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06/14/2006: "'Nimblewood Nomad' passes through Crofton on cross country walk"

South Dakota calls itself the “Land of Infinite Variety,” but if one were to ask M.J. Eberhart which state has provided him the most “variety” on his current venture, he’d probably answer, “Neb-raska.”
Eberhart, who goes by “Eb,” is a retired optometrist from the middle of Missouri who is walking the return route of Lewis & Clark.
Yes, walking.

Upon his retirement from a Florida optometric clinic where “after being cooped-up in examination rooms with no windows for nearly 30 years ... I started making up for lost time,” Eb took up long distance walking as a hobby.
Well, first he moved back to his roots, central Missouri. He lives along the Nimblewood Creek near the base of Springer Montain, all of which is close to Russellville, Misouri, population 758, where set up his retirement home.
But Eb has rarely been home since the early 1980s. According to the biography on his website, www.nimblewillnomad.com, he began to cultivate his hobby about that time. Actually, he began before moving to Missouri, as he walked “a good bit of the Florida Trail and about half of the Appalachian Trail, from Springer Mountain, Goergia to Duncan-non, Pennsylvania, all in jerks and starts over a period of 15 years or so.”
In 1998, Eb took his cross country hiking to the next level, as he walked the Florida Trail to the Cliffs of Forillion, Cap Gas-pe’, Quebec ... a journey of over 4,000 miles!
It was during this trek that Eb took on his trail name: Nimble-wood Nomad.
In 2000 and 2001, Eb went up to Quebec and walked back along the same route, but adding a jaunt across the Appalachian Mountain range and a walk over the Long Range Mountains in Newfound-land, Canada. All told, he walked over 5,000 miles in the 347 days of that trip.
In 2002, he made his first cross continental walk, traversing the nation from Cape Hatteras, NC to San Diego, CA, covering over 3,000 miles in 147 days.
After deciding to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Lewis & Clark expedition with a walk along the Corps of Disco-very’s westward trek, Eb warmed up for that jaunt by traversing the Natchez Trace Trail from Nash-ville, TN to Natches, MS.
In 2004, at the age of 66, Eb accomplished his goal of walking from St. Louis to Fort Clatsop, OR, a trip of 138 days that logged 3,055 miles. On that trip, his route took him from Ponca to Wynot and then to Yankton, as he turned northward on Highway 81, opting to move into South Dakota to follow the Missouri River on its northern path.
His goal then, was to return to Oregon in 2006 and retrace the trail the Corps of Discovery took on its return to St. Louis.
During the year in between, 2005, Eb planned to walk the United States’ Continental Divide from Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada to Ante-lope Wells, New Mexico, on the US-Mexican border, a trip that would have taken 129 days and would have covered 2,519 miles.
But on the 74th day of his trip, and walking over several mountains in Colorado, after having covered nearly 1,500 miles, a case of shingles was sapping his energy, and he was forced to return home to Missouri.
His final entry in that trip’s journal read, “Dear friends, for you and all who’ve taken inspiration from my writings and from this adventure, I’m truly sorry I’ve let you down. Please know that there is no one more disappointed about my quitting than me. Quitting isn’t my nature.  The simple fact: I could no longer continue. But I am optimistic. There will come another day -- there will be another time.”
Undaunted, Eb traveled back to Oregon this spring, and on March 23, the same date but 200 years later, he took off for the “Journey of Discovery, the Ret-urn,” as Eb dubbed it.
So far the trip has gone as planned. He hopes to arrive in St.
Continued on page 20
Nimblewood Nomad

Louis in late September, having logged 2,618 miles in 124 days.
“This journey will not be as long as the trip I made to the west coast in 2004,” Eb relayed. “On their way to the west coast Lewis and Clark took a much longer route, finding out later that there was a shorter and better way. I took the route Meriwether Lewis did after the captains split up in order to explore more country on the way back.”
Of course, if he keeps hitting the variety of weather he faced during his time in this area, he may have other thoughts. Eb spent Thursday night at the Niobrara Valley House of Renewal in Lynch, enabling him to enjoy a rare shower, hot meal and soft bed.
Eb said that when he came through Niobrara on Friday, the heat was oppressive. “It was over 100 degrees when I went up that hill,” he said of his walk up the hill on Highway 12 just past the Ohiya Casino.
But then things changed.
Of his trek across Knox County into Crofton, Eb said, “There must have been 60 degrees difference when I came here.” By the time he had set up his tent and campsite in the South City Park, the temprature was hovering in the 50s.
“I had to walk with my hands in my pockets a few times out there,” he noted.
Eb keeps in touch with the folks back home, as well as posts daily entries on his trip journal through the use of a PocketMail Composer, which enabled him to send and receive emails.
Obviously, because he is walking, he isn’t carrying a lot of gear. But he hauls the essentials, including a small tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, first aid items, a digital camera, GPS, data and maps in a Ziploc bag, a minimal amount of clothing, and a number of miscellaneous items ... all of which add up to 15.5 pounds og gear packed into his backpack. He wears hiking gaters to protect the lower portion of his legs, and he uses a pair of ultralite trekking poles (similar to ski poles).
This 68-year-old does not accept rides while walking on the trail. However, he will accept a ride if it is to someplace off the trail. When he returns to the trail, it is to the exact spot that he left it.
He posts daily entries in a journal on his website. The site also has information about he previous long distance walks, as well as a sampling of poetry he has written whie on and off the trail.
One such poem, written in 2001, is as follows:
A Path by the Side of the Road
Lord set me a path by the wide of the road,
Pray this be a part of your plan.
Then heap on the burden and pile on the load
‘n I’ll trek it the best that i can.

Please bless me with patience, touch strength to me back;
Then cvut me loose and I’ll go.
Just like the burro totin’ his pack,
The oxen plowin’ his row.

And once on this journey, a witness for you
To’rd truth, they way ... and the light.
Shine bright my countenance steady andtreu,
O’er the pathway to goodness and right.

And lest I should falter and lest I should fail.
Let all who know that Itried.
For I am a blunderer, feeble and frail.
When you, dear Lord I’ve denied.

So blessed by the day your judgement comes due,
And blessed be they mercy you showed.
Oh blessed be this journey -- all praises to you -
O’er this path by the side of the road.