Walk To Rivendell" aka "The Eowyn Challenge"

[Firefoot]

Congrats, Estelyn!

We've walked 49 miles. Those Elves that were supposed to be leading us to Woodhall took a wrong turn somewhere. They assured us that they weren't lost but Sam, Pippin, and I didn't really believe that. We finally made it, which was assuring, but we were quite worn out when we got there.

[Alatáriël Lossëhelin]

(They're not orcs, really! They're really very nice Uruk-Hai..oh! did I say that out loud?) Anyway, I have been walking VERY slowly across the Nimrodel Rope Bridge and am now deep inside the realm of Lorien.

Lyta: Glad to see you're walking again. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one related to Uruk-Hai! Careful on that rope bridge...hold on to Legolas! (Boromir is planning on giving you that massage/foot rub when you reach Caras Galadhon. Merry & Pippin have volunteered their laps... )

All that stuff they say about the unforgiving body when you're over 30 is so annoyingly true!

Anorial: Welcome to the Walk! The body becomes even more unforgiving after 50. Like Lyta says, stretching and reallllly good shoes are crucial. But keep going...take care of that hip, though...and you'll be in Rivendell before you know it!

My husband's 10 year old cousin is obsessed with Lord of the Rings, mainly with action figures and other memorabilia/toys, though. I have been showing him my collection slowly since he arrived and he has coveted my Burger King Bilbo figure most of all.

Lyta: My grandchildren are also obsessed with LotR. They love my action figures and swords. I'll let them wear Sting in its scabbard around my house, and they think they're just too cool for color tv!


Congratulations on that 1000th mile, Estelyn!! Maybe Lyta can have Haldir meet you with a boat??

__________________________________

We have reached the Dead Marshes, and the stench is overwhelming. A perfect place for the wretch Sam calls "Stinker". I tried to persuade Frodo that we should attempt to pass around these fens, but he is convinced that this Gollum creature can lead us through quickly. I certainly hope so, as this place is much worse than the Midgewater Marshes...

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The hobbits were now wholly in the hands of Gollum...They could, if they had known the lands, with some delay have retraced their steps a little, and then turning east have come round over hard roads to the bare plain of Dagorlad: the field of the ancient battle before the gates of Mordor...

"How do we shape our course now, Sméagol?" asked Frodo. "Must we cross these evil-smelling fens?"

..."Follow Sméagol! He can take you through the marshes, through the mists, nice thick mists. Follow Sméagol very carefully, and you may go a long way, quite a long way, before He catches you, yes perhaps."

It was already day, a windless and sullen morning, and the marsh-reeks lay in heavy banks. No sun pierced the low clouded sky, and Gollum seemed anxious to continue the journey at once. So after a brief rest they set out again and were soon lost in a shadowy silent world, cut off from all view of the lands about, either the hills that they had left or the mountains that they sought. They went slowly in single file: Gollum, Sam, Frodo (& Alatáriël).

[ArwenBaggins]

Hello again everyone! I haven't checked in here for a while, because I've been caught up with other things.

Our party has finally reached Cerin Amroth! What a glorious sight in the evening. Haldir tells us it but ten miles to Caras Galadon!

You have walked 912 miles.
You have reached Cerin Amroth (912).
It is 10 miles to the next landmark.
You still have 10 miles to Caras Galadon in Lothlórien.

Oh, and congratulations Esty! Save a boat for me, will you? I'll meet you eventually.

~Fëa

[Anorial]

Estelyn: Well, you're helping beat a clear path for the rest of us along the Anduin. I thought I might swim some of mine but that's a ways from now. I love that this goal (I plan to walk to Mordor and back again) is such a large goal that it is a 1-2 or even 3 years long! Nothing in the past has provided me with such an exciting, reachable and long-term goal. Yay! lol

Lyta: Thank you for the welcome. I loved your "got to play Galadriel" story *claps hands in delight* What a treat! Re: a "foot rub from Boromir"...it's a good thing there appear to be many copies of Striders, Boromirs, Faramirs et al to go around! otherwise there might be brawling with a certain amount of hair-pulling!

Faen: Another great LotR-meets-"real"-life story. *claps hands again*

Ala...woo! many accents...may I call you Ala? Thank you for the welcome Always great to walk in such good and open-armed company.

Walking proceeds very slowly (in my opinion). Physio-man has forbidden me to walk beyond when my hip starts to fail which is just after 30 minutes. Most times I feel like someone has been punching me in the hip and butt areas which I totally could live with if I knew it meant I was getting better. I've no idea. Anyway, I continue to traipse along and am delighted that eventually I'll get out of the Shire

Cheers and wishes for sturdy boots for you all,
Anorial

[Alatáriël Lossëhelin]

I love that this goal (I plan to walk to Mordor and back again) is such a large goal that it is a 1-2 or even 3 years long! Nothing in the past has provided me with such an exciting, reachable and long-term goal. Yay! lol

Ala...woo! many accents...may I call you Ala? Thank you for the welcome Always great to walk in such good and open-armed company.

