This cache is placed in Pace Bend Park, a Travis County Park located approximately 30 miles west of Austin on Lake Travis. The park is open 7 days a week from sunrise to 9pm for day-use visitors with overnight camping available. There is a fee to enter the park. Please be respectful of the posted signs and the other people using the park. This cache is placed in accordance with the guidelines for geocaches by the Travis County Park system.
The heroes in the story of the Lord of the Rings are so numerous but there are only nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. They are central to our story. Samwise Gamgee is the faithful companion of the ring bearer and at one point in the story becomes the ring bearer himself. He is one of the keys to finding the One Ring.
Background
Sam is first introduced in The Fellowship of the Ring. Sam is Frodo Baggins' gardener, having inherited the position as Bag End's gardener from his father, Hamfast "Gaffer" Gamgee. At the time of the War of the Ring, Sam was living in Number 3, Bagshot Row with his father.
As "punishment" for eavesdropping on Gandalf's conversation with Frodo regarding the dangers of the One Ring, Sam was — at his own request — made Frodo's first companion on his journey to Rivendell. They were joined by Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, Frodo's cousins, and journeyed together to Rivendell where the council of the ring took place.
Sam often showed a skill in poetry, one occasion being when in Lothlórien after Gandalf fell to his apparent death, Sam added an interesting extension to the poem that Frodo had made about their old leader.
When the fellowship was split up at the Falls of Rauros, Sam refused to give up his responsibilities to Frodo; he insisted on being allowed to accompany him. He carried most of the luggage, cooked, kept watch at night whenever he could, and rationed the food so Frodo had enough for the journey. It was then they encountered Gollum, who quickly became their guide. Sam never trusted the creature, and rightly, as he eventually led them to the lair of Shelob in an attempt to gain the ring after they were eaten by her. Sam was able to wound Shelob, defeating her, but not before she had stung Frodo, paralyzing and apparently killing him.
To continue the mission, Sam was forced to take the ring himself, and briefly became a Ring-Bearer. Unique among the Ring-Bearers, he was able to throw off the Ring's promise of power with barely a moment of temptation, and used it's power of invisibility to rescue Frodo from the Orcs who held him captive. The two then journey alone, through many dangers, encountering Gollum again, to the eventual climax of the story and the destruction of the ring at Mount Doom.
After the hobbits' return home and the Battle of Bywater, Sam travelled the length and breadth of the Shire replanting trees that had been cut down during Saruman's brief reign of terror. He used the gift of earth given to him by the Lady Galadriel, which caused the saplings he planted to grow at an accelerated rate. The small amount remaining he took to the Three-Farthing Stone (roughly the centre of the Shire) and cast into the air, prompting the bountiful period of growth starting in the spring of the year 1420 (Shire Reckoning). The greatest wonder was a young mallorn tree sprouting in the Party Field: "the only mallorn west of the Mountains and east of the Sea" (grown from an acorn included as part of Galadriel's gift).
After the War of the Ring, Sam married Rose "Rosie" Cotton and moved to Bag End with Frodo. Sam and Rosie had thirteen children: Elanor the Fair, Frodo, Rose, Merry, Pippin, Goldilocks, Hamfast, Daisy, Primrose, Bilbo, Ruby, Robin, and Tolman.
After Sam and Rose's first child was born it was revealed that Frodo would leave Middle-earth, along with Bilbo (Sam's old hero), Gandalf and most of the remaining Elves, for the Undying Lands. Before Frodo left, he gave the estate of Bag End to Sam, as well as the Red Book of Westmarch for Sam to continue, hinting that Sam, too, might be allowed to travel into the West eventually.
After the death of his wife in the year 62 of the Fourth Age (Shire Reckoning 1482), Sam entrusted the Red Book to Elanor and left the Shire. He was not seen again in Middle-earth, but Elanor and her descendants preserved the tradition that he went to the Grey Havens and sailed into the West. As the last of the Ring-bearers, he was entitled to sail across the Sea and be reunited with Frodo in the Undying Lands.