A little more Zion

Towards the end of July the usual crew and I took a trip up to one of our favorite close getaway's. We jeeped/camped at Forest Lake up American Fork canyon, then spent the next night camping over at the Tucker's property in Hobble-creek. Apparently I can't get enough of camping.

I failed with photo's that weekend. There are only so many photo's that you can take of Hobble-creek and Forest Lake.

The next weekend I headed back to Zion.

This was our group that we hiked the Subway with. We can thank some of them for not sleeping one night, so that we were able to get permits. I was luckily tucked nicely in my bed while they were sleep deprived. Sadly I don't know most names, so I'm not going to try. Other than the regulars, they are mostly Ryan's friends.

Sorry nameless people.

One of my favorite parts about the Subway hike is how through most of the hike the scenery changes every mile or so. It makes it so I don't get bored. I don't do real well with routine or monotony.

I also like that no one with us was to much of a go getter. We had a super chill group and were able to stop a ton and take our time. I really prefer being able to enjoy the scenery opposed to making it through as quick as possible.

They are so tough.

Sean took a break for a little while to do some yoga on this rock. He showed us plenty of rather impressive moves.

I decided that I needed to take my nice camera through the subway. I think it was an excellent idea. Thanks to Sean, Kevin, and Nate repeatedly saving it, and me, while almost drowning themselves, it made it safely through. I'm so glad we did it.

*We did have a dry bag for it, but our group was large and the bag was usually way up ahead with other people. We ended up taking turn's swimming with it above our head. Worked better sometimes than others.

One of my favorite parts about the hike was Sean. He forgot his hiking shoes when we left the campsite, and decided he didn't need them (even though he remembered about a minute after we left). So, he hiked the entire subway in these shoes. Most of the time holding them like so, and walking bare foot. Unlike everyone else, he also decided that he didn't need a pack with water, that he'd just drink other people's when he got thirsty.

For those of you who know Sean, this is why we love him. I don't know why, but every time I look at these photo's, I still laugh. People who know how funny Sean is can appreciate how great this is.

If you've seen Youth in Revolt, when Michael Cera say's to the girl that he "prefers hiking free form and enters the wilderness with a child like sense of wonder", It's all I kept thinking about.

Watching Ryan come down this part was also amazing. He was very graceful. He swung down the rope, hit the wall, then just fell to the water. I was lucky to have seen the entire thing unfold. Joon watched it happen as well, watching his reaction was almost just as funny.

Kevin is showing us here how it actually should be done. I don't think I really got the memo either.

This is one of my favorite parts of the subway. I think that the gorge is so cool.

Then Ryan again made my day by ferrying us across this right after. It was a little overcast, and we  all just finally got dry. Ryan was loving it and ferried almost our entire group across this little section. Pointless but very thoughtful.

Then Nate jumped off of this and did a hand plant to back flop. I thought it was cool, but I'm used to them doing stupid tricks like this 20 times a day. Apparently, I've been told this was amazing. I'm going to stick with I've seen them do things like this a lot, mostly it just looked painful.

This is one of my favorite pictures I took. It's very typical I know, but still just looks so peaceful.

This is the most appropriate photo of the four of us. Sean is only looking down his own pants instead of trying to pull them down and moon us. We are a really mature bunch, yet I keep going with them places.

The boys love this natural slide. Joon somehow bounced down the whole thing and cut up his spine pretty bad. So funny. He definitely won the competition.

We made it through, I thought that we were one of the slowest groups ever until Brynne told me about her experience a few weeks later. Sorry Brynne, you won.

The majority of our group left that night. Kevin, Sean, Joon, Nate, Clint, and I stayed.

We were planning on doing Birch Hollow the next morning. We woke up, got all packed, then drove to the entrance to Zion. When we finally got to the front of the line the other car pulled up to Kevin and I and asked if we were tired and if we should hike or go to a movie. I guess we all decided we were tired. We went to a movie in the middle of the day instead, and since we already had our sac lunches made, we all carried them into the theatre. Perfect.

I love that no one has to much pride to say they are tired. It's great that we can go on a hike or just go to a movie, and have a great time either way. We all thought that it was pretty funny that we ended up going to a movie instead, and that everyone was actually ok with it.

Then Kevin and I went to the Meadow hot springs on the way home and hung out with a nice couple around 50 years old spending their anniversary there. So classy. They were equipped with their wine backpack kit and all. I love meeting people like that, it's so interesting to me hearing people's stories. We finished off the day with a nice cinnamon Yam from Ruby River.

Thanks Zion.