Celebrating the Pumpkinvine

From June 7 to 15, we celebrated the completion of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail after more than three decades of work.

After years of working and hoping, the final stretch of trail was completed last fall and we focused on planning a summer celebration.

At First Friday in Goshen, we celebrated bicycling and enjoyed a great concert by The Steel Wheels.

On Tuesday, June 11, nearly two hundred people gathered for a ceremony and dinner. We called it a Golden Spike Ceremony in the tradition of a golden spike being used to mark the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Goshen Mayor Gina Liechty thanked those who have given so much to make this happen. “At one time this was a very controversial initiative,” she said. “Now communities around the state and around the nation would love to have a resource like all of you have worked so hard to create. This was a grassroots initiative of a dedicated group of people who cared and persisted year after year, after year, hour after hour after hour of volunteer service to make this happen.”

John Yoder, the Friends of the Pumpkinvine’s steady leader of 30 years, reflected on the work of he and other founders and volunteers. “Every time I have this opportunity to go back and look at some of the things that we did, I’m impressed we made some good decisions. We also had some hills and valleys,” he said.

He cited four critical pieces to completing the trail:

At the dinner, Jared Beasley, president of the Friends of the Pumpkinvine board, told of how Connect in Elkhart County’s leadership and the Friends board are converging to form the Pumpkinvine Trails Coalition. This has been happening for some time and was formally announced that night.

That dinner was a highlight of the celebration week. It honored all of the work it took to get to this point, the two generations of advocates, and was a special time marking something a lot of people weren’t quite sure would ever happen.

Two nights later, about 75 people participated in a Thresher Meal ride, which consisted of about 20 miles of cycling, round-trip, and a traditional meal at an Amish home.

On Saturday, June 15, Celebration Week concluded with the annual Pumpkinvine Bike Ride. This year was marked with a special significance since for the first time, it took place on a fully connected trail.  500 people gathered in the morning to ride routes of up to 100 miles.