We passed under the log and basically underwater (keeping only our head out of water)

 

[Sandro]

Here's a video from a guy of another group

 

[Tyler]

Yeah, there is no way we could have done that on the day we went through (which I'm assuming was the next day?). The stone was pretty much covered and the water was flowing through pretty fast. All the water before it was thick and foamy. Our first option was to climb up and over the log jam, but then I found that bypass route up and above it.