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| Faramir, i.e., Boromir's little brother. |
I continued my
(virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging only five more miles
since my last update. I walked/jogged just five miles on Sun., Oct. 15. So far,
I’ve logged 1,525 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got
254 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about
85.7 percent of the total trip.
In relation to Frodo
Baggins’ overall journey to destroy the One Ring at Mount Doom in Mordor, I’m on
the 12th day/night of the trip past Rauros Falls, which is March 7/8 on the
Middle Earth calendar. I left off my last update at Mile 1520, which was where one
mile from where Frodo, Samwise Gamgee and Gollum reached the north end of a
long, straight that cut through a stony ridge. Two miles later, they climb the
west bank and travel downhill, where they follow a stream to a clear pool and
bathe. Nearby, Sam finds an orc fire-ring.
One miles farther
along, the make camp closer toward the road. It’s here that Gollum brings some
coneys, and Sam cooks a stew. They eat around 8:30 a.m. (on March 7) and are
found by the Southern Rangers, who are accompanied by Faramir. Gollum hides.
Around noon, in this
same location, the Rangers battle the Haradrim, and Sam sees an “oliphaunt.”
After this, the sleep into the late afternoon. Later, Faramir questions Frodo,
then leads them west. One mile later, they cross a stream below a pool.
I’ve covered one mile
past this point, to Mile 1525. The next significant milestone comes two miles
later, where the group descends a steep slope. Faramir and Frodo talk as they
go.
For those of you
reading this for the first time, I began this “Walk to Mordor” fitness
challenge on Jan. 1, 2015. Using a book called “The Atlas of Middle-Earth” by
Karen Wynn Fonstad, fans of “The Lord of the Rings” created this challenge by
mapping out Frodo’s fictional trek to Mordor, calculating the total distance at
1,779 miles. They also used the original "Lord of the Rings" text to
outline the journey, so you can follow their route by keeping up with your
total mileage.
The folks who worked
out the nuts and bolts of this virtual journey have divided it into four parts.
It’s 458 miles from Hobbiton to Rivendell, 462 miles from Rivendell through
Moria to Lothlorien, 389 miles from Lothlorien down the Anduin to Rauros Falls
and 470 miles from Rauros to Mount Doom. (Those locations should sound very
familiar to “Lord of the Rings” fans.) The hobbits averaged 18 miles a day, but
if you walk (or jog, as I sometimes do) five miles a day, it’s possible to
cover 1,779 miles in a year.
If you’re interested in
learning more about the “Walk to Mordor Challenge,” I suggest you check out two
Web sites, http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/07/23/walking/
and http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/.
Both of these sites provide a ton of details about the challenge, including how
to get started.
In the end, check back
next Friday for another update and to see how much closer I am to Mordor. I
hope to knock out at least 10 more miles next week, and I’ll include all that
in my update next week.
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