I continue to traipse along and am delighted that eventually I'll get out of the Shire.

Anorial: I started this walk just over a year ago, and for the longest time felt that I would never catch up. It seemed to take me weeks and weeks to make it out of the Shire. My current goal is to reach Mt. Doom by Frodo's birthday this September. Of course, then we'll have to travel back to Bag End...

Feel free to call me Ala...I go by many different names. Not so many as Aragorn or even Gandalf, but I'll answer to Ala, Alatáriël, Alcmenelwen, Hildigard, or even "über geek".
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We have passed through the Dead Marshes and traversed the barren Nomans-land. I fear the Dark Lord may sense our presence, as the winged terror has overtaken us several times over the past few days. We are now come to the Morannon, the gate into the Black Land, and possibly the end of our journey. It is impossible to enter Mordor here, unless it be as prisoners. Sméagol says there is another way over the mountains further south, and the Ringbearer has agreed to follow him once again. I dislike and mistrust this wretched creature--even though we would not have made it through the Marshes without him--and I will not abandon Frodo and Sam to his care. We will journey south with him, but I will be on my guard.

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"Is it not guarded?" Frodo repeated.

"Yes, yes, perhaps. No safe places in this country," said Gollum sulkily. "No safe places. But master must try it or go home. No other way." They could not get him to say more. The name of the perilous place and the high pass he could not tell, or would not.

Its name was Cirith Ungol, a name of dreadful rumour. Aragorn could perhaps have told them that name and its significance; Gandalf would have warned them. But they were alone, and Aragorn was far away, and Gandalf stood amid the ruin of Isengard and strove with Saruman, delayed by treason. Yet even as he spoke his last words to Saruman, and the palantír crashed in fire upon the steps of Orthanc, his thought was ever upon Frodo and Samwise, over the long leagues his mind sought for them in hope and pity.

Maybe Frodo felt it, not knowing it, as he had upon Amon Hen, even though he believed that Gandalf was gone, gone for ever into the shadow in Moria far away. He sat upon the ground for a long while, silent, his head bowed, striving to recall all that Gandalf had said to him. But for this choice he could recall no counsel. Indeed Gandalf's guidance had been taken from them too soon, too soon, while the Dark Land was still very far away. How they should enter it at the last Gandalf had not said. Perhaps he could not say. Into the stronghold of the Enemy in the North, into Dol Guldur, he had once ventured. But into Mordor, to the Mountain of Fire and to Barad-dûr, since the Dark Lord rose in power again, had he ever journeyed there? Frodo did not think so. And here he was a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside, expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go. It was an evil fate. But he had taken it on himself in his own sitting-room in the far-off spring of another year, so remote now that it was like a chapter in a story of the world's youth, when the Trees of Silver and Gold were still in bloom. This was an evil choice. Which way should he choose? And if both led to terror and death, what good lay in choice?

...Frodo stood up..."I wish we had a thousand oliphaunts with Gandalf on a white one at their head," he said. "Then we'd break a way into this evil land, perhaps. But we've not; just our own tired legs, that's all. Well, Sméagol, the third turn may turn the best. I will come with you."

[Lyta_Underhill]

Congratulations on that 1000th mile, Estelyn!! Maybe Lyta can have Haldir meet you with a boat??

I asked Haldir about the boats, and, well, he told me I wasn't supposed to know about them yet! (but he winked at me, too, so that could be a good sign!)

Anyway, I've been crawling to Lothlorien, with barely enough time to make a frantically fast walk on some days, no walk at all on others. I gather a mile or so in my workday, but not much more. I think I've doubled my walking speed, just so I can get there sometime this century! At last, I have achieved the summit of Cerin Amroth! I lay down under the great central mallorn tree in my mind and gazed up through the painted leaves up to the gleaming flet and thought about nothing...

Physio-man has forbidden me to walk beyond when my hip starts to fail which is just after 30 minutes. Most times I feel like someone has been punching me in the hip and butt areas which I totally could live with if I knew it meant I was getting better.

Ouch! That sounds a lot like my lower back and hip area after a couple of accidents and a long period of suffering! I have to wear what I call a 'squeezer' to support my back most of the time when walking. If only my husband, aka, the Witch King were in as good shape, I'd have a walking companion, but he's not quite up to my half-running pace, alas! (At least that means he won't catch THIS hobbit anytime soon!)

Feel free to call me Ala...I go by many different names. Not so many as Aragorn or even Gandalf, but I'll answer to Ala, Alatáriël, Alcmenelwen, Hildigard, or even "über geek".

And don't forget, the Queen of the Geeks!

Cheers!
Lyta Wingfoot, more than ready for a Gondorian foot massage with hobbit pillows!

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Hi, fellow Walkers! I'm away from home, vacationing and still walking, of course! Most of it is definitely hobbit-style, barefoot on the beach. Just imagine Frodo on the white shores of Valinor, then you get the idea! I'll be back in the humdrum of daily life soon enough...