I was going through cardboard boxes stored in the attic when I
stumbled across it like a buried treasure
– A unopened boxed collection of audio tapes that held the BBC
radio version of the famous tale
”
The Hobbit,
”
by J.R.R. Tolkein.
I was going through cardboard boxes stored in the attic when I stumbled across it like a buried treasure – A unopened boxed collection of audio tapes that held the BBC radio version of the famous tale “The Hobbit,” by J.R.R. Tolkein.
I recalled buying the set in a small book store in the English city of Bath when I was a student there more than 10 years ago. I had purchased it because, as a kid, I had loved the story of Bilbo Baggins and his amazing journey and had read the novel several times. I had placed the audio tapes in the box of souvenirs from England and promptly forgot about it.
Then last month – like the famous Ring of the story found by Bilbo in the tunnels under the Misty Mountains – I happened to stumble upon those tapes in the darkness of the attic. And I felt enchanted with my discovery.
With the Dec. 18 release of the film “The Two Towers,” the second part of “The Lord of the Rings” saga, I felt it was the perfect time to listen once again to the old tale. But the perfect location to hear it? What better place to visit Tolkein’s Middle-earth than a hike along the Middle Ridge trail at Henry Coe State Park east of Morgan Hill.
Late one November afternoon after coming home from work, I packed up sandwiches and water and drove up to the park’s headquarters entrance. Into my sweatshirt pocket, I placed a map a ranger at the headquarters had given me, put the first tape of the BBC production in my personal stereo and began listening to chapter one where Bilbo Baggins receives an unexpected visitor: The Wizard Gandalf.
As I listened, in my imagination, the tranquil ranch setting of Henry Coe transformed itself into another world. Hiking up a steep ravine through oaks, I half expected to meet Gandalf, Bilbo and the 13 dwarves led by Thorin. The landscape of the state park easily fit in with the story setting as I listened to the taped production of “The Hobbit.”
I was walking through a deep ravine when I came to the part where the dwarves and Bilbo are captured by three ornery trolls. The ravine easily could have been the place where these trolls lived before Gandalf used his cunning to turn them into stone and save the adventurers. Was that large stone sticking out of the ground over there the remains of one of the trolls?
I arrived at Frog Lake just as the adventurers arrived at the elf community of Rivendell. There, the adventurers took a rest, and I also did with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and water. The elf leader Eldrond examined an ancient map Thorin carried, and I took out my trail map to decide what direction to now continue on my journey. Up the hill toward Middle Ridge, I decided.
As they climbed up the Misty Mountains, I also began my ascent. I passed a plastic water trough for horses along the trail and wondered if the ponies the adventurers rode might not have drunk from it. OK, I didn’t hit a blizzard and get pelted by great boulders from the Stone Giants like they did, but as the oak trees grew thicker, I easily imagined myself among the dwarves and Bilbo entering the tunnels of the Misty Mountains and fighting the ferocious goblins.
The best part of the book is when Bilbo meets the slimy, nasty Gollum in the tunnels and both ask each other riddles in the dark. Bilbo stumbles upon the Ring, little suspecting his discovery would one day set in motion the story line for three mega-million dollar movies. But it helped him get out of the tunnels and kept him from becoming lunch for Gollum.
As I hiked along the top of the Middle Ridge, looking down at the valleys on either side of the trail, I heard the howl of coyotes. Their chilling cry was close enough to the howl of the wargs, the huge evil wolves that chased Gandalf, the dwarves and Bilbo into trees. And the great eagles that came and rescued them from the jaws of certain death from the wargs? That was the two hawks I saw circling high over the valleys.
Another part of the adventure takes place in Mirkwood, and the stand of Henry Coe’s madrone trees with their creepy, arm-like branches stood in for the strange trees of Tolkein’s forest. I half expected giant spiders to slither out of the madrone and bind me up in their webs.
As I followed the adventurers on their quest, the Henry Coe trails continued serving as the perfect setting for the story. The wood elves kidnaping the dwarves and Bilbo saving them by putting them into empty wine barrels to float along the Forest River. The encounter with Smaug, the loathsome dragon who greedily guarded his gold hoard deep in the heart of the Lonely Mountain.
And at the climax of the story, as I hiked in the dark with only the full moon lighting my way through the trees, I relived in my mind the great battle of goblins and wargs versus elves, dwarves, humans and one peculiar hobbit named Bilbo.
As I arrived back at the headquarters, Bilbo and Gandalf also arrived back at the hobbit village and home. It seemed perfect the way the hike and the story ended simultaneously. My mind filled with the vividness of the story as I stood at the parking lot and looked down at the lights of Gilroy and Morgan Hill miles away. Or might they really be cities of Middle Earth?
I remember during my years living in London I made several trips to Oxford, a place that’s truly special in my heart. It was here that J.R.R. Tolkein wrote his masterworks “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. I’m sure the great fantasy writer never visited Henry Coe State Park, but his classic tale of Bilbo Baggins, at least for me, seemed to fit perfectly into the rugged beauty of its wilderness setting.
