Walk to Rivendell

Tour by Ranger Jewel

30-34 Miles

Frodo, Sam and Pippin continued to follow the Stock Road. It's a small road and not used much. Our friends weren't worrying about danger here in the Shire, but Sam suddenly heard something behind them. Frodo was hopeful that the horse or pony they heard was carrying Gandalf, but they hurried off the road anyway. It was a good thing, for the rider behind them was not Gandalf, at all.

"Round the corner came a black horse, no hobbit-pony but a full-sized horse; and on it sat a large man, who seemed to crouch in the saddle, wrapped in a great black cloak and hood, so that only his boots in the high stirrups showed below; his face was shadowed and invisible."

The hobbits hid from the Rider and resumed their march, but they didn't go back on the road. We'll follow them and walk a few yards north of the road. Walking off the road will make the way a little more difficult. We're hiking where the grass "...is thick and tussocky, and the ground uneven, and the trees began to draw together in thickets."

Acknowledgments: Quotations from The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Maps by The Atlas of Middle Earth, Karen Wynn Fonstad, Houghton Mifflin, posted here with permission from the author. This page is meant to supplement these books and not to replace them.  We recommend their use to fully enjoy your journey!