Riding the High Plains Trail

After celebrating our triumph over the George Bass Coastal Walk, it was time to head to the Latrobe Valley and pit our cycling skills against the Gippsland High Plains Trail from Traralgon to Heyfield and back. Although some of our riders had ventured to this part of Victoria, for most of us it would be our first experience on this trail.

According to my calculations, if we started in Traralgon and rode all the way to Heyfield and back, we would be pedaling around 80 km. Of course we had already ridden well over 200 km in the past few days, so none of us had any great desire to set new Strava records (actually I can never understand why any cyclist feels the need to record their every pedal stroke, but that is another story). Sometimes discretion is the better (and much smarter) part of valour, so we all went in search of a "Plan B".

A study of the maps showed there was a much better starting point in the car park on Burnetts Rd. Since this was a couple of km outside of the city, it seemed like the intelligent place to start.

So that is where we started - well almost. When our peloton of 14 riders was gathered in the car park, we started to discuss the condition of the trail and whether we really wanted to ride another 75 km. The decision was quickly made that there was a much better starting point at Glengarry (about 6 km further on). They really are a much smarter group than they look.

We were also met at the start by Dave Mc Morran, who had made the 2 hour drive from Melbourne to join us for the day. When we told him that he could either start at Burnetts Rd or Glengarry, he also decided that Glengarry would be fine. According to our new calculations, that would leave us a ride of around 60 km - enough in anybody's language.

After transferring to the lovely little town of Glengarry, we assembled near the old railway station and headed off towards Heyfield. Everything went well for the first few minutes. Although the surface was rough and stony, we were able to make reasonable progress. And then we met the first challenge.

After riding over a small bridge we were presented with an extensive sea of water. The trail disappeared completely. We pulled to a halt to discuss what to do next. Although I tried to persuade David Yates to sacrifice himself to the water, nobody was willing to take the risk. After all, we had no idea of how deep the water was. We had no alternative than to U turn and head back in search of an access path to the highway.

Fortunately we were able to find a suitable detour along the somewhat busy road and rejoined the trail a couple of km further on. Although it was not under water, the surface was still quite bad. This is such a pretty region that it is a real shame that the trail has not been properly maintained.

The poor condition of the trail (trial ?) meant that we had to concentrate hard in order to avoid crashing. This also meant that we did not have a lot of time to enjoy the surroundings as much as we would have liked.

It was a great relief when we reached Dawson's Connection and were able to leave the trail for a few glorious km along delightfully quiet country roads. This reminded me of the back roads of Europe that make cycling there so magical. Unfortunately the respite was temporary and we were soon back on the rough trail again.

We eventually bounced and swerved our way to the outskirts of Heyfield, only to find that the final few km were the most rough and dangerous of the entire ride. When you combine steep inclines, boggy dips and loose stones, it really does add up to a significant degree of difficulty.

When we finally rolled into Heyfield, we were a little dismayed to find that our eating options were pretty limited. We finally were saved from starvation when we found a small food caravan that was able to serve up a variety of sandwiches and drinks. They were doing a roaring trade, especially after our peloton arrived.

We then started off on the return ride to Glengarry. For some unknown reason the trail did not seem quite as rough when heading this direction (strange but true) and we were able to maintain a higher speed. You might think we had a tail wind, but that was not the case.

After arriving back at Glengarry we enjoyed some icecreams from the grocers and then climbed into the cars for the long drive to Lakes Entrance.

Will we ride this trail again ? Probably yes, but not for a few years.Read more