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.
For as many good guys there are in our story, there are an equal number of bad guys. The Balrog is the bad guy for finding your way through the Mines of Moria.
History of the Balrog
The Balrogs were Maiar, of the same order as Sauron, Saruman and Gandalf. They were seduced by Melkor, who corrupted them to his service in the days of his splendour before the making of Arda.
At the dawn of the First Age, upon the waking of the Elves, the Valar captured Melkor and destroyed his fortresses Utumno and Angband . But the deepest pits were overlooked, and the Balrogs fled into hiding along with Melkor's other allies. Many years later, Melkor, now named Morgoth, returning to Middle-earth from Valinor, was attacked by Ungoliant, and his piercing scream drew the Balrogs out of hiding to his rescue.
When the Noldor arrived in Beleriand in pursuit of Morgoth, they won a swift victory over his Orcs in the Dagor-nuin-Giliath. Fëanor pressed on towards Angband; but the Balrogs came against him, and Fëanor was mortally wounded by Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs. His sons fought off the Balrogs, but Fëanor died of his wounds shortly afterward.
Tolkien tells of two Balrogs slain by Elves in the fall of Gondolin. During the assault on the city, Ecthelion of the Fountain fought Gothmog in the square of the king where "each slew the other." Glorfindel fought a Balrog who waylaid an escape party from the fallen city; both fell off the mountainside in the struggle and perished. In the War of Wrath that ended the First Age, most of the Balrogs were destroyed, though some managed to escape and hide in "caverns at the roots of the earth".
In the year 1980 of the Third Age, the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm delved so deeply that they disturbed or released one of the hidden Balrogs. The Balrog killed Durin VI and his son Náin I, and was subsequently known as Durin's Bane (below). The Balrog forced the Dwarves to abandon Moria. In T.A. 3019, the Fellowship of the Ring also ventured through Moria and were attacked in the Chamber of Mazarbul by Orcs and the Balrog. Gandalf faced the Balrog at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. He slew the Balrog but perished himself at the same time — only to be sent back as the more powerful Gandalf the White.