Fair enough too, the construction works took much longer than advertised and the detours provided didn’t make for enjoyable riding!!

But the trail was finally opened back in mid-September and I have been enjoying the new path ever since.

The gravel track between Boronia Road and the Koomba Park Boardwalk has been replaced with a wide concrete path, a number of sharp turns have been smoothed out and the trail signage has been significantly increased. This has greatly improved this section of the Dandenong Creek trail. Fantastic work!!!

Saturday

However when the reason that my presence was required evaporated on Saturday morning, I resolved to still get some riding in. In the afternoon we has a birthday party for a couple of the nephews to attend at the Collingwood’s place, out the back of Dandenong, so I thought it would be amusing to show up in my bike gear. I could have gone pretty much straight down Dandenong Rd—it would have been quicker but it would also have been pretty dull. I decided to head across to Jells Park then take the scenic route via the Dandenong Creek Trail.

It’s well worth going for a spin on this trail, if only to see the incredibly wide range of possible ways that a shared path can be done both well and badly. The surface varies from lumpy bitumen, to loose gravel on a hard-packed base, to wide smooth concrete—sometimes in the space of a few hundred yards! But in spite of this variability it’s generally a safe and easy ride.

Although not heavily sign-posted, the trail isn’t difficult to follow: remembering that the path follows the Creek and choosing what looks like the main route is usually a safe bet. The most notable place where this could lead you astray is heading south at the Stud Rd crossing, where an unmarked gravel path that branches to the left (going under the road) is actually the main trail; staying on the sealed path here (as I did) will dump you into a service lane on the road with nowhere obvious to go.

The only other complaint I’ve got about the Dandenong Creek Trail is those interminable gateways. They used to be much worse back when they had actual gates in them; removal of the gates was an improvement but the openings are still ridiculously narrow.

A long stretch of the trail traces the edge of suburbs on the west with the creek, flood plain and paddocks on the east. This can leave the path a little open to wind but also provides pleasant vistas across to the Dandenong Ranges. There are also some attractive bushland sections.

Further south, as the trail approaches Dandenong, there are several frustrating combined road and creek crossings—where you cross the creek on the road bridge then loop around under the bridge to continue along the creek bank on the other side. This really isn’t too bad for a weekend trundle, but would make using this section of the trail a bit unrewarding for commuting.

On the return journey I was tempted to zoom straight along Dandenong Road, but on such a pleasant afternoon I couldn’t bring myself to such boredom, so I returned along the trail. This brought the added attraction of climbing the Waverley Road hill from Jells Park to the Police Academy. I’ve no idea what the gradient is on this slope, but it’s definitely a granny-gear climb for me (I’m no hill-climber).

Sunday

Having missed out on attempting a substantial climb on Saturday, on Sunday I decided I’d go out and have a bash at the somewhat less substantial 1-in-20 (Mountain Highway, The Basin to Sassafras) which I hadn’t ridden before. On the way, I took a spin along the northern part of the Dandenong Creek Trail—I heard down the beervine that the Koomba Park section had been reopened recently and wanted to have a squiz.

The new Koomba Park section has been well done: nice wide concrete with smooth, sweeping corners. It’s a pity it doesn’t last long before dumping you back onto the lumpy asphalt north of Boronia Rd.

I wasn’t initially sure that I’d be up for the 1-in-20 as the recent knee complaint seemed to be flaring up, but as I went along things settled down. As I approached the Basin I wondered if I was up to this climb. But as it turned out—after being knocked around on Mt Stanley on the previous weekend—this was a breeze. Conditions were perfect: sunny but not too hot, cool air without being cold, and a faint puff of wind without being a nasty head wind. And I’ve got to say the road is an excellent piece of engineering: it’s the same steady gradient almost all the way to the top. So it’s just a matter of finding a comfortable gear and cadence and going for it.

Before leaving, I’d checked the ascent times on cycle2max to get an idea of what I would expect to do. It’s a simple formula: take one of the best times and double it. As I said, I’m no hill-climber, but the calculation was remarkably accurate. It was surprisingly easy and at the top I didn’t even feel like I’d earned my coffee yet, but I had a quick one anyway.

Don’t you just love the way some folks in the cycling fraternity check you out? Or rather, they check out your bike first, then your riding gear and then (only if you come up to scratch) do they bother to look at you, the person. I find it quite amusing—and a little sad. Being on the only bike with mudguards, needless to say I was practically invisible to all the “serious” riders at the Sassafras café. Pfft, I ride for my own enjoyment not to impress anyone else.

Of course, the downhill run was great fun. Back at the Basin, I reckoned that I would have been fit enough to do the climb a few more times. I’ll have to allow more time for a few laps on my next visit, but for now I had to get back for another coffee appointment with the family at Jells Park.

The fact that Thiess John Holland originally slated the Trail closure for only three weeks:

as of Friday 15 June, theKoomba Park carpark on Boronia Road (melways Map 63 D4/5) and the main trail between Boronia Road and Mountain Highway will be closed for three weeks

gave me hope that I wouldn’t have to push my treadly along the detour (which runs along the very busy Wantirna Rd and Mountain Hwy) for too long!

However, as reported in the Knox Leader by Will Jackson on 24 July

Cold snap hinders work on new bicycle paths

Cyclists are getting anxious about when the new bicycle paths will be completed.
Wet weather has delayed the construction of new cycle trails in Wantirna’s Koomba Park.

Now I guess I can put up with this – after all the good June and July rains have been great for drought-stricken Melbourne, and to their credit Thiess John Holland have been providing regular email updates on the construction works and anticipated opening date.

