We use this code to trigger a new subroute immediate upon initialization:
// grab the full URL
var hash = Backbone.history.getHash();
// Trigger the subroute immediately. this supports the case where
// a user directly navigates to a URL with a subroute on the first page load.
Backbone.history.loadUrl( hash );
For some, only getHash() works. For others, only getFragment() works.
I haven't had the time to track down why, since some of these cases involve using push state, which I am not using in any projects. If anyone can help out with getting to the bottom of this, it would be a big help.
Some discussion on the issue, and a previous pull request, can be found here.
Thanks to @jtuulos and @MMRandy for your feedback so far.