Riding between Middlebury and Shipshewana

People are asking if they can ride on the newly paved section of trail west of CR 43. Here's the answer from Larry Neff, director of Elkhart County Parks.

"The Pumpkinvine Trail that is paved east of Middlebury is still under construction. They have several more phases before it is complete. INDOT does not like trail use until they "sign off" on a project.

In the case of the trail heading west toward Middlebury that is paved, it does not connect to anything at this point. It was designed to come to SR 13 and cross to the west side and continue to the Middlebury trail segment. However, at the last moment INDOT cancelled the design to cross SR 13 at the DQ. 

Consequently, our trail ends in a woods and we have submitted another grant to refund the short connection route to connect to the Middlebury Trail using the east side of SR 13 as the trail. We plan to do some clearing so a cyclist or hiker could get to SR 13 but they would be on their own from that point.

Please be patient we are almost complete in this area. The contactors believe they will be finished all the way to LaGrange CR 850 by August 1. Let's hope they are good estimators."