A Hard Thing

Russ was telling me the other day about how we don't really know how much we can accomplish because we've never done anything truly hard.  Well, folks, this is no longer true.  On the 6th, we laughed in the face of difficulty and conquered The Subway at Zion National Park.

We went with three of Russ's sisters, two of their husbands and our 11-year old nephew (who, btw, never complained ONCE the whole twelve hours - yes, I said TWELVE HOURS-- we were hiking).

Let me just preface the following pics by saying that this whole experience (including buying expensive clothing at REI) is waaaay out of my comfort zone.  It is common knowledge that I don't like getting my face wet, swimming in any sense of the word, being dirty, and sweating.  Basically I'm happiest when indoors :)

Here are two of my cute sisters-in-law standing by this sandstone descent that was brutal on the knees.

We also got to hike 300 feet down hanging on to tree roots and rocks.  That part was really scary for me!  I couldn't have done it without my brother-in-law helping me down.  I put all pride aside and let people help me as much as they wanted to!

Russ was our rappelling specialist since he is almost BSA certified.  He did a great job, and he looked like a professional.  We had to rappel twice during our hike (we were supposed to do it four times, but we borrowed a rope ladder once and once scaled a really old tree and had strong men at the bottom to help us down).

me rappelling

Here is a pic of one of our swims...Bowling Ball Alley.  We had to swim across a few different pools and under the boulder that is suspended in the air.  To be completely honest, I didn't swim...I just kicked my way across using an inflatable tube that we had brought to haul equipment across the water....and a few times, Russ pulled me...but it kept me safe and happy.  One of my proudest moments came during this obstacle, when I overheard Russ call up to my brother-in-law, who was having a little difficulty with tying the bowline knot that Russ was trying to teach to him from eight feet below, "Elizabeth knows how to tie a bowline."

We also had to do some problem solving to overcome obstacles.  And I use the term "we" very, very loosely.  Basically everyone else figured things out and I did what they told me to do.  I was very comfortable with that.

This is me crossing a dead log suspended over a waterfall.  My brother-in-law was there to help us all across.  I'm glad I didn't have to go first!

This is the famous "subway" section of the hike.

We also got to rock down the riverbed.

Russ was uber-prepared.  We had walking sticks (which helped immensely), wetsuits (which kept us warm in the freezing water), and he gave me his neoprene socks to wear in the water.  We may have looked like old people, but we were comfortable!

The worst part of the day was the hike out -- straight up for 400 feet!  That was soooo hard!

But here is the "after" pic.  I survived!  I did something really hard!