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| View from the foot of Mount Doom in downtown Mordor. |
I continued my
(virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging 15 more miles since
my last update. I walked/jogged five miles on Saturday, five more on Wednesday and
five more yesterday (Friday). So far, I’ve logged 1,768 total miles on this
virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 11 more miles to go before I reach
Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 99.4 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 29th day of the trip past Rauros Falls, which is March 24 on the Middle
Earth calendar. I left off my last update on March 22 at Mile 1753, which was two
miles from where Frodo and Samwise Gamgee stopped to rest after leaving the road
to begin traveling due south towards Mount Doom.
Two miles later, at
Mile 1755, the reach the end of their travels at the end of the day, an event
that’s known as “The Dreadful Nightfall.” Here, they only have half a bottle of
water left. Frodo sleeps fitfully at their camp here, and Sam sleeps very little.
It’s also hear that Sam can see the gleam from Gollum’s eyes as he creeps
around the perimeter of the Hobbit camp.
Frodo and Sam’s travels
begin on March 23 as they wake in the dim light of dawn and begin to discard
everything that they don’t need to carry with them towards Mount Doom. Four miles
later, at Mile 1759, they take another rest break and make no attempt to
conceal themselves. At this point, Frodo is able to travel faster than Sam had
hoped.
Three miles later, at
Mile 1762, they rest again, and three miles past that point, at Mile 1765, they
stop at the end of the day on March 23. Sam, who cannot sleep, sees that the
day’s extra efforts have squandered Frodo’s last strength. As Sam argues with
himself, he feels the ground tremble.
Their travels begin on
March 24 as they continue on in the dark light. They have no water, and Sam’s
mouth is too parched for him to even eat. I’ve traveled three more miles past
this point, to Mile 1768, where Frodo and Sam take another rest break.
The next significant
milestone comes two miles later, at Mile 1770, where they rest again. Five
miles later, they will reach the foot of Mount Doom as the day’s travels come
to a close.
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 the
late 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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