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. But none is so central as Frodo Baggins, the ring bearer. Frodo Baggins is one of the keys to finding the One Ring.
Background
Frodo, a Hobbit, is introduced in The Fellowship of the Ring as the son of Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck. At the age of twelve, Frodo lost both his parents in a boating accident, and was taken in by his mother's family, the Brandybuck clan. At twenty-one, Frodo was adopted by Bilbo Baggins, whom he thought of as his uncle (though Frodo was actually his first and second cousin once removed). The bachelor Bilbo chose Frodo as his adoptive heir, and brought him to live with him at Bag End. The two shared the same birthday (September 22). During the next twelve years, Bilbo taught Frodo a bit of Elvish, and they often took long walking trips together.
The Fellowship of the Ring opens as Frodo came of age and Bilbo left the Shire for good on his eleventy-first (111st) birthday. Frodo inherited Bag End and Bilbo's magic ring that was introduced in The Hobbit. Gandalf, at this time, was not certain about the origin of the Ring, so he warned Frodo to avoid using it and to keep it secret. Frodo kept the Ring hidden for seventeen years, until Gandalf returned to tell him that it was the One Ring of the Dark Lord, Sauron, who lacked only this to become all-powerful again and to be able to establish a virtually unending rule of darkness over Middle-earth.
Realizing that he was a danger to the Shire as long as he remained there with the Ring, Frodo decided to leave his home and take the Ring to Rivendell, home of Elrond, a mighty Elf lord. He sold his beloved Bag End, and left the Shire with three companions: his gardener Samwise Gamgee and his cousins Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took. They escaped just in time, for Sauron's most powerful servants, the Nine Nazgûl, had entered the Shire as Black Riders, looking for Bilbo and the Ring. They followed Frodo's trail across the Shire and nearly intercepted him.
At the Inn of the Prancing Pony in the village of Bree, Frodo met Aragorn, a Ranger of the North, who became the hobbits' guide while journeying through the wilderness towards Rivendell. The One Ring slipped onto Frodo's finger inadvertently in the Prancing Pony's common room, turning Frodo invisible. This attracted the attention of Sauron's agents, who ransacked the Hobbit's rooms in the night. The group, under Aragorn's guidance, quickly fled through the Midgewater Marshes and again escaped the Black Riders.
While encamped at Amon Sûl, Frodo was stabbed by the Witch-king of Angmar, the chief of the Nazgûl, with a Morgul-blade. A piece of the blade remained in his shoulder and, working its way towards his heart, threatened to turn him into a wraith under the control of the Witch-king. Upon reaching Rivendell, almost overcome by his wound, he was healed by Elrond; although it was said and later seen that the wound would never completely heal, as it was as much spiritual as physical.
In Rivendell, the Council of Elrond decided to destroy the Ring by casting it into Mount Doom in Mordor, the realm of Sauron. Frodo, realizing that he was destined for this task, stepped forward to be the Ring-bearer. A fellowship of nine companions was formed and set out from Rivendell. Armed with Sting, Bilbo's Elvish short sword, and wearing Bilbo's coat of Dwarven chain mail made of mithril under his clothes, Frodo travelled with his companions through Moria, led by Gandalf, who fell into the abyss there while fighting a Balrog. Frodo was heartbroken by Gandalf's apparent demise as the company travelled through Lothlórien, where Galadriel, the Lady of the Woods, gave Frodo an Elven cloak and a phial carrying the light of Eärendil to aid him on his quest.
At Amon Hen, the Fellowship was broken. Boromir, having fallen to the lure of the Ring, tried to take it from Frodo. This prompted Frodo to leave the company on his own. Sam followed Frodo, and joined him for the journey to Mordor.
Frodo and Sam were followed by the creature Gollum, who sought to reclaim the Ring he had possessed for centuries. The hobbits captured Gollum and Frodo "tamed" him, based on the bond of the shared experience of bearing the burden of the Ring and its seductive power, and he became the hobbits' guide into Mordor. He remained continually faithful to Frodo for a long time, until eventually the cursed part of his nature returned after Frodo supposedly betrayed him to Faramir, the Captain of the Guard of Gondor and Boromir's younger brother. Gollum did not know that what Frodo had done had saved his life.
Gollum, after an anguished internal debate, eventually betrayed them, leading them to Cirith Ungol, where he intended to deliver Frodo to the giant spider Shelob and retake the Ring from her leavings. Shelob stung Frodo, sedating him, but she was driven off by Sam. Believing Frodo to be dead, Sam took the Ring from him to continue the quest. But orcs from a nearby tower found Frodo and knew that he was only paralysed, not dead. Planning to interrogate him after his awakening, they carried him into to the tower of Cirith Ungol at the head of the pass.
Sam rescued Frodo from the orcs, and the two set off for Mount Doom, trailed by Gollum. Frodo became progressively weaker as the Ring's influence grew. When they reached the summit of the fiery mountain, Frodo finally succumbed to the power of the Ring and claimed it for his own. As all seemed lost, he was attacked by Gollum, who bit off Frodo's finger, finally regaining his "precious." As he danced around in elation, Gollum lost his balance and fell with the Ring into the Crack of Doom. The Ring thus destroyed, Sauron's power was lost and his realm ended. Frodo and Sam were rescued by Great Eagles as Mount Doom erupted.
The four hobbits of the Fellowship returned to the Shire after the coronation of Aragorn, to find it had been taken over by a gang of ruffians, led initially by Frodo's cousin, Lotho Sackville-Baggins, and then by the fallen wizard Saruman. The four travellers roused their fellow hobbits and led them in driving the ruffians out. Frodo's part in the fighting was mainly to ensure that the ruffians who surrendered were not killed.
Frodo never completely recovered from the physical, emotional and psychological wounds he suffered during the War of the Ring. He was taken ill on the anniversaries of his wounding on Weathertop and his poisoning by Shelob. He briefly served as Deputy Mayor of the Shire, but spent most of his time writing the tale of his travels. Two years after the Ring was destroyed, Frodo and Bilbo as Ring-bearers were granted passage to Valinor — where Frodo might find peace. They boarded a ship at the Grey Havens and together with Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel, the Keepers of the Three Rings, they passed over the sea and departed Middle Earth. Having no children of his own Frodo left his estate, along with the Red Book of Westmarch, to Sam.