Introduction to Östgötaleden (E6 European Long-Distance Path)

Östgötaleden is the next part of the E6 European long distance path through Sweden in the south to north direction after Höglandsleden. As with Höglandsleden (see here) it is hard at first to find which part of the trail are part of the E6 European long distance path and for that reason I'm listing all of the parts of Östgötaleden which I believe are relevant (from the description it is hard to know exactly but based on this map I think I figured it out). First however I will share some useful advice.
In total the part of the Östgötaleden trail that overlaps with E6 is around 273.5km. Note however that this is split into two disjoint parts: Roughly 235.7km from the county border between Småland and Östergötland where Östgötaleden connects with Höglandsleden (previous part of E6) to Stegeborg in Söderköping municipality. The second part is the 37.8km between Bergkulla (near Norrköping) and Halsbråten where Östgötaleden connects with Sörmlandsleden (next part of E6). As for maps there are several options. There is a digital map where you can see the different parts of Östgötaleden. But there are also paper maps. To cover most of the relevant parts of the trail you can buy the Linköping map. To cover the northern parts of the trail you can buy the Norrköping map (this map is also covers some of the southern parts of Sörmlandsleden and is useful when continuing E6 north). However some parts are not included in these two maps, for instance the parts between the Småland-Östergötland county border and Pinnarp near Kisa. What you can do is to go to Lantmäteriet's map service and save the required maps as pdf and print them out. I've already done that so I'm offering the maps for download here. As for information about the different stages you can check the Östgötaleden website (see Östgötaledens etapper). The final tip is that you can make use of the Östgötatrafiken local traffic service. This is especially useful when planning day trips because using this service you will be able to reach locations that are unavailable with regular public transport and this greatly simplifies the ability to split up the walks into manageable chunks.
The different stages of Östgötaleden that overlap with E6 European long distance path are listed below in order from south to north. The municipalities are listed in brackets and the distances have been measured manually using Läntmäteriet's map service.

1. [Ydre] Brantefall-Länsgränsen (10.2km)

2. [Ydre] Ydregården-Brantefall (9.6km)

3. [Ydre] Bulsjögård-Ydregården (4.4km)

4. [Ydre] Ådala-Bulsjögård (6.4km)

5. [Ydre] Vassvikeberget-Ådala (4.5km)

6. [Ydre] Visskvarn-Vassvikeberget (2.6km)

7. [Ydre] Svenningeby-Visskvarn (7km)

8. [Kinda] Smedstorp-Pinnarp (13km)

9. [Kinda] Kisa-Smedstorp (only a 1km segment)

10. [Kinda] Pinnarp-Pålhult (16.4km)

11. [Kinda] Pålhult-Rimforsa (15.7km)

12. [Kinda] Rimforsa-Linköpingsgränsen (11.4km)

13. [Linköping] Sätravallen-Brokind (only a 1.9km segment)

14. [Kinda] Linköpingsgränsen-Åtvidabergsgränsen (10km)

15. [Åtvidaberg] Månebo-Templet (16km)

16. [Åtvidaberg] Templet-Falerum (18.2km)

17. [Åtvidaberg] Falerum-Vadet (17.6km of the stage)

18. [Åtvidaberg] Vadet-Solliden (21.2km)

19. [Valdemarksvik] Valdemarsvik västerut (5.8km)

20. [Valdemarksvik] Valdemarsvik norrut (21.7km of the stage)

21. [Söderköping] Forsum-Nartorp (6.6km)

22. [Söderköping] Nartorp-Stegeborg (15.5km)

23. [Norrköping] Connecting trail Bergkulla-Sörsjön (10.8km)

24. [Norrköping] Sörsjön-Graverfors (6.5km)

25. [Norrköping] Graverfors-Mela (5.4km)

26. [Norrköping] Mela-Halsbråten (15.1km)