The series
The Lord of the Rings series is designed for you to relive the epic journey of Frodo, Sam and the Fellowship of the Ring from the quiet town of Hobbiton all the way to the fiery pits of Mount Doom where you must destroy the ring of power. It has been designed so that you can park your car at at the start (The Shire) and do the entire journey on foot which will bring you back in a big loop where you will finish not far from where you started - this will take you about 3 hours plus finding time. Of course you could also drive around and grab the caches, but you won't get the true Lord of the Rings experience! To complete this multi-cache you will have needed to have found all 14 series caches and collected the clues from the backs of all the character cards.
The cache
Make your way to the base of Mt Doom at the posted coordinates.
You are about to attempt to climb Mt Doom. Just like Frodo and Sam making the final climb up to destroy the Ring, the way is not easy. However there is no need to do any hard climbing or to do anything dangerous - you just need to follow your nose to the peak! Nearby you will see a concrete path - you will be walking up this path to Mt Doom. Along the way you will sometimes need to make a decision of which way to go when the path branches with 2 options. The rules are:
1. Choose the forward-most path
2. If forward is not a clear option, choose the option that goes upwards.
There are also checkpoints along the way which will help you know you are on the right track:
At the posted coordinates, you are standing at the first checkpoint. Have a look at the 12 "postcards" below of some of the locations in Lord of the Rings, and find which location you are at. As you walk up Mt Doom you need to be on the watch for these locations and take note of which order they appear in. You then need to assign a number to each location - number 1 for the first, number 2 for the second, number 3 for the third etc.
For example, at posted coordinates you think it looks like "Isengard", so Isengard = 1. You then continue up the path and come across something that looks like "Helms Deep", so Helms Deep = 2 and so on.
So you are ready to begin your journey now - good luck!
Once you have reached the top of Mt Doom:
You are almost there! Now that you have collected all the required numbers of characters and locations, have a well-earned rest (there is a nice log nearby, and not a half-bad view!) and calculate where the final is hidden. Have a look and see if you can spot Bree, Weathertop, Moria, Lothlorien, Orthanc, Rohan and Fangorn Forest from up here.
There were many moments through the story of Lord of the Rings that needed to happen so that the One Ring may be destroyed. All of these moments will now all work together to allow you to destroy the Ring and defeat Sauron. Note: * means multiplication.
A = Merry * Pippin * Sam * Frodo * The Shire
B = Elrond * Frodo * Rivendell
C = The Balrog * Gandalf
D = Galadriel * Lothlorien
E = Eowyn * Wormtongue * Plains of Rohan
F = Saruman * Eomer * Helms Deep
G = Merry * Pippin * Treebeard * Fangorn Forest
H = Saruman * Wormtongue * Treebeard * Isengard
J = Faramir * The Ring * The White Tree of Gondor
K = Gandalf * Faramir * The Witch-king * Osgiliath
L = Legolas * Gimli * Aragorn * Army of the Dead * The Paths of the Dead
M = Gollum * Frodo * Sam * Shelob * Stairs of Cirith Ungol
N = Aragorn * Mouth of Sauron * The Black Gate
XXX = A + B + C + D + E + F + G + H + 55
YYY = J + K + L + M + N + 32
The Final can be found at S 37° 53.XXX E 145° 18.YYY
Reduced checksum: South=4, East=4
To get to GZ you will need to get through the fence at WP1 "Fence access", and then to the trailhead at WP2 "GZ Trailhead" - the cache is about 30m from the path.
The story
Sam carries Frodo up to Mount Doom, but Gollum arrives and attacks them, just as the Battle of the Morannon begins. At the Crack of Doom, Frodo, instead of dropping the Ring into the fire, succumbs to its power and puts it on, disappearing from sight. The act alerts Sauron, who sends the Ringwraiths racing towards Mount Doom. Gollum renders Sam unconscious then attacks Frodo, seizing his ring finger and biting it off. As Gollum rejoices at finally having reclaimed his Precious, Frodo, still under the sway of the Ring's attraction, charges at Gollum. After a brief struggle, they both fall over the edge of the precipice. Gollum falls into the fire with the Ring, while Frodo barely hangs on with his strength failing. Sam rescues Frodo as the Ring finally sinks into the lava and is destroyed. Sauron's Eye screams as his essence fades before the tower of Barad-dûr collapses and then explodes, forever banishing his power. The Orcs, Ringwraiths and the remaining forces of Sauron are consumed in the ensuing shockwave as the earth collapses under their feet; the Black Gate and Mordor are both shaken apart. Frodo and Sam become stranded when the entire top of Mount Doom is blown off in a large eruption. They voice their regrets at not being able to see the Shire again amidst the torrents of lava and the destruction of Barad-dur. With the destruction of the Nazgul, Gandalf is able to call upon the Eagles to carry the hobbits to safety.
They awake in Minas Tirith, reuniting with the other members of the fellowship, all of them but Boromir having survived the War of the Ring. In Minas Tirith, Aragorn is crowned King of the West, heralding the new age of peace, and marries Arwen. All of the gathered now kneel down in homage to the little hobbits. The hobbits return to the Shire, where Sam marries Rosie Cotton. Frodo, having finished writing his entry in the Red Book of Westmarch, is still suffering from the effects of the wounds he received from the Ringwraiths at Weathertop and from Shelob. Realizing that he will never have peace in Middle Earth, he decides to go with Gandalf, Bilbo, Elrond, and Galadriel to the Grey Havens and sail to Valinor, the Undying Lands. Before embarking at the havens, Frodo passes the Red Book to Sam to record the years of his life to come. Then the last ship to leave Middle Earth sets off, pulling slowly away from the shore and passing along the Straight Road into the Uttermost West. Pippin and Merry take their leave and Sam walks back home, up the lane to Bag End, where he is greeted by his wife Rosie, and his children.
