The Subway
September 10, 2018
A friend who has never gone canyoneering before told me he put in for permits for The Subway. I told him if he got permits I'd love to go. Of course he will never get permits because nobody ever gets permits. Well, he got the permits!
I convinced him to do Das Boot as well since he wanted a real canyoneering experience. It was lovely. For canyoneers who consider The Subway merely a hike, I'd definitely recommend it. It has lots of water so wetsuits are absolutely required.
We made quick work of the beautiful Das Boot, descended the final rappel, and arrived at the confluence with Russell Gulch. It was pretty obvious because the number of footprints went from one set of Canyoneer 3s to infinity of all varieties.
We weren't sure how much hiking we would have to do in our wetsuits and decided that if we started sweating we would remove the tops. However, we quickly got to the first pool so there was never a need.
Once we arrived at the iconic subway section we had a quick lunch while waiting in line for our turn to rappel. Once down we hiked down canyon to the sunny section, removed and laid out our wetsuits, and I went back and spent a while taking pictures with my good camera.
People observations
- People who carried helmets but never actually put them on.
- People learning how to rappel at the rappel
- No one brought wetsuits and therefore no one enjoyed the canyon because they were shivering too much
- People passing harnesses back and forth
- A couple singing all the way back on the hike to keep up spirits
- Several other hikers willing to take pictures of my group despite my terrible camera
After I had had my fill we packed up and hiked out.