But the promised opening date continues to be pushed back and the nice new concrete shared path remains fenced off…

while cyclist and pedestrains continue to negotiate the detour along major roads.

This short section along the verge of Mountain Hwy near the entrance to the Koomba Park carpark is particularly hair-raising in peak hour traffic!!

According to Thiess John Holland:

Parks Victoria still won’t let us open the trail due to a grey area concerning liability.

While Parks Victoria says:

The Koomba Park area is still an active work site, Safety and security for the site is the responsibility of TJH. As the site is the responsibility of TJH the decision to open sections of the path lies with TJH. Parks Victoria will not be responsible for the site until all works are complete.

Meanwhile the regular users of the Dandenong Creek trail in Koomba Park continue to wait, with the lastest from Thiess John Holland:

We understand your frustration at having to use the detour route. At this point in time it is possible that the path will remain closed until some time around mid-August.

Too right, I’m frustrated – Grrrrrrrr!!!

trial is being upgraded to form part of the shared path associated with

the Mitcham to Frankston tollway (as I mentioned last year).

A short section of the bitumen path east of Boronia road was resurfaced

a couple of months ago and this is very nice (thank you very much!) Now

the major works on the Dandenong Creek trail has commenced this week.

The construction works involve replacing the existing gravel path

between Boronia Road and the Koomba Park Boardwalk with a concrete path.

This will greatly improve this section of the trail and I am really

looking forward to riding the upgrade.

However, it will bring some inconvenience to cyclists and pedestrains

during construction.

According to a Southern and Eastern Integrated

Transport Authority (SEITA) Communications Officer:

To construct the shared use path as part of the EastLink project, Thiess

John Holland (the construction contractors of EastLink) will be required to

divert some of the paths around the construction site. These paths will not

be closed and cyclists and pedestrians will still be able to use them.

However, you will need to observe the necessary shared use path diversion

signs and follow the designated routes, which will be highlighted via

signage, around the construction sites.

So at least Thiess John Holland are providing detours, but as you can

see from these images, the detours are of such poor quality that the

expectation is cyclists should dismount and walk the current 2.5km

(approx) detour—yeah right!

Thiess John Holland have patched up the

worst parts of the detour so it is rideable but it is already starting

to get chopped up and if we get a bit of rain it will quickly turn into

a quagmire at the Eastern end—which is just an old grass/dirt 4WD track.

More concerning is the detours will only be available for part of the

construction phase of the new shared path, and for a period of three

week the trail will be completely closed!!

Now this is going to be a

major inconvenience since my fellow commuters and I regularly ride to work on this route.

Although signage advising alternate routes is promised, there are few

options for these routes and most will involve cycling on major roads

(Boronia Road and Mountain Hwy) or traversing the many (steep) hills and

dales of Vermont (eg. via Morack Rd).

While I’m look forward to the end result, the coming weeks will be trying

and difficult riding. Hopefully the weather will hold and the shared

path upgrade will run ahead of schedule.

And then the drought can break :-)

Instead of an out-and-back ride, this year we decided to do a bit of a loop. We had planned to take Scotchmans Creek Trail out to Jells Park, but our departure time was deeper into the afternoon than I’d hoped for so we cut that section and headed straight along the rail trail that follows the Glen Waverley train line; not a really hilly route but enough undulations to raise the heart rate (especially with 16 kilos of human ballast on the back!) At the end of the line we continued straight ahead through the quiet streets of Glen Waverley, picking up the Dandenong Creek Trail where it crosses High Street Rd.

Heading north, the Dandenong Creek Trail is a well-formed gravel path, with only a few unfortunate obstacles (notably the tight right-hander at the bottom of Highbury Rd and the very prominent drain cover not far from there—a real cracker, that one). At Burwood Highway we dived off the path and headed for Bellbird Dell via Morack Rd and Great Western Drive (a nice little steep pinch at the end there). The Co-Pilot demanded a playground stop here.

As the Co-Pilot clambered over the jungle gym, I noticed that the sun was hanging a bit low over the horizon—shades of last year on ANZAC Day when our ride ended with a race against the setting sun. Hmm, better get moving…

Onward up Bellbird Dell, out onto Canterbury Rd for a short burst in the heavy traffic and north into Rooks Rd (this seemed to be taking us further from home!) Where Rooks Rd makes a tight little S-curve, we turned off and made out was through back streets, crossed Springvale Rd and whizzed around Blackburn Lake. From there is was Gardiners Creek Trail all the way back to East Malvern Station (OK, that’s repeating some of the route I took just last weekend but it’s not an unpleasant route by any means). And like last year, it was distinctly dusky by the time we got home but at least I had the good sense to have lights with me this time.

No coincidence

At the end of last year it occurred to me that including our ANZAC Day ride, I could just about count on one hand the number of rides the Co-Pilot and I had taken together. That was no good at all! So this year I’ve been much more diligent in getting him onto the back of the bike and while it hasn’t quite been every weekend, his average is much better than one ride per fortnight.

Coincidentally, I’ve noticed that I seem to be riding stronger (and maybe even a bit faster) on my commutes; although with no gadgets fitted to my commuting machine, I don’t know this for sure. It’s just a hunch: I’m finishing feeling energised rather than tired almost every day. You may recall that a few weeks back I mentioned several ways for commuters to improve their cycling fitness and one of them was to load-up the bike with a small child—well, it really works! I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my riding fitness is on the rise at a time when I’ve been increasing the number of rides-with-child.