Homer's Travels: Hiking Nebraska: MoPac East Trail - Lincoln to Eagle

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Hiking Nebraska: MoPac East Trail - Lincoln to Eagle

Sunrise on the MoPac East Trail
The MoPac East trail started its life as a Missouri Pacific Railroad right-away.  The trail starts in east Lincoln, NE and extends some 26 miles to just east of Wabash, NE.  The long, straight, and flat trail passes through four small towns.  Someday, budget willing, this trail will connect with others and you will be able to bike/hike from Lincoln to Omaha.  This week I walked part of this trail turning around in the town of Eagle.

The trail reminded me a lot of the Wabash Trace in south-western Iowa (I walked it in sections earlier this year).  The trail passes by horse ranches, farm land, and restored prairie.  The trail surface is typical crushed limestone and is fairly well maintained.  This portion of the trail crosses a couple bridges, the Stevens Creek Bridge (also called the Walton Bridge) east of Walton is the most impressive.

The trail, tree lined along most of the way, passes through Walton, Eagle, Elmwood, and Wabash.  I decided to turn around at Eagle as it was ten miles from Lincoln and going any farther wouldn't have been a good idea.  At Eagle I stopped at a tiny little grocery store and bought something to drink with the lunch that I'd packed.  I sat at a picnic table in a large public park, siting in the sun to compensate for the temperatures in the 40s-50s, and ate my lunch, gaving my feet and legs a deserved rest.

Traffic picked up on the way back.  I was passed by several bikers enjoying the trail.  My favorite cyclist was an elderly woman on a pink bike with red and white hearts.  The MoPac East trail is a terrific bike trail and I will return with my bike when I start training for RAGBRAI.

There are at least seven geocaches along this portion of the MoPac East.  I managed to find four.  My geosenses seemed a little off on this hike.

My right big toe was sore during the hike.  Actually it was more the joint where the toe connects to the foot. Feels a little like tendonitis, which I have a history of.  I'm going to rest the foot for the next week or so to let it heal a bit.

This was a good long hike that would be an even better bike ride.  I managed to do 20.88 miles with 1,988 feet of ascent.  I didn't really take any interesting pictures except for the one at the top of this post of the sun coming up over the trail.

4 comments:

  1. Um, ya got a little bit of a lens flare there, just so's ya know. ;)

    Sounds like it's time to pull out the bike. Not the same as hiking for preparing for the big hike, but would give you some good cardio training...

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  2. The flare looks like Wonderland, so I like it. :D


    Big toes and pinky toes are pretty important. Good to take care of those.

    This is an interesting trail!!

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  3. We used to walk that trail. We lived near it in Lincoln. Hope your toe feels better. When you find out what the prob with your big toe is, let me know, I'm having the same prob.

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  4. GH: I kind of like it ... as does Miss McC ... so your opinion is out voted.

    I'm thinking about the bike.

    Miss McC: Thanks! The foot is rested up and feels good as new so i'm thinking about going out for another hike this week. It will probably be a shorter hike though.

    Dobegil: I think my issue is tendonitis. I've had it in my feet for almost 20 years now.

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