Our family didn't have too many tribal rides last year (maybe there's a New Year's resolution there somewhere?) but we did manage to continue the family tradition of getting out together on January 1. And so it was again this year: while recovering from Christmas Dinner I put out the question, Who wants to ride the Warburton Trail on New Years Day?
After an initially tentative response, we had seven takers on the day and here's what we did. Melways references are in [square brackets].
Early start? Not quite…
We can be certain that if the Retired Marathoner were with us, we'd have made a much earlier start! In any case, Super Gran, Doc Homebrew, and I managed to make it to the carpark at Lilydale Lake [38 G7] by mid morning-ish. Super Gran, queen of the shortcut, had a secret back route out of Lilydale Lake Park, but it's just as easy to go back out the entrance road. From the roundabout at Swansea and Hereford Roads, we took Alfred Rd up to the Rail Trail proper [38 H6] and turned right.
The Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail is mostly an unsealed but tightly-packed gravel surface that makes for smooth riding most of the time. From where we joined the path it's a gentle (barely noticeable) uphill grade all the way to Mt Evelyn.
I was rather hoping that the Cog Cafe [120 C1] would be open, but previous experience has taught this group not to count on getting a coffee anywhere on January 1. And as predicted the Cog Cafe was a quiet and lonely sight as we passed by, hurtling down towards Wandin and beyond. We stopped to lean our bikes against the platform at Seville Station [119 K7] and opened our thermos flasks. Ah, coffee!
"How's the serenity?"
The ride from Lilydale to about Woori Yallock Creek goes through open woodland and, with very few others along the trail, we found it impossible not to quote Darryl Kerrigan. But in a few places Super Gran also noted the encroachment of McMansion-land where once there was almost undisturbed bush. A bit sad, that.
Mainly on the plain
The landscape flattened and opened out as we headed across the plain toward Woori Yallock [286 E10] (where Super Gran assures us there is an excellent pie shop but that wasn't our target for today, unfortunately). Somewhere along this stretch we were treated to a little bracing dampness in the air
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A helpful touch near the Launching Place Hotel is a set of traffic lights to help trail users safely cross Warburton Highway. Any ideas on why there is a second push button way up at head height at these lights?
I found the stretch from Launching Place all the way to Millgrove to be the least enjoyable: what's the point of being on a rail trail if you're just churning away beside a busy road? Still, it's better than not…
Yarra Junction
The Trail goes right into Yarra Junction, skirting the edge of Yarra Junction Recreational Reserve where there is a pleasant—if unspectacular—picnic area [288 D7]. We were joined here by Bus Driver and the rest of the Homebrewskis. Belying his name, Doc Homebrew produced an ice-cold Coopers to go with lunch, which was mightly appreciated.
Yarra Junction is a popular starting point for weekend trundlers and families. I guess the loop out to Warburton is very doable even for folks who ride in jeans and with their seats obviously too low. Several such groups took off from here as we crunched through our rolls. And we were soon among them ourselves, doing family pace across the flats to Millgrove [289 C4].
Warburton
From here the Trail goes sealed and takes a gentle uphill grade again and although the road is close by, it's not as noticeable as before Millgrove. This is the prettiest part of the trail, with the Yarra Ranges looming and forest on all sides.
It felt like the Trail brought us in the back way to Warburton, running along behind the pubs and shops on the high side before dropping down to the road where we crossed over for another coffee break in a BBQ area by a little mountain brook called the Yarra River [290 C4].
Although it's a slight slope up to Warburton, it makes for easy rolling back down to Millgrove—especially for Footy Tragic, so he really went for it on the way back. We left Doc Homebrew at Yarra Junction and the kids at Launching Place—about the limit of their legs for the day.
Return
Super Gran, Bus Driver, and I were left to make the return journey to Lilydale. The overcast day made way to sunshine as we scooted along at a reasonable clip—and there were certainly no young family groups making the return from Launching Place! A quick break at the old Wandin Station then we were soon on the uphill grade to Mt Evelyn before coasting down the other side on the big chain ring.
And, of course, what you really need at the end of a day's ride is a good ol' game of Tower of Hanoi with bikes and car bike carriers. Such fun!
Super Gran clocked the ride at 76km, and everyone rated it a grand day out.
Likes and dislikes
There's a lot to like about the Warburton Trail—for starters the railway grades are very accommodating and as mentioned above the riding surface is pretty good. There's very little chance of losing your way on this path and the signage runs to "Road Crossing Ahead" warnings, which are always useful but especially where the crossings crop up unexpectedly.
My only real complaint is about the gateway barriers—sort of triangular shaped thingies that stand about a foot high. They don't strike me as visibly obvious enough (Super Gran reckons they used to be more prominently marked but that seems to have faded over time) and I reckon kids in particular might be prone to colliding with them. Also when they are collapsed down, they rarely lie flush with the ground and are far less obvious, and so are an even greater collision risk. That said, I don't have an alternative solution, so the less said the better!
But that one quibble aside, the Lilydale-Warburton Trail is a terrific piece of restoration, development and maintenance work by the volunteers and "Friends of the Trail".
You got it in one.
Comments
I'd imagine that the other button on the pedestrian crossing is for the horse riders.