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
