(I'm really irked that my heel issues mean I can't do the black stair on a stairmaster, humph.)
(Mar 1) Swim .25 miles; 286.75 miles
(Feb 27) Walk .75 miles; 286.5 miles:
Above the stair, the cutting continues with a winding path – still climbing, but needs no steps: “seemed to go on for miles.”(Feb 26) Walk 2.25 miles; 285.75 miles: Road curves east again, next to the ravine of the Morgulduin. Way slants up steeply. Frodo glances across the vale and sees Minas Morgul ... Come to the white bridge. The road crosses it and winds up to the city gates. All is rotten, cold. Frodo totters forward as if to cross the bridge, but Sam stops him. Gollum leads them back across the road to a gap in the stone wall – a path along the slopes north of the river ... On a high shelf overlooking the city Frodo stops. The Morgul-host marches forth ... Continue up path a short way. Reach bottom of the Straight Stair. Stair is cut into the cliff with walls on each side, steps narrow, uneven, and steep as a ladder.
(Feb 25) Walk 2.5 miles; 283.25 miles: Turn east and reach the Southward Road. Follow the road into a great ring of trees to the Cross-roads. The setting sun lights the fallen head of the statue of a King of Gondor ... Pass east out of the trees, following the Morgul-road. Road climbs steeply, but is straight ... At the top of a ‘flatiron’ the road cuts through the steep-faced drop and curves sharply south around a “great shoulder of rock.”
(Feb 24) Walk 2.25 miles; 280.75 miles: Turn south across a long broken slope.
(Feb 23) Walk 2.25 miles; 278.5 miles: Climb a great ‘hogback’ – climb the steep backslope, covered with spiny thickets. Descend the even steeper cliff face. Part way down, crawl into a ‘hollow hall’ formed by a “tangled knot of thorns.” Sleep ... THE DAWNLESS DAY ... Day grows even darker as time passes. Gollum wakes them (ca. 4 p.m.): “No time to lose.” Leads them down the hillside.
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