 |
| Mount Doom! |
I continued my
(virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging nine miles since my
last update. I walked/jogged three miles on Sunday, three more on Wednesday and
three more today (Friday). So far, I’ve logged 1,633 total miles on this
virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 146 more miles to go before I reach
Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 91.8 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 21st day of the trip past Rauros Falls, which is March 16 on the Middle
Earth calendar. I left off my last update on March 15 at Mile 1624, which was three
miles from where Frodo and Samwise Gamgee heard water trickling from a gully on
their left.
Three miles later, at
Mile 1627, the road broadens and a rough wall begins as they near an orc hold.
They cross a riverbed with a few pools in the bottom. Here there are low
scrubby trees and midges.
One mile later, at Mile
1628, the climb up into a ravine and hide in the brambles. The day ends as
Frodo falls asleep. Sam also goes to sleep, but sees a star before he closes
his eyes.
The next day begins as
they continue up the ravine until it disappears. They then climb the last 100
feet to the ridge. Two miles later, at Mile 1630, the ridge stands 1,500 feet above
the plain, which is crawling with enemies. From here, they can see Mount Doom
40 miles away.
Two miles later, at
Mile 1632, they try to go north along the ridge, but can’t, so they retrace
their path back to the valley floor. As they continue along, they stay east of
the watercourse.
I’ve gone one mile beyond
that point, to Mile 1633, where Frodo and Sam can see an orc hold on the west
side of the path. The next significant milestone comes two miles later, at Mile
1635, where they hear orc scouts, hide behind a bush and learn news of Gollum
as the light fades as they hide.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment