Excerpted from Great Adventures in North Carolina , by Lynn Setzer

We started on the second pitch."Remember to put the sling around your neck and clip the carabiner to one of the loops on your harness," instructed Burton, and off he went. A little later I heard him call "off belay."

My turn. I found foot placements and handholds and made it to the first carabiner. I unclipped it and put the sling over my head and the carabiner on a gear loop. Or so I thought. As I continued up the rock face, I heard the hollow, high-pitched sound of gear hitting the ground. I hadn't secured the carabiner, or had managed to scrape it open. Either way, it was on the ground. I shouted up to Burton.

"Don't worry about it. I'll go get it. Just keep climbing." I did.

A view of Linville Falls

Reaching and stretching and bending in a dozen different ways—I didn't know that my knees were capable of such bends—I finally reached the ledge where Burton had secured us. We were about a hundred feet off the ground on a rock ledge that was about two and a half feet wide and about five feet long. Burton went to retrieve the carabiner. When he got back, we sat down to eat lunch.

Except that I had forgotten my lunch. In my excitement, I had forgotten to bring anything to eat. Burton shared some of his lunch with me. Good man, that Burton. We sat together and took in the tremendous view. Burton just smiled and said,"You eat lunch in some of the most amazing places."

Move on to Finding a Foothold

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Explore the Southeast! North Carolina Getaways - Cruise past glittering waterfalls and scale gnarly granite. Florida Frolics - Leave Disney in your wake as you sail and fish off the coast of Florida. Wild West Virginia - Learn what all the fuss is about in the East's most rugged wildlands.

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