Electric bikes on the Pumpkinvine

 On today's ride from Abshire to Pumpkinvine Cyclery, we pass two dozen people and I'd guess 90 percent were on electric bikes. On earlier bikes rides on the Pumpkinvine, I'd have said that 50 percent were on e-bikes. It's quite a trend.

The Shipshewana Trailhead

 June and I went to Shipshewana today to ride the Middlebury-to-Shipshewana section of the Pumpkinvine. Although I've been to the Shipshewana trailhead numerous times (I'm thinking mostly about the easter parking area), today I was struck more than in the past by what an excellent trailhead it is. (I kept comparing it to Abshire Park staging area.) Here are a few observations.

• The parking area is paved. I know the Abshire gravel works, but the difference with asphalt is that for anyone who puts their bikes in a car or van as we do, the asphalt means I don't have gravel dust on my tires when I put it into the van.
• The asphalt has parking lines so you know where to park -- another advantage over gravel.
• It has a large restroom, though it is some distance from the east parking area.
• It has multiple bike racks.
• There is a children's playground nearby.
• It has a drinking fountain.
• There is a large sign announcing the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail. Abshire also has one, but it is less visible than this one.
• It is downtown just blocks from several places to eat. (I'd love to see an ice cream place near Abshire Park.)

This trailhead is by far the most attractive one on the Pumpkinvine. Middlebury has no staging area unless you count Krider Garden or the new parking lot off Spring Street that is hard to find. If I were coming from Michigan to ride the Pumpkinvine, this Shipshewana trailhead is where I would go. Today we met a couple from Fort Wayne who said they come to ride the trail once a week. They also have a cabin in Michigan that brings them here. 

One other observation of the day was that one advantage of the trail being built in stages is that it can be repaired in stages, i.e., it won't all need repair at the same time. The Middlebury-to-Shipshewana section was built in 2009, so it is 15 years old. From what I've read, a trail needs resurfacing every 17 years, and this section is beginning to show its age. 

The impact of the newest Pumpkinvine section

 Yesterday, July 6, my wife and I rode from Abshire Park to Middlebury for lunch. The parking lot at Abshire was 95 percent full, and we saw many bikers on the trail. We often ride side-by-side, but because she rides a three-wheeled recumbent that is wider than a two-wheeler, I pull ahead of her when walkers or bikers approach from the other direction. But yesterday we met so many people that I didn't attempt to ride beside her. 

As we rode, I noticed more young families with small kids -- seven-to-10-year-olds -- than I normally see, and it t occurred that one reason for that increase is the opening of the newest Pumpkinvine section between County Road 20 and County Road 35. Before this new section opened, riders were forced to ride on County Road 35 and County Road 20, both of which are busy roads, and that would be problematic for young kids. Now with the Pumpkinvine completely off-road, families with small children are more likely to ride the Middlebury to Goshen section. It will be interesting to see from the MACOG trail counters how the number of riders in general now compares to the number before the new section opened. 

Pumpkinvine mile posts

When PAC installed mileposts along the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail, the mileage locations north of County Road 33 were tentative because they were based on mileage on the road between County Road 33 and County Road 35. At the time, I suggested installing those mile markers so they could be moved once the gaps between County Road 33 and County Road 35 were completed and someone could calculate the actual mileage.

Today I happened to think about that issue while riding from Abshire to mile 8.5 north of U.S. 20.  I didn't start out to check the mileage, but when I got to County Road 37, I decided to continue on to milepost 8.5 to see how close it was to my GPS. Well, my GPS read 8.5 at the 8.5-mile marker. However, I started the GPS in the Abshire parking lot, so I probably rode another .1 miles before reaching State Road 4, which is where the mileage starts. On another ride, I can start counting at State Road 4, but I'd say there's no need to move mile posts if they are off by 1/10 of a mile. Would participants in the Maple City Walk marathon and half marathon care?  

Electric assist bikes

 Yesterday riding from Middlebury to Shipshewana and back, we passed four or five Amish seniors on three-wheelers, and none of them were pedaling, i.e., all were on electric assist bikes. All were going around 10 mph, so speed wasn't an issue. We saw numerous other bikers on electric bikes, and I began to wonder what percentage of riders were using electric?  I guessed 25-30 percent. When we got to the DQ, we ran into Danny Jones from Lincoln Ave. Cycling, and I mentioned the large number of electric bikes we'd seen, and he said that 30 percent of his sales last year were electric bikes.  

Invasive species removal along the Pumpkinvine

Pictured at an Aug. 9, 2022, work party are Sarah 

Baxter, Trenton Snyder, Randy Snyder, Al Spice,

John J. Smith, Christine Guth.

 A small group (2-6) volunteers have been removing invasive plants at selected sections of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail since 2020.  All the volunteers learned a lot about botany by working together; we have a good time working together, no matter how much botany we knew when we started.  So far, we have focused on removing invasive plants in the best-preserved wooded areas along the trail, especially just west of the parking lot at County Road 33 and just east of the County Road 43 parking lot. We remove multiflora rose, bush honeysuckle, oriental bittersweet, garlic mustard and other non-native plants that can overtake native plants. We work from the edge of the surfaced trail to the fence lines that separate the trail from neighboring land.  After three years of working two hours per week from April through October, we can notice a big difference at the fence lines: on the trail side of the fence, there are many fewer invasive plants than in the adjoining woods on the opposite side, and growing populations of a wide diversity of native trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous ground cover. 

The cooling effect of trees along the Pumpkinvine is real and measurable

 Many times as I've ridden the Pumpkinvine in the heat of summer, I've noticed how much cooler it feels when I'm in the tree-lined sections compared to the open areas. It felt so much cooler that I've speculated the temperature had dropped 10 degrees in the shaded sections. But that was just a guess.

Well, Sunday, Aug. 8,  I realized that I had a way of testing that hypothesis through the temperature reading on my GPS, a GPS that I've had for two years, but that I never thought to consult about this issue. 

My first insight came when I realized that I could read and remember the temperature on the GPS display as I rode along. Shortly after mentally recording two or three-degree changes in the temperature, I realized that there's a much simpler way to get that data, i.e., the chart that the GPS uploads to the website, www.RidewithGPS.com. The GPS has been collecting this data for two years, but I never thought to consult it.

Here's what I learned about the difference in temperature on today's ride. (You can see the ride here: Ride of Aug. 8, 2021 Click on the temperature icon at the bottom of the map, then have your cursor hover over the graph to see the temperature and the corresponding location on the map.)

My ride Sunday was from home to Abshire Park to Dips on the Vine in Middlebury. As I approached the trailhead at Abshire Park, the temperature was 88 degrees. (I was approaching on State Road 4.) By the time I reached CR 127, having traveled that 2.25 miles in the shade on packed limestone, the temperature had dropped to 79 degrees --- nine degrees lower. As soon as I got into the open area along CR 26, the temperature went back to 88 degrees. In the half-mile west of CR 33, the temperature dropped to 81. East of CR 35, the temperature was 82 degrees. Then it climbed to 86 degrees in Middlebury.

In summary, the temperature dropped the most in the limestone surfaced, longest wooded area between SR 4 and CR 127 (nine degrees) It dropped six degrees in the shorter, asphalt-coated areas. 

It happened to be a sunny day, and I'm sure changes in the cloud cover at various times made a difference, too. But I have to conclude that the canopy of trees that line the Pumpkinvine really do offer riders cool relief from the summer sun.