The Walk to Rivendell
It always rather amuses me when my assorted hobbies collide together on the Internet. In this case it's the unlikely combination of walking, Tolkien and cyber communities that has taken me in an unexpected direction. I've suddenly found myself the leader of 25 travelers from around the world who are walking their way to Rivendell. How the heck did I get here?
It's my habit once a day or so to surf over to theonering.net to read up on the Tolkien news from around the world. One post about two weeks back called "The Walk to Rivendell" really captured my imagination. Now, at that point I was just finishing up my Idita-walk challenge, where I walked in the pawprints of the Iditarod dog sledders up in Nome, Alaska. I was about to send off my completed timesheet and I was more than ready for another walking challenge.
"The Walk to Rivendell" is a challenge that has been set up by a group of women who first met over at WeightWatchers.com and discovered they had a common love of Tolkien. To motivate themselves in their exercise they have chosen to start a 458 mile walk, the distance that the four hobbits traveled in "Fellowship of The Ring" from Hobbiton to Rivendell. Using Middle-earth maps and atlases they had traced out the distance of the journey and assorted milestones alone the way (Crickhollow, Bree, Weathertop, etc.). They are aiming to complete their walk by the time the third LOTR movie debuts on Dec. 17, 2003. Excited by their adventure they took the challenge to other Tolkien websites and invited other fans along for the journey. That's where they found me.
I wrote to the woman running the challenge and got more details, started debating whether I was primed for a 458 mile challenge. Some poring over my Middle-earth atlas and some calculations informed me that I would have to walk about 13 miles a week from now until December to complete the challenge. That seems doable. The thing that intimidated me the most was the idea of doing the challenge alone, as that's a long way to walk without strong support. I checked out the Rivendell thread over at WeightWatchers.com, but it seemed rather slow and I felt kind of out-of-place not being a member of Weight Watchers.
In the meantime, I had been mentioning the challenge over in the exercise thread and the Eldars thread I participate in over at TORC (Tolkien OnLine). Someone told me they were interested in learning more and suggested I start a discussion thread with all the initial information about the challenge so people could know about it. I decided that was a good idea, though I didn't have much hope there would be interest. I figured the thread would sink like a stone and I'd still have to decide if I was going to do the challenge on my own or try to integrate into the Weight Watcher's exercise boards without being a member.
I set up the TORC "Walk to Rivendell" thread at noon on Thursday. By the time school was over and I checked the thread again four people had signed up to "walk to Rivendell" with me. By evening that number had increased to ten. By the time I came back from Ad Astra there were almost twenty excited travelers from around the world studying maps and figuring out mileage to start their journey. I was astonished at the interest and the enthusiasm. People are still joining each day this week. Map links are being exchanged. People are running out to buy pedometers and Middle-earth atlases. People are getting their kids to walk with them. One woman is breaking down the entire journey day by day using the atlas and references from "The Lord of The Rings".
I've created a monster. It's very strange, because all these people are now looking to me as the leader of this walking expedition, something I hadn't anticipated happening. The Weight Watcher Rivendell thread seems to have dried up altogether (though the original leader tells me they may have a "Walk to Rivendell" website up soon) but my TORC Rivendell thread has become a force of nature. And I suddenly have all the support and enthusiasm I could have imagined to take on this 458 mile walk.
So, I left Bag End yesterday and I'm now 3.5 miles of the way through The Shire on my way to my first destination at Crickhollow. If anyone out there in crazy enough to want to join our "Fellowship of The Road" you can find us here: http://www.tolkienonline.com/thewhitecouncil/messageview.cfm?catid=24&threadid=64319 .
After all, you can never have too many Middle-earth traveling companions. The road goes ever on...
It's my habit once a day or so to surf over to theonering.net to read up on the Tolkien news from around the world. One post about two weeks back called "The Walk to Rivendell" really captured my imagination. Now, at that point I was just finishing up my Idita-walk challenge, where I walked in the pawprints of the Iditarod dog sledders up in Nome, Alaska. I was about to send off my completed timesheet and I was more than ready for another walking challenge.
"The Walk to Rivendell" is a challenge that has been set up by a group of women who first met over at WeightWatchers.com and discovered they had a common love of Tolkien. To motivate themselves in their exercise they have chosen to start a 458 mile walk, the distance that the four hobbits traveled in "Fellowship of The Ring" from Hobbiton to Rivendell. Using Middle-earth maps and atlases they had traced out the distance of the journey and assorted milestones alone the way (Crickhollow, Bree, Weathertop, etc.). They are aiming to complete their walk by the time the third LOTR movie debuts on Dec. 17, 2003. Excited by their adventure they took the challenge to other Tolkien websites and invited other fans along for the journey. That's where they found me.
I wrote to the woman running the challenge and got more details, started debating whether I was primed for a 458 mile challenge. Some poring over my Middle-earth atlas and some calculations informed me that I would have to walk about 13 miles a week from now until December to complete the challenge. That seems doable. The thing that intimidated me the most was the idea of doing the challenge alone, as that's a long way to walk without strong support. I checked out the Rivendell thread over at WeightWatchers.com, but it seemed rather slow and I felt kind of out-of-place not being a member of Weight Watchers.
In the meantime, I had been mentioning the challenge over in the exercise thread and the Eldars thread I participate in over at TORC (Tolkien OnLine). Someone told me they were interested in learning more and suggested I start a discussion thread with all the initial information about the challenge so people could know about it. I decided that was a good idea, though I didn't have much hope there would be interest. I figured the thread would sink like a stone and I'd still have to decide if I was going to do the challenge on my own or try to integrate into the Weight Watcher's exercise boards without being a member.
I set up the TORC "Walk to Rivendell" thread at noon on Thursday. By the time school was over and I checked the thread again four people had signed up to "walk to Rivendell" with me. By evening that number had increased to ten. By the time I came back from Ad Astra there were almost twenty excited travelers from around the world studying maps and figuring out mileage to start their journey. I was astonished at the interest and the enthusiasm. People are still joining each day this week. Map links are being exchanged. People are running out to buy pedometers and Middle-earth atlases. People are getting their kids to walk with them. One woman is breaking down the entire journey day by day using the atlas and references from "The Lord of The Rings".
I've created a monster. It's very strange, because all these people are now looking to me as the leader of this walking expedition, something I hadn't anticipated happening. The Weight Watcher Rivendell thread seems to have dried up altogether (though the original leader tells me they may have a "Walk to Rivendell" website up soon) but my TORC Rivendell thread has become a force of nature. And I suddenly have all the support and enthusiasm I could have imagined to take on this 458 mile walk.
So, I left Bag End yesterday and I'm now 3.5 miles of the way through The Shire on my way to my first destination at Crickhollow. If anyone out there in crazy enough to want to join our "Fellowship of The Road" you can find us here: http://www.tolkienonline.com/thewhitecouncil/messageview.cfm?catid=24&threadid=64319 .
After all, you can never have too many Middle-earth traveling companions. The road goes ever on...