Events: Oktoberfest Ride and the German Past

Cover photo by Janine Caroll via Kermesse Sport.

(2019) Welcome to one of the oldest colonized parts of the United States. The Germanic history of the area is perfect for the Kermesse Sport Oktoberfest Ride, a one-day cycling event that carves its way through historic Montgomery County in southeastern Pennsylvania. 

To have been one of the original settlers in Montgomery County, PA, in the early 1700s was a study in perseverance. Germanic immigrants, departing from a land referred to as Palatine, believed Queen Anne of England would send them to the New World, specifically Pennsylvania. In 1716, Mennonites from the Palatine region landed in Philadelphia spurred on by the promise of William Penn and his sympathy. The speed at which they spread across the Pennsylvania countryside astounded the magistrates. 

Many of the Mennonite settlers were penniless when they arrived in the area. Success as an immigrant in Montgomery County came about through perseverance and determination. Success was not guaranteed. The installments of mason farmhouses with adjacent barns became a way of life. Penn’s woods would be felled to make room for farmland. The echoes of those laborers can be seen today. 

Some of the foliage colors Oktoberfest riders can expect to experience October 20th. Photo by Janine Carroll.

 Though King Ludwig I would not come along for one hundred years to commission the first Oktoberfest, Germanic settlers in the New World worked the rocky Pennsylvania soil, laid out shale walls to mark boundary lines, felled stands of trees, and looked forward to another day of work. The Pennsylvania land is not easy to manipulate.

 The Oktoberfest Ride put on by Kermesse Sport explores the haunts and hollows of the long forgotten lifestyle of manual work. Each year we have ridden the Oktoberfest we have come for the beauty and splendor that has evolved in Montgomery County. Imagine ancient farmers looking on in curiosity at modern day cyclists passing their fields. 

 To get a snapshot of Montgomery County all buttoned up, ride the Oktoberfest Ride October 20th. Riders will pass within feet of antique barns and, in some strange cases, the farmhouse across the street. Expect to see forests hiding old walls, no doubt created by farming from long ago. It is normal in these parts to ponder who did all that work to make those walls and how hard it must have been to vacate them. 

The course has many personalities of Montgomery County. From those old farmsteads come new state-of-the-art farms. Giant machines scythe their way in hours what took days to do by hand. Bursting out of old treed-in farmhouses, the route passes through open areas in an almost blinding beauty only harvest can provide. 

Of course there is the foliage, and a road that is difficult to outdo, Swamp Creek Road, puts on a display that will live and imprint in the memory. Winding along with the Unami Creek, the surrounding forest paradoxically comes alive with vibrant colors and autumnal scents. It features the final KOM of the event, but the sting of climbing might not be as bad when yellow and orange dominate the landscape.

And speaking of KOMs the route collects a few. While crossing Green Lane Reservoir, a park concept from mid century, Oktoberfest Ride challenges participants with Eichele Road, a significant ramp that demands respect. Each year at least one participant utilizes the driveway to regain momentum instead of walking. It is a hill, if conquered, deserves braggart status. 

Blueprint Brewing will host Oktoberfest Ride 2019.

Luckily there is the perfect spot to brag about finishing Kermesse Sport’s Oktoberfest Ride. The ride is hosted by Blueprint Brewing, Harleysville’s first brewery. Their impressive menu features at least eight beers from IPAs to the cleverly named Wendy Preffercorn Mango Peppercorn Belgian Ale. You’re killing me Small ring. This relocating to a new brewery is a new home base for Kermesse Sport. Here is where you can add about a mile an hour to the day’s average pace, add a couple hundred feet to the computer’s sum, and say how it’s the end of the season, what does speed have to do with anything?

Every year we circle the middle portion of October in preparation for Oktoberfest. We migrate from Bucks County to Montgomery County and stare for as long as possible at the cassette in front of us. It is when we break the concentration and have a look around that the beauty of Montgomery County reveals itself from ancient graveyards to refrigerated farm stands selling eggs. You’ll find us at Blueprint clearing up the reasons why we biffed the climb up Eichele. That’s the moment we anticipate: sitting with friends at Blueprint Brewery, a plate of German-inspired food, and tired legs from a proper day out. That’s how the end the road cycling season.

Register here for Oktoberfest Ride 2019 for a fully supported ride with after party at Blueprint Brewery in Harleysville, PA. Price increases October 1st.