Begin as you mean to continue. Right. OK. To set the right tone I'd like to start 2008 with a good long-ish ride. But I've got to say that the prospect of riding any significant distance on New Year's Day in the forecast 37°C (99F) heat doesn't overly appeal. And New Year's Eve is no better at 41°C (106F). Call me soft, but that doesn't sound like a recipe for fun to me.
Actually I am a bit soft at the moment. And pudgy. For a variety of reasons (which I won't go into here), I haven't had nearly enough cycling in the last…oooo…two months. How embarrassment. So before the year disappears under me, I thought I'd squeeze in at least one more decent ride.
But where to go? A route with some distance but (ahem) not too many hills to challenge the out-of-form rider who is carrying a few extra kilos. Well, why not bookend the year with the same ride we did on January 1? Back to the Lilydale–Warburton Rail Trail…
This was to be a little treat just for me, so with no hangers-on to organise, I was pedalling the trail by 7:15. For someone whose breakfast included penicillin and Codral, I guess I can't complain too much but it did take me a little while to get into my stride. Not that it worried me too much because it was a beautiful morning: still, overcast and mild. In fact, for a little while I thought I was going to get rained on.
Parts of the trail, especially on either side of Mt Evelyn showed signs of water damage from the recent heavy rain: some of the road crossings had soft gravelly edges, the tunnel under Hereford Rd was rutted and full of silt, and there were a couple of other spots where the track was a bit rough and rutted (down towards Woori Yallock, mostly). But in general the trail surface was in good condition, apart from a liberal coating of storm debris.
The traffic was light on the outward journey, just the occasional pedestrian or cyclist. Otherwise it was just me and the cows.
Somewhere between Woori Yallock and Launching Place the trail surface gets a little bit smoother and a little bit wider. In fact, pretty much the whole stretch from Launching Place to Millgrove is top notch trail—just made for zooming. Which suited me because by then I'd shaken out the moths and was ready to click it up a notch myself.
Before I knew it, the distance markers were counting down single-digit kilometres to Warburton. The last kilometre or so, uphill from Millgrove, is on an old-ish bitumen path that is mostly in pretty good shape but tends to be noticeably lumpy in the last few hundred metres at either end. As I headed out of Millgrove I even thought I'd prefer the gravel path that I'd just left behind, but it soon settled down.
When I fronted the counter at Warburton's Three Sugars Café I was a bit surprised to be asked if I wanted breakfast—to me it felt like time for mid-morning coffee! However a call to the Homebrews to see if they were on the road for their family ride yet confirmed that it was indeed still breakfast time.
Refuelled and recaffeinated, I headed back the way I'd come, whooshing downhill past a steady tide of people making the outward journey. This really is a popular trail but not many were going my way.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds railway gradients a bit confusing. Sometimes it looks like you should be going downhill but you find yourself pedalling a bit harder than you expect because it's actually flat or even uphill. And when you do hit a downhill you really take off, sometimes quite unexpectedly fast.
Not long ago someone moaned to me about how hard it is to climb back up to Mt Evelyn from Woori Yallock. It's not what I'd call a hard climb but it is a steady and constant incline (as you'd expect of a railway) and I think some people find it a bit daunting to confront that long slope stretching off as far as the eye can see, particularly if they're a bit tired towards the end of a 70km ride. I was pleased to discover that (lack of general fitness notwithstanding) I haven't joined their number.
It would be disappointing to end this ride at Mt Evelyn because you'd miss the fun of hurtling back down the hill towards Lilydale. It's always the perfect way to finish off this very enjoyable route. Well, almost perfect—it doesn't last long enough.
Comments
41°C - I had no idea it got that warm there! Hope you're taking plenty of water on your rides...
Oh yeah, the temperature in Melbourne is consistently into the 30s at this time of year—fortunately there are only a few days that reach the high 30s or 40s. These are the days for short, slow rides that usually involve consumption of ice cream and plenty of time sitting in the shade.
Did you bike past Cog Cafe and saw they were closed? I did Warburton trail sometime mid-December but my fellow riders were stronger of will. I was ready to succumb to coffee and a danish. In all fairness, we were on the bike for less then 20 minutes when we passed it.
It had been a while since I had done the trail and I wanted to look up some maps. In browsing I came across this great website, but you may have blogged about it before (sorry, too lazy to check). If you click here you go straight to the warburton trail info with pointers and tags, but if you go back to the root address you can find all sorts of rides all over the world. Yes, even a 366 km ride in Fiji....
One more thing though, does anyone have a tip for the best parking? The bit from the train station to Le Pine Funerals (maroonda highway) is pretty crappy, you are not supposed to park at the train station anyway, and crossing the maroonda is pretty dangerous, especially if you have kids. But you don't want to cut short that downhill from Mt Evelyn to Lilydale....
Alas, the Cog Café was closed the other day. But I had checked their web site beforehand, so I knew I'd be missing out.
Yep, I have blogged the bikely map for the Warburton Trail before, but it doesn't hurt to add it here, so thanks for the reminder.
In terms of parking, we tend to head out from Lillydale Lake (it's less than a kilometre from that car park to the Trail via some quiet back streets. There's also a small car park where the trail crosses Old Gippsland Road (which is where I started this ride) and you could probably park just about anywhere along Queen Road. All of these options shortcut the ride a bit though—which cuts some of that downhill fun.
It looks like there are plans afoot to build a bridge over Maroondah Highway.
i just love the warby trail done it a few times now, have you ever ridden with the warby ghost riders on a wed im thinking of giving that a bash
Going in the Warburton direction, Cog is great - can pick up a yummy muffin, and eat it in a relaxed manner while coasting down the long long descent... and then pick up the pace to catch your mates by the bottom.