On a cold April morning, Rory Robinson and Paul Labovitz rolled onto the Pumpkinvine with a few of the people who helped build it. The wind had teeth, but riders were already out, which surprised no one and pleased everyone.

Rory has spent a career fighting for trails across the Midwest. Paul ran the Indiana Dunes as National Park Service superintendent. Both were consultants to the Friends of the Pumpkinvine in the early 1990s and gave small grants to help the Friends of the Pumpkinvine build a small demonstration section of trail.  One of the major things they did was hold workshops with adjacent landowners to address residents’ privacy and security concerns along the Pumpkinvine corridor.

Some of what they said over lunch is worth passing along.

“We are pointed in the right direction. We are still going in the right direction.” That was Rory, talking about Indiana. Twenty-some years ago, the state ranked near the bottom for trail miles. By his count, we are now somewhere in the mid-twenties. The Monon and the Indy Greenways have done real work downstate. Up here, the Pumpkinvine has done its share. The progress isn’t loud, but it is real and steady.

The next opening is north and south. Rory pointed out that east-to-west connectivity across the region is in decent shape, with promising work happening between New Buffalo and Chicago. The bigger opportunity, given where we sit, is connecting up into Michigan. He noted that Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio are still read as ag states, while Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are read as places people go to do things. A trail running north from here shifts that math a little.

The Pumpkinvine is already part of the commuting infrastructure. Norm Kauffman, one of the Pumpkinvine founders, noted that around Shipshewana, roughly half of the trail traffic is people actually going somewhere they need to be. Rory said most trails sit at about 10 percent. The Pumpkinvine lives somewhere in the middle, which is more than most people realize.

Paul, an urban kid from near Philadelphia, has fallen for the farms. He said he loves the look of them, loves the rhythm of them, loves them even on the days when the wind comes off the fields. He also said, with some honest worry, that the USA Today attention will bring more people, more development, and more pressure. That’s the trade. The trail is a draw, and draws attract.

Federal funding is uncertain. Rory is skeptical that it returns the way it once did. Either way, the trails that get built are the ones local people fight for. That part has not changed.

The bikers and the snowmobilers and the hikers and the horse people all used to fight each other, Rory said. Now they mostly share. Like the trail itself, going the right direction.