The path of the Hobbit?

[Tinman]

I know that the world of the hobbit was established before the fine tuning of the lord of the rings... but is it to be believed that the Dwaves and Bilbo probabaly stopped in Bree on their way to rivendell?

It seems likely that they would have taken the main road, all the way if possible, seeing as at the time they had no need to worry about Nazgul or the likes.

Thorin seemed to have been familiar, since the adventure technically started there earlier when he had first met gandalf. Seems logical.

Is there a map that tolkien might have drawn their path on to reference?

[brownjenkins]

It's possible, and probably probable. The early journies are kind of glossed-over until the encounter with the trolls, but you'd have to think that they would have stopped there for a warm dry night along the way.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

Agreed. And they may have crashed at the Forsaken Inn, as well, if enough of it was left standing to provide some shelter.

It seems that Karen Wynn Fonstad keeps the Dwarves and Bilbo on the road from Hobbiton to Rivendell, other than their little diversion to the trolls.

[Tinman]

I don't have my copy of the book on me and my pdf died...

The dwarves lost a pony to the river... but this was from fright, not from an attempt to ford it, correct?

I ask, because I would think it was strange that they would attempt to cross the water through fording, and not take the bridge that was no doubt connected to the main road.

They picked "stealth" for this mission... but i don't think they were THAT concerned so early in the travels.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

I don't think they lost the pony, just his baggage:

Then one of the ponies took fright at nothing and bolted. He got into the river before they could catch him; and before they could get him out again, Fili and Kili were nearly drowned, and all the baggage that he carried was washed away off him. Of course it was mostly food, and there was mighty little left for supper, and less for breakfast.

This occured while they were camping under some trees. Interestingly, the text also bears on the idea that they probably had stayed in Bree as well as at many other civilized places:

They decided in the end that they would have to camp where they were. So far they had not camped before on this journey, and though they knew that they soon would have to camp regularly, when they were among the Misty Mountains and far from the lands of respectable people, it seemed a bad wet evening to begin, on.