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That's What I'm Tolkien About Mystery Cache

Hidden : 12/30/2007
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
3 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Located in George Washington National Forest. Terrain is slightly difficult for some vehicles since the trailhead is off of a gravel road. Cache is in a lockable tupperware.

Coordinates listed above are for the parking area only. To reach this area leaving Harrisonburg, head on 33 East. Once you pass the Log Cabin Restaurant (shortly after the entrance to Massanutten), take the next left on to East Point Road. Take this road for approximately four miles until you reach the sign for Runkles Gap Road (sign to Katherine Furnace). Take a left on this road and you will enter George Washington National Forest. This should get you to the coordinates listed above. From Elkton or Shenandoah, I would recommend following the directions given by Shmair for Not Really a Planet (GC16ZA0).

You will park at the area near the Peterfish Gap sign. You will have to follow the pinkish-purple trail blazes to reach the cache.

My wife and I decided to place this cache to honor J.R.R. Tolkien. We are both big fans of his Lord of the Rings books and recent movie adaptations and thought we would add a little challenge to this.

Despite anyone's feelings towards the books or movies, you have to appreciate the depth of detail that Tolkien used to create the world of Middle Earth. One of these areas of detail was his creation of Elvish languages.

To find the coordinates of the actual cache, you will need to translate the following from Elvish. Get your geeky Hobbit on and solve it. You will need to use the following website: http://arwen-undomiel.com/elvish/elv_to_eng.html

Forod Neled Toloth Tad Toloth. Canad Leben Min

Dun (Min Leben Eneg Toloth Tad Odog Eneg) multiplied by Leben

Thanks to some recent caches in the area, hopefully this area will get some more attention. I would encourage anyone to bring along a trashbag and cache in/trash out. It seems to be these woods are overrun by some drinkers and sloppy campers.

Original contents are a Jeep travel bug, a 13 colonies geocoin, some stretchy lizards, log book, pen, and some Lord of the Rings Card games. Calo anor na ven!

Congrats to Shmair for the FTF! You're lucky you weren't shot lurking like a drunken Frankenstein during hunting season in the dark. :)

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Haqrearngu n pbhcyr bs fgbarf oybpxvat n fgbar gbzo.

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)