A Year Through Middle Earth: Journey to Destroy the Ring

Sometime around Christmas, 2024, Maggie informed me that there was a fitness app entitled Fantasy Hike in which you basically followed Frodo's journey from the Shire to throw the ring into Mount Doom.  Being a long time LOTR fan, I of course had to check it out.  For only $7, I got full access to the app in which I could track my progress alongside "Mr Underhill" as he walked from "Halfling Country" to "Mount Fire" and all his adventures along the way (I guess some things are copyrighted...).  I also got to compare my pace against three computer avatar who had set walking rates: Harryfoot Potter, Alice Wonderfoot, and Jon Snowflake. 

And so I set off in late December of 2024.  Every day I could track the progress of my little avatar as he walked through the Shire, on to Rivendell, and beyond.  Frodo immediately left me behind as he zoomed off (the weigh of Middle Earth is apparently a motivator to walk faster, as is the lack of a job other than carrying the ring), but I kept pace with the other, slower avatars.  I learned that parts of the journey must have been skipped over by the books/movie as it took me MONTHS of boring background screens to walk from Rivendell to Caradhras.

There was even a section after Lothlorien where my little avatar climbed into a canoe and I got a daily "paddling bonus" (2-5x per mile of walking) for cruising down the river.  

And little by little, I was more motivated to walk in real life as I had some new goals.  What was Rivendell going to look like?  Could I catch up to Alice Wonderfoot at a 3 mile/day pace (yes!).  Could I catch up to Jon Snowflake at a 4 mile/day pace (not quite)?  Would I get to see Shelob the spider?  And even, where would I be walking when I arrived at the Black Gates?  (see below for the answer...looked more pleasant in real life of course!)

Then I realized that if I walked just a little bit more every day, my journey was scheduled to finish on my birthday this year.  And if throwing the ring into Mt Doom on my birthday wasn't really one of the best gifts to give myself, I don't know what was. ◡̈ The last few days leading up to my birthday were actually a fine balance of not walking TOO much and accidentally throwing the ring in too early but the morning of my birthday, Eric and Toby joined me in my last 1/3 of a mile as we walked around outside the house together.  And so it was, on the 4th day of March in the year of our Lord 2026, I did climb the slopes of Mount Doom, and verily I did throw the ring into the fire from whence it was made, and evil did leave that land.  

 It's a funny thing, learning what motivates us.  Obviously the goal of a fitness app is to get you to make healthier choices.  And honestly, when I look at my step counts over the last few years, I have walked on average an extra 2000 steps per day while using the app.  I already decided to start over, with a goal of completing the journey in 12 months instead of 15.  I'm not really much of an exerciser...I don't like running, or "working out," so to speak, but I'm almost to Buckleberry Ferry with the black riders in hot pursuit, and in just a few minutes I'm going to get off the couch and walk around the housing area a few times to see if I can beat them to the ferry once more....