The Interim

After Virgin Falls, my adventures changed from outdoor excursions to a transition into adulthood. Aside from a trip to Highlands with Mike, Chelsea, and Brett, I stopped going on OAR trips and prepared myself for life after graduation. I finished my thesis with plenty of time to spare for editing and I started flying up to Boston for job interviews and apartment searches. After securing a job with Grand Circle Travel starting in February, I returned briefly to OAR with little success. I went on a few local trips (paddling and caving) and one trip out of state (Gregory's Bald: I didn't learn from my first trip there and it was a disaster).

Moving to Boston was an adventure by itself. I drove up with a friend of mine from OAR, Kira. She was headed to Amherst in Massachusetts. We left in mid-February, spending Valentine's Day on the road. We decided to first stop in Macon, where my cousin lives. We had to avoid the polar vortex storms, thus we did not take i95 up the coast. Rather, we spent the night in Macon and crossed through South Carolina on back roads. A storm was set to hit from New York City to Boston, so we decided to drive through the night. I had never driven in snow or ice before but my only real issue was in Amherst; I got stuck in the driveway at 4 AM when I tried to drop Kira off. It was snowy and beautiful regardless of my car trouble. Kira's friends pushed me out of the driveway and I headed toward Cambridge the next morning. I parked and unloaded some of my belongings before the blizzard hit. I braved the snow for Chris's housewarming and slowly adjusted to the cold weather.

After several months of living in Cambridge and working in Boston, I decided to take a risk and leave. Now, I am headed to Copenhagen for the start of a several month long European adventure. I'm armed with a Eurail pass and couch surfing account, ready to take on various countries. I hope to meet tons of interesting people and to experience a wide array of cultures. I have been practicing my Greek and French (my Spanish is abysmal and I don't know any other languages) and I will be in Copenhagen by this time tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Virgin Falls: Redemption

Despite being one of the most beloved OAR trips, I had a somewhat miserable time my first time at Virgin Falls. My first trip to Virgin Falls was plagued by a hives outbreak and subsequent unhappiness. Take two, unfortunately, was not much of an improvement. On the car ride up, I mysteriously lost my voice and hilarity ensued throughout the weekend as I tried to call "off rope" with the raspy remnants of my voice. I did not feel too sick, just slightly congested with a sore throat. My car for the trip was awesome: we left the gear shed first and made it to camp first, we made it to Ethiopian in Atlanta first on the way back and were back to the gear shed before midnight on Sunday, a nearly impossible feat. 

The night hike into Virgin Falls was far less treacherous than I had remembered. I hauled the 300 ft. rope all the way to camp, wrapped in a caver's coil and hanging around my neck. I immediately passed out as soon as I had my sleeping bag out and I slept comfortably despite the claims of 20 degree weather. The next morning, Jeff set up two rappels at Laurel Falls. Anticipating a line, I sprinted to the top and rappelled both of them before anyone else had really noticed. Then, as one of the more experienced people on the trip with regards to rappelling, especially using racks since that's what we use for caving, I sat at the top and helped coax all of the new people over the edge. Setting up gear and harnesses has somehow become second nature to me and I did so with ease, ensuring that the equipment was set up properly and safely. After a while, we took down the ropes (I rappelled a third time) and headed deeper into the wilderness toward Virgin Falls.

Similarly, I anticipated a line and rushed to the top to be one of the first to rappel the falls. Carolanne took over my job of rigging descending devices and helping people set up their gear. The weather was perfect and I settled into a nice spot at the top of the waterfall with a nice book. I rappelled a few more times, once with my book clipped off to my harness. I was still feeling somewhat sick and I napped some as a result. We started our campfire activities very early, eating a ton of food from our giant potluck. The most amazing food I had was a marshmallow treat introduced to me by Drew. Essentially, you wrap an uncooked biscuit around a marshmallow, roast it, then dip that in melted butter and roll it in sugar and cinnamon. It was incredible but I couldn't consume more than one every few hours, it was so rich. 


