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Something upset me about the Long Lake for month now.

I have re-read The Hobbit recently and it is said that when Thorin&Company leave Esgaroth, that they were rowed for two day on the lake and then another day going up River Running toward Lonely Mountain.

Given a, said, a (very) conservative speed of 1,25 mph for rowing the boat, 8 hours a day and for two day, give a neat 20 miles (ot two hex) long for the (long) lake, and we know that Esgaroth was situated on the northern half of this body of water. So, we should have at least a lake 40 miles long, all said and fact given by cannon. This is hardly the case, in any map that I found on Wilderland. So my two cent is that the long lake is grossly dwarfed on map of Middle Earth, as it should be more wide and long.

To get matter complicated, Tolkien said that the fall at the end of the lake are to be heared when in good weather, but earing a fall (even a big one) at a 20 miles as the fly crow in not an easy feat. I have still to made my opinion on that, but what are you thinking of the size of the Long Lake?

Yes, looking at the Middle-earth maps of Christopher Tolkien, we can estimate Long Lake to be about 25 miles long. Using the TOR Journey rules, the company should have been able to reach the north end of the lake in less than a day. However, the current of the river was strong, suggesting that they could only row upstream at a rate of about 5 miles or so per day. One more day's travel on foot brought them to the Mountain near Ravenhill.

In two days going they rowed right up the Long Lake and passed out into the River Running, and now they could all see the Lonely Mountain towering grim and tall before them. The stream was strong and their going slow. At the end of the third day, some miles up the river, they drew in to the left or western bank and disembarked.

I wonder if Tolkien originally conceived of a different scale for his map of Wilderland that would have made the Long Lake about 50 miles from north to south. It would have also doubled the distance from Lake-town to Erebor. This also helps to explain the company's slow rate of travel through Eriador.

The Journey rules do make the company's speed in Peter Jackson's The Desolation of Smaug seem a bit more reasonable, though they still reach the Lonely Mountain much more quickly than they should have.

On this subject, the Long Lake is not "filled in" with black coloring completely, like the Black Tarn is. On our maps, it just looks like the river splits apart and comes back together, like the Anduin does forming islands. I'm thinking about taking a black permanent marker, or some paint, and fixing it.