2007 Subway Trip (Part 2)

When we last left off our hero was taking pictures of Jared trying to get through the canyon without duckwalking. (You thought the hero was going to be Jared, didn't you... well maybe he should get his own blog). Here he is trying to chimney through the slot - the gravel bar is so close, but what's around the bend?

By the way, i'm pretty sure he didn't make it. I think it got fairly deep after that and i threw the rope down to him to climb out.

Ha ha, i switched the captions from the top to the bottom. Are you confused or just annoyed. The ancient inhabitants of this canyon built these canals throughout the canyon to carry water down the middle of the canyon. Cool, eh? Yeah, they didn't.

Wait for me! They're not really that close, i had to zoom in!

This is at or near the top of keyhole falls. "What's that," you ask? Scroll down...

This is actually harder than it looks. Especially since yours truly went first to show everyone else how not to do it. Yeah, i thought it would be a good idea to wrap the rope around my hand a couple of times and then swing out and slide down. Not quite. With the rope wrapped around my hand, once i swung out my immense weight tightened the rope around my hand and i was stuck. Yeah, it was awesome. Let's see if Karen does any better...

Is this good?...

Why is she shaking her hand so vigorously? Cause it burns baby! Yeah, she held on and slid down the rope with her hands. Apparently that didn't feel so great either.


They finally had to get wet. Of course, they spent 30 minutes arranging that log so they could wade across it without getting as wet. It might seem silly to you in your warm dry clothes and chair, but let me tell you, once that cold water passes your upper thigh... oi! It's a whole new unpleasant ball game.

The beginning of the Subway. That log has been there forever!

Hey, where'd they come from?! Can you guess which one is me? Yep, i'm the handsome one. Yeah, that's right, you can't see me, i'm taking the picture. You know what else you can't see - my supposedly waterproof socks. They didn't work.




Another rappel. The first time i hiked this (and maybe the next couple after that too) i actually brought a harness and figure 8 for the rappels. It was easier, maybe i'll do it again. This is also the beginning of the giant potholes. In the summer they look like little hot tubs, but they're not - they're freezing tubs, but it's still fun to sit in them and pretend... for like a half second or so.

This is arguably the prettiest part of the canyon, but it's also the biggest pain because it so crazy slippery. And you're actually taking pictures, so you don't want to put the camera in the dry bag. i hiked down once with a friend who slipped on this section with his 4x5 view camera. Forunately, both he and the camera were okay.



Wanna know what the pain was about these pictures? (Other than this commentary, of course). The reflections in the water can occasionally be distracting, so you put a polarizing filter on. No big deal, right? Nope, you're wrong (it's my blog, remember). To save money (how many horror stories start like that?), i purchased a cokin filter system, so i could use the same filters on all my lenses. This usually works great, but on the wide angle lenses that work so great for these types of photographs the filter will actually show up in the corners of the photograph (called vignetting). So your 17mm wide angle lens you paid so much money for ends up turning into an overpriced 25mm lens. Doh! (Don't tell Jen, but that means i need a slim polarizer - yeah, they're only $150+! No biggie, she won't notice if one shows up on the front of my lens, right?)

Does anyone remember that old movie with the tiny little people that lived in the woods or something. And there's a couple of normal-szied kids, and a plot and stuff? Anyway, i bet that would be a fun water slide for them. Or it might kill them, i'm not sure. They'd probably need some lifeguards, but not those clueless teenaged ones.


The prettiness of the last pictures disguises how much the hike out of the canyon sucks - no, wait. How much you will suck hiking out of the canyon. Or maybe it's fat people like myself carrying 20 lbs. of camera equipment. Remember these pictures so you can compare them to the next trip which i should be posting around Chritmas or something.