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Pumpkinvine Ride in Goshen, IN


On June 18th, my wife and I drove to Goshen to do the annual Pumkinvine ride.  They offer a 50 mile and a 100 mile (actually, 103 mile) ride through Amish country in northern Indiana.  Proceeds benefit the Pumkinvine trail, a paved rail trail that runs between Goshen and Shipshewana, Indiana.  We planned to do the century, my wife's first this year and my first one in nearly three years.  It would also be Kathy's longest ride (a new PR) and my second longest.  As a matter of fact, it's been 25 years since I've done a ride longer than this.

We met up with Kelly, a long time friend and frequent riding partner of Kathy.  We left the Elkhart county fairgrounds at 8am with no preconceived notions of average speed and no hurry to finish.  The ride was well marked, but just in case I had downloaded the route to Kathy's Garmin so we had an easy to follow map.

The country is beautiful in this part of Indiana.  For the most part, things move a little slower up there.  We saw many Amish horse and buggies as we rode.  As neat as it was to see the horse and buggies so often, it also made for one of the biggest downsides of the ride: where there are horses, there is horse poo.  On the road.  It wasn't too bad since it tended to be in the same general area of the road - you had tire tracks and a poo track.  Just stay away from the poo track, especially if it's fresh!

We loved seeing all the old farms along the way.  A lot of dairy cows, clothes hung on a line to dry, and horses in the fields pulling mowing and tilling equipment.  Traffic was very light, the roads were good, and there wasn't a single dog on the road.  Quite a bit different than what we're used to around Indianapolis.


We cruised along at an easy pace that we knew would get us to the end without any problems.  In hindsight, it was probably too slow - our average was only 13.5, completing the ride in a little over 7.5 hours.  Far slower than we normally ride but like I said before, we were in no hurry and the weather was fantastic for a bike ride.

The last sag stop was in Shipshewana, at about 85 miles.  We grabbed sandwiches, refilled bottles, and got moving pretty quickly so we didn't get too stiff.  We rode through town for a bit until we got to the Pumkinvine trail head for the last 13 miles of the ride.  Oh- I don't want to forget one of the highlights of the ride- the pie and ice cream at the finish! mmmmm.

This is a great ride that I would recommend to anyone.  The sag stops were well stocked with food and the volunteer staff were very friendly.  Good roads, peaceful countryside, well marked courses and friendly faces.  I can't wait to do it again next year!

http://ride.pumpkinvine.org/

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