Skip to content

Ring Quest XX: The One Ring Mystery Cache

Hidden : 6/21/2014
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
3 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works

Related Web Page

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:


The Final Cache of the Ring Quest Series. A Night Cache!

Welcome to the final cache of Ring Quest, a twenty-cache series inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. There's no "puzzle" to solve. Instead, find the coordinates using information from each of the nineteen prior caches in this series. (See the links, below.)

Click here to watch a video about this series.

For more information about this series, see the description for the first cache:
Ring Quest I: The Nine: Black Riders.




Ring Quest XX: The One Ring

    The Road goes ever on and on
    Down from the door where it began.
    Now far ahead the Road has gone,
    And I must follow, if I can,
    Pursuing it with weary feet,
    Until it joins some larger way
    Where many paths and errands meet.
    And whither then? I cannot say.


        Spoken by Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring

In The Lord of The Rings, Frodo Baggins' quest was to destroy the One Ring by returning it to Mordor and casting it into the fires of Mount Doom where it was forged. Your quest in this series has been the opposite, to find and retrieve the One Ring as a Geocaching prize. That goal is now in reach!

There is nothing at the posted coordinates but water. The actual cache is hidden in the woods and must be found at night, following directions and a trail of reflective markers.

To begin, use the information you found in the previous nineteen caches to determine the starting coordinates for your journey to the cache.




At these coordinates you will find the Gates of Mordor. Enter and turn to your right. After walking a short distance you must turn either right or left; take the way that leads uphill. After another short distance, you will have to make a ninety-degree turn, then follow the obvious path. After hiking for a while, you will start passing trees. Hold a flashlight at eye-level on the side of your face and shine it towards the trees on your right as you continue down the path. Eventually, you will notice a trail of small reflective markers leading off to the right. (If you walk more than half a mile without spotting the reflectors, you have gone too far.)

Follow the trail of reflectors as they lead you through the countryside and into the forest. After walking a little more than a half-mile from the gate, you will reach a tree with many orange reflectors. The cache is hidden near the trunk of a huge, ancient tree sixty feet north of the tree with the orange reflectors.

You are looking for a regular-sized container with a log book, swag, and a small box containing the One Ring in several sizes and colors. As a reward for finding all the geocaches in this series, please take One Ring per finder, and let me know if the supply is getting low.

The words inscribed on the ring are written in Black Speech, a language devised by Sauron and used in the land of Mordor. The writing uses Elvish letters (Tengwar) in a mode adapted to the Black Speech and states, "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."



There are no reflectors marking the way back out of the woods, so it is highly recommended that you utilize your GPSr’s path-tracking feature on the way in, or save a series of way-points, to help you find your way back out. Or you can use a compass and your geo-senses to bushwhack your way out, but the woods and brush are very thick in certain areas and it could be a difficult journey.

Regardless, be sure to bring water, a good flashlight with extra batteries, and a compass. This cache is in a “safe” public area, but watch for snakes, skunks, Orcs, and other nocturnal creatures!

I hope you have enjoyed your quest for the One Ring. Congratulations!

Tree Trekker



The caches in this series are:

The Nine:
Ring Quest I: The Nine: Black Riders
Ring Quest II: The Nine: Nazgûl
Ring Quest III: The Nine: Ringwraiths
Ring Quest IV: The Nine: The Shadows
Ring Quest V: The Nine: Úlari
Ring Quest VI: The Nine: Fell Riders
Ring Quest VII: The Nine: Shriekers
Ring Quest VIII: The Nine: Khamûl
Ring Quest IX: The Nine: The Witch-king of Angmar

The Seven:
Ring Quest X: The Seven: Ironfists
Ring Quest XI: The Seven: Broadbeams
Ring Quest XII: The Seven: Blacklocks
Ring Quest XIII: The Seven: Stonefoots
Ring Quest XIV: The Seven: Stiffbeards
Ring Quest XV: The Seven: Firebeards
Ring Quest XVI: The Seven: Longbeards

The Three:
Ring Quest XVII: The Three: Narya
Ring Quest XVIII: The Three: Nenya
Ring Quest XIX: The Three: Vilya

The One:
Ring Quest XX: The One Ring


Congratulations to Axmantis for First-to-Find and First-to-Complete the Ring Quest series!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Arne gur gehax nobhg svir srrg hc

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)