50 Nebraskaland • November 2021
f you've ever "blazed a trail" through the woods, or gone
"bushwhacking" as some might say, you know it can often
be an unpleasant experience pushing your way through
branches, brush and tall grass.
Life is much easier on a trail. And wildlife agree. That's why
a hike through any woodland or prairie will reveal a series of
what we often call game trails. These trails, to put it simply,
are the easiest paths between points A and B.
That was certainly the case with a trail on a friend's
property along the Platte River south of Wood River, on
which I placed two camera traps for the better part of two
years in hopes of capturing a photo of a river otter.
Not only did the camera capture photos of otters, including
a mother and her fi ve pups, it also captured images of other
species using the trail, including raccoons, mink, mice,
muskrats, opossums, deer, a bobcat, beavers, a hen wood
duck and her brood, a few random birds that just dropped in
for a drink and three species of turtles: painted, snapping and
spiny softshell. And raccoons. So many photos of raccoons.
Trails such as
this one are found
everywhere there
is wildlife. Some
have been used
for generations.
Some were so
well defi ned that
man, be it the
Native Americans,
E u r o a m e r i c a n
explorers or fur
traders, followed them and took the same routes. Some even
became roads.
This trail covers a scant 75 feet of land between the two
water bodies it connects. One water body is what is left of
the south channel of the Platte River. Now disconnected from
the river where it splits from the main channel near Kearney,
its fl ows are fed mainly by groundwater. The other, on the
north end of the trail, is a stream that fl ows from the Platte
during high fl ows and is fed by groundwater when the river is
low. Both streams fl ow through sandpit lakes above the trail
and rejoin the main channel of the Platte about one-third of
a mile downstream.
On the north end, the trail climbs a steep bank, crosses a
two-track trail road, and ducks into a 40-foot stretch of grass
and brush before dropping down the bank into the south
channel of the Platte. One of my cameras captured photos on
the trail through the brush during the day. The other was set
Story and photos by Eric Fowler
I
One Trail
Many species use
a well-worn path
between two waters