The next day, we packed up and hiked out fairly early. My car was on point, four out of the five of us were the first ones to make it back to the cars. We waited a while for Carolanne, who had gone to a lookout point off the trail, but once she arrived, we were able to get on the road. Everyone met up for Ethiopian food in Atlanta, per OAR tradition. I hadn't done so in a while and it was a nice treat. Then, we headed back to Gainesville. I also introduced QT, the best gas station ever, to a majority of the car. Brett purchased every single flavor of M&M they had and invented a game of M&M roulette, in which all the flavors were mixed together and one (or more) were chosen at random. It was delicious.

Events occurred: October 25-27, 2013

Thesis, New Roommate, and a Subsequent Lack of Time

This past month has been the most stressful month of college I have ever experienced. The day after my last post, October 2nd, I was recruited for kitten capturing. Mike discovered that there was a stray kitten living under his house and her constant meowing was keeping him up at night. I offered to help and unintentionally became owner to the most adorable kitten ever. I'm only slightly biased, she's very cute. Mike has dubbed her Trauma though I prefer the name that I gave her, Artemis, goddess of the moon, the hunt, and wild animals. She is often referred to as an amalgamation of the two names, Artemis-Trauma or AT. 








Though adorable, she has been a major distraction in my life. She has monopolized what free time I have had recently. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much of that to speak of. I have spent the last month working on my thesis. I submitted the first draft of my thesis last week and have spent all my time since then catching up on everything else that I slacked on this past month, including spending time with Artemis. She has been featured on Jeff's new website, catswipe.com. In addition to my thesis, I have also been planning my annual Veteran's Day trip to Boston and I have been constantly applying to jobs since I graduate in a month. Happy November everyone, I'm glad to be back online.

Apple Picking and Hiking the AT

As fall approaches, so does apple season! The perfect time for picking apples is going on right now and OAR took full advantage this past weekend. We drove up Friday night as per usual and camped in a parking lot near the AT trail at Sam's Gap, where we were starting our hike. Since the trip consisted of two cars, we decided to leave one car at the start, drive the other car to the end, and hike in two separate groups, meeting in the middle to camp Saturday night and exchanging keys. My car volunteered to drive to the other end and stopped at the Heavenly Holler Farm for some apple picking. The owner of the orchards was extremely friendly. He took us up to the orchards and gave us a tour, allowing us to sample each variety of apple. He told us we could eat as many as we wanted for no charge and then any apples we picked would cost only 75 cents per pound. There were also some blueberries that were ripe and we ate our fair share of them.

After apple picking and purchasing, we headed for the trail at Spivey Gap. We hiked up at a slow pace, accommodating the one new hiker among four experienced backpackers, Deepika. She was a good sport and she kept up fairly well despite her heavy pack and despite having Jeff to keep up with. We were all relieved to finally reach the bald after miles of green tunnels. The views were astounding, all 360 degrees' worth. Jeff and Logel set up their tent while Chelsea, Deepika, and I decided to stay at the shelter down the trail a little ways, where the other car was staying. Our entire group of ten stayed on the bald to watch the sunset and then hiked down to the shelter together. The next morning, we packed up our belongings and headed toward the car. We hiked the remaining six or so miles fairly quickly, reaching the car with plenty of daylight. We wanted to go to Pearson's Waterfall but discovered that it was $5 a person and deemed it not worthy. Instead, we went to another apple orchard and indulged in apple pastries. Chelsea and I split an apple dumpling and an apple fritter and each ordered our own apple slushies, all of which were delicious. We then headed toward Columbia and indulged in another satisfying meal at Spice Junction. Since Mike was in the other car, they also went to Spice Junction, arriving about 20 minutes after us. Then, since it was National Coffee Day, we ventured over to Krispy Kreme for free 12 ounce coffees. Jeff somehow was given four, all of which he consumed during the ride back to Gainesville.

Events occurred: September 27-29, 2013  

Finally Caught Up

Since I have finally caught up with all of my OAR trips and other travels, posts will most likely become less frequent until I can think of some clever way to transition between trips. 

