Dwarves and the northern war of the rings

[Dain]

That was part of the reason that brought Gloin and Gimli to Imladris in the first place.

Right, that makes sense. But, still why wait so long?

Doug, Gloin says something like "and then we learned that the Black Rider had visited Dale" or somesuch (I don't have FotR on me, for various annoying reasons). It just seemed like it took a while to find out, while you'd think with the proximity of Dale to the mountain, they'd share news of such an ominous stranger.

It was a nazgul, it could only be one from the discription. It doesn't seem to match the timeline, though, does it? When did the nine first go abroad? Perhaps they exaggerated their "year"...

I'm trying to set my story in the time between this and the battle at Erebor, so I was just trying to imagine what the Dwarves were doing. A year isn't that long for a patient dwarf, though, I guess...