We had plans.

Oh yes, we had great and amazing plans for our 4 year anniversary. We had decided that we would stay home, most likely never changing out of pajamas and crash in our front room all weekend. We would buy a season of a beloved TV show and do nothing but have a marathon all weekend long.

Then, on Wednesday night we both had a brilliant (or so it seemed at the time) idea to go hiking in Zion's. Not just anywhere in Zion's, but to the beautiful Subway in Zion's. (If you've been there before and you know the path...please don't laugh...at least not for long.) I have wanted to hike to the Subway since we moved here. The pictures are just beautiful. We read that it's about a 5 hour hike if your moving at a good pace, and being as fit as we are (hehehe) we thought we could easily make it in and out in about 7 hours with Porter. They only allow 50 people into the Subway daily, so we had to run down to the service desk and get walk-in passes. They only give out like 20 walk-in passes daily, the other 30 have to be made by reservation.

But we were able to secure tickets for Friday, just like we had planned

So we decided that all day on our anniversary we would pack and plan for this hike. We figured that Kyle aka "the mountain goat" could carry Porter in, and that we would be able to pack the rest of our stuff at the bottom of the carrier for Porter, and I would pack in a backpack and camelback. We also purchased (as our anniversary gift to each other) these...

Aren't they beautiful? They are hiking/water Teva's and I'm in love. They have drains in the bottom of the sole so that water can drain out of your shoe, and they dry out so quickly. Love them.

Kyle also rigged up a nice little canopy for Porter out of his carseat cover and it worked really well. I don't think he got any sun while he was under it. (cute boys huh?)

It's amazing what Kyle and a little bit of duct tape can acheive.

So, we decided to head out bright and early at 6:00, which later turned into 7:30. Which we decided was okay, because we would be hiking by 8:30 which would be plenty before the heat hit us, right? Not only that, but we had managed to pack 7 liters of water, food for a couple of days (just in case it would be needed) and food and drink for Porter. Bringing the total weight of both of our packs to just around...um, well I'd say...if you asked my shoulders...times it by 10... a thousand pounds.

Well, we got to the trailhead and started on our way by 8:30. The problem that we had from the very start was that I was allowed to lead. It appeared that there were two trails to take, and I picked one figuring that they would meet up at some point. I was more than a little wrong. We ended up wandering up and down a creek bed full of enormous boulders and we saw several cairns, which totally threw us off thinking we were on the right path.

We knew that there was supposed to be a rapid 400 foot decline to the bottom of the canyon close to the start of the trail. Once we lost the actual trail, we decided to make our way to the edge of the cliffs and see if we could tell where we were supposed to go.

No dice.

All we could see was a very intimidating, practically thousand foot drop-off to the river below. (Kyle says it was probably closer to 600 feet, but I don't think his guesstamation skills are quite as good as mine). There was no sign of a trail anywhere.

It ended up taking us a 45 minute detour before we made our way back to the start of the trailhead and took the other trail. This 45 minutes was fairly grueling, taxing and frightening when carrying almost a thousand pounds on your back, and knowing that at some point (even though it was only 400 feet) you would have to make it down to that river, and back up from it.

By the time we got on the right trail and headed down the STEEP slope to the bottom of the canyon it was after 10 and it was getting hot. We ditched some of our water along the way, taking note of where it was on the GPS so that we could pick it up on the way back. We think that our little detour was our biggest fall-back and had we have found the trail earlier, we probably would have done fine.

It was a rough go for a while and I was so grateful when Kyle suggested we stop and find a spot for us to cool off and rest for a little while. We pulled off our packs and I waded in the river. Porter wasn't about to let me be the only one in the water, so he decided to join. This led to my favorite part of the entire excursion.

Porter wanted desperately to join me in the water. Now, the water felt great to me since I had been hiking for so long, but I also didn't jump in with my whole body. Porter however, was difficult to keep from jumping in fully-clothed. So we removed his clothes, left him in his diaper, and let him go at it. We were so surprised that he didn't freak out when he realized how cold it was. But the cold didn't stop him, Porter jumped right in. He started laughing and giggling as the water ran over his hands and feet, so he sat down and plopped his whole bottom in it. He then started crawling towards a deeper end. I helped him walk over to it and lowered him until he was chest deep. He couldn't stop laughing. He thought it was the funniest thing to have the water running around him. I love watching this kid laugh. (Do you think he gets the wading thing from his Gramma M.?) He was having a great time and it was so hard to put him back in the carrier when we had to take off again.

We decided to stay and play in this area for a while until we were cooled off and had drank plenty of water. We didn't know how far we had really gone, or how much longer we had to hike. Kyle figured there couldn't be more than a mile left, so we decided we would pack what we could from Kyle's pack into mine and ditch my backpack. We had already eaten lunch and we would each take some water with us, but the weight of the packs was just weighing us down. We would hike for only 45 minutes more, and if there was no sign of the Subway, we would turn back. We each grabbed a half a bottle of water and headed out.

About 40 minutes later (with no sign of the Subway in sight) we ran into the first hikers we had seen all day. They told us (in an all-too-cheery manner) that we were almost half-way there. ALMOST HALFWAY???? We figured we would be there by now. We had already been hiking for a thousand miles and I was sure that it was at least twice that far back to the car. Feeling incredibly disheartened we decided that there was no choice but to turn back. We didn't have enough water with us to make it there and back. So we took off to pick up our deserted pack and head on out.

By the time we picked up our pack and got to where we had ditched the first of our water at the bottom of the 400 foot decline it was nearing 3, and I was so worn out I didn't know if I would make it up the now 2,000 foot ascent. Kyle says the elevation didn't change during our hike, but I believe it did.

That climb was the worst climb I think I have ever made. I tried to get a good picture of it as we rested about a quarter of the way up, but it didn't look that impressive...

So I tried this shot. See the black arrow? That's where the top of the trail is. That's where we're headed in 105 degree St. George heat. Now, the white arrow...Yeah, that's Porter's head. Can't see it? Here it is close up.

Even with these pictures, I don't think it gives an accurate view of what this climb was truly like.

To add insult to injury, when you reach the top, you still have about a 30 minute walk out to your vehicle. It was at the top of this ascent that Kyle turned to me and said, "I just ran out of water, I'm not stopping again." I still had a little left, but we didn't want to be in the sun much longer (7 liters of water downed between the two of us, and not one single urge to pee). No matter how shaky our legs got or how tired we were, we didn't stop again until we reached the car.

We wondered why it was so easy for us to get tickets to go in...seeing as how it's August 1st and so flipping hot in St. George that one might get delirious from hiking in this kind of heat. I now know why most people go in the fall.

We headed home to our nice air-conditioning, grabbed some Costa Vida and sat on our couch... in our jammies... and watched our newest season of Everybody Loves Raymond. This is where we will remain all weekend. We think our initial plan was the best, why mess with it?

We may try the beloved Subway again someday. But we'll make some changes. We'll go without Porter, in the fall, leave at around 5 in the morning, and we'll lose about 985lbs from our packs. But who knows, maybe I'll just have to enjoy the pictures that I've seen of the Subway. Today, that will be more than sufficient for me and my poor little aching body.