Vertical Practice Round Two

After such a successful first vertical practice, Mike decided to hold another this week. I came over early to help him sort through the gear and to practice rescue techniques. By the time people started to show up, I was in full gear and attached to a complicated-looking pulley system. We were having difficulty replicating a cave rescue situation because I was on the ground level. So, I detached myself and we decided to start practice. I gave up my gear to someone and tried to teach a group of people about the gear itself and how to changeover from ascending to rappelling. It started to rain lightly, just enough to cool everyone down.

After a few hours, Mike decided to rig the pulleys for another purpose: vertical caving treadmill. It was the strangest thing to watch. Essentially, Nina, who was in full caving gear, started ascending up a rope that was threaded through a pulley. Mike had the other end of the rope and he was feeding it through the rack. So, as Nina ascended, Mike would feed more rope and she would stay in the same place in the air. This way, she could actually ascend most of the rope instead of only the 30 or so feet to the top of the tree. Mike also tried a few rescue techniques and learned that if he ascended while Nina was just hooked in to the rope, they could both move up. We played around with the ropes and the gear for a while, attempting to try a bunch of different rescue techniques and vertical training. 

Events occurred: September 25, 2013

Cloudy with a Chance of Rain and Misery

When I realized that there was a trip going through Jacksonville, I decided to invite my brother's girlfriend, Jessica. She has been dying to go on a legitimate hiking trip and Grayson Highlands combined with Roan Mountain seemed perfect. So, I invited her. While at lunch with Mike, Chelsea, and Kelsey, Mike convinced me to also invite my mother along, claiming he would only go if she did. Chelsea and Kelsey both refused, citing the rain and homework among other reasons against it. So, only a few hours later, Mike successfully convinced Chelsea that the 90%-100% chance of rain we had discussed at lunch had actually been 20% and she unknowingly embarked on an extremely rain-filled trip.

The drive up to Grayson was about 9 or so hours and we had made plans to meet up with the rest of the group at a campsite. We got there around 3 AM with no cell service and pitched our tents, anticipating their arrival a few hours later. When we woke up, they were still not there. We drove in the direction that we guessed was correct, my gas light glaring at me. When the prospect of gas seemed dim, we turned around and headed back down the windy roads toward Damascus. When we filled up, I finally got service and Brice, who was officially leading the trip, told me they had decided to drive straight to Grayson and start hiking. We headed toward Grayson, planning to hike alone. The biggest problem was that I was the only person who had been there before and it had been two years prior. I had no idea which trail to take and the map was virtually useless.

We hiked around Grayson for several hours in the pouring rain. Mike and I were the only ones even close to adequately prepared, decked out in rain pants and rain jackets with covers for our backpacks. My mom had left her rain jacket in the car entirely and no one else had rain pants at all. My shoes were also waterproof, keeping my feet warm and dry. While the majority of the group was shivering and freezing, I was sweating in my flannel and rain jacket, regretting so many layers. They were not amused by this. After wandering around the AT and some spur trails, the group lost some morale and turned back. We had spotted a bull but no ponies and the fog was impenetrable. We piled in the car, everyone dripping (except for me and Mike). We headed to the Blue Blaze Cafe in Damascus, where we ran into the rest of the trip. I really only spoke to Rhea, and she detailed us with the misery of their trip. They arrived at 5 or 6 AM and decided to hike immediately, breaking once at a shelter to nap and then trekking through the rain. It sounded pretty awful to me.

That night, my mom decided to spring for a hotel room about an hour out from Roan. We spent the evening drying out and relaxing. The next morning, we slept in until nearly 11 AM and then piled into the car for Roan. We started at Carver's Gap on the Tennessee/North Carolina border and hiked for maybe half a mile before running into Rhea and two other girls on her trip, lying on a big boulder. We stopped and chatted with them. They explained that the boys decided to hike all of Roan in one day and they didn't feel that ambitious. They were going to hang out and then pick the guys up at the end. We sat with them for a few hours before heading back down to the car. The best part of the trip? SPICE JUNCTION. It's the all-you-can-eat Indian buffet in Columbia, South Carolina and it is the best. Mike and I are huge fans (no one else was quite as enthused). We made it back to Gainesville before 1 AM, exhausted after a long weekend. 

Events occurred: September 20-22, 2013