hey,
i’m wanting to do some fun overnight / 2 day bikepacking trips within victoria. my plan is to train out then do a loop or ride to another station. But i’ve only got a pompino set up with a 17/19 dual freewheel, 48t front.
Can anyone recommend some trips that would be doable on this set up? Pretty much just don’t want anything too super steep ha.
cheers!
many years ago a few of us did the Wangaratta to Bright rail trail, a few of us fixed. it’s about 90km each way but predominantly flat. stayed at the Bright hostel and rode home the next day. would do again.
also rode from Traralgon to Port Albert (can’t remember the route exactly to be honest, but it was all roads and hilly in places. again, there was at least one or two of us riding SS/fixed). came back via the Tarra Bulga Ntnl Park. bit of a climb, but then something like 20km of descending before a pretty cruisy ride back into Traralgon. might wanna look into accom at Port Albert if you go, the pub we stayed in burnt down i believe.
there’s heaps of rail trails across Victoria, most are pretty flat coz obviously former train lines.
also, here’s the write up for the Wang-Bright ride we did - http://www.fixed.org.au/forums/showthread.php?t=15345
Awesome cheers for that. Yeah been reading through previous topics but looks like most were geared so was hoping to get some insight from ss rides. Planning to take my small tent on the handlebars so accom should be sweet!
Train up to Castlemaine…ride the GDT to Ballarat…camp somewhere along the way. Catch train back from Ballarat.
check out the gippy gold loop: http://www.melbournerandonneur.org.au/news/gippygoldridereport.
done it a couple of times, the 100km loop is pretty much perfect for an overnighter, train to yarragon, there’s a climb straight up out of yarragon but its doable on a pomp. awesome dirt roads for most the loop and any blacktop you end up on are backroads, you’ll barely see any cars.
first time we did it we ghetto camped just outside of mirboo north (lyrebird walk reserve from memory, about 5kms out of town), was ok but there were a heap of leeches, it was middle of winter though).
i would recommend heading to mirboo north for a beer at the grand ridge brewery then down the rail trail to Boolara. There is a heap of good spots to camp along the morwell river which pretty much runs next to the town.
then the next day back up the rail trail to mirboo for breaky and then a rad half day back to yarragon. you’ll do all the climbing in the first 20 odd kms on the second day but its totally worth it for the views and the epic decent back to yarragon.
also this, you can make a pretty sweet ride out that way on any of the backroads. A good one is to get off the train at woodend, and zig and zag towards castlemaine, try use the goldfields and plethora of 4wd/fire trails around, plenty of spots to camp
Yea, this is good - even starting in Sunbury and making your way to fire roads that intersect with wombat singletrack, heading to trentham then to glenyton via glenyton-little hampton rd (mad cruisy gravel road). Then from glenyton you can ride porcupine ridge either to daylesford or to castlemaine (intersects with goldfields trail).
thanks for all the great suggestions! for my first overnight camping ride think im going to try out the wangarrata - bright ride over easter weekend!
booked accom…? imagine bright will be rammed over Easter.
planning just to free camp just out of the town somewhere
Here’s an idea: Just here there’s a great free campsite. You can swim in the river there, but it’s pretty shallow. If you were really keen, you could continue out along the Rose River Rd an then up the King Valley back to Wang. One of the best steak sangas I’ve ever had was at the Cheshunt General Store.
There’s also great free camping here and up plenty of gold further up the river there after you cross it; here for example, and here, and here. If you keep going after that last one, it gets really steep.
All of these options mean not going to Bright. Go to the the Wandi Hotel though and say G’day to my mate Tim there. He will cook you delicious food and serve you beer.
forgot to update! went and did the wangarrata bike trail, not as far as bright but camped the night in nug nug in the hills outside of myrtleford, biked back into mrtyleford for some beers after setting up camp. great overnight ride! thanks for the recommendations!
nice one! got any pics?