Wangaratta ride
I rode 78km on the rail trail today from Wangaratta to Porepunkah. That’s the longest ride I’ve ever done in 33 years of pedalling.
I started at 10.15am and made it home about 2.45pm. Allowing for half an hour in meal breaks and photo stops I completed the journey in four hours of riding. That’s roughly a rate of 20kmh, which I’m happy with over that distance.
The rail trail distance from Wangaratta to Porepunkah is about 10km longer than the road trip. The old railway line was built to the north of Wangaratta, presumably to avoid the construction cost of extra bridges along the floodplain.
It was confusing to follow the trail out of Wang, as it shares various roads and tracks until it reaches Bowser. Signage wasn’t great either. I got thoroughly confused at the Vine Hotel, where the trail heads in the opposite direction to what you think it should.
I had gone about 10km before I felt I was going anywhere. There’s a nasty little underpass just after Bowser, which looks a real safety risk. It’s basically a one-lane tunnel on a road that appears to have a fair bit of traffic. Drivers are supposed to stop and look before they enter, but I wasn’t taking any chances and sped through there as quickly as I could.
The next 10km to Tarrawingee was flat and straight and would have been boring except I’d never been there before. I had a meal break at the Tarrawingee rest station.
It’s 5km up a gradual rise from Tarrawingee to Everton Station. This was a junction on the old railway line. One track heads to Beechworth and the other to Bright.
I turned right and enjoyed a downhill section from there to the Great Alpine Road. It surprised me how close the rail trail goes to Everton township. The decision to build the station out in the sticks must have been a controversial one in its day.
From Everton to Bowman, near Whorouly, is also straight and not very interesting. From Bowman there’s a fairly steep ascent to Taylors Gap through bush.
Taylors Gap to Gapsted is a pleasant downhill ride. From there it was back into Myrtleford and onwards to home over much-covered ground.
I felt good at the finish and could easily have carried on to reach 100km in the day … just a bit saddle sore, as one might expect.
Some photos are here.
I'm a 41-year-old father of four working as a newspaper editor at Mount Gambier in South Australia.
