Route Improvement Update: Mullum Mullum Creek Trail - Tindals Road to Park Road

The Mullum Mullum Creek Trail has the potiental to become a major trail in the near future. It is currently split into two sections, with difficult terrain and land to conquer in the middle gap area. At the moment you can ride from Croydon North through Ringwood and to the Mullum Mullum Park to connect with the Koonung Creek Trail which takes you along the Eastern Freeway to the city. There is also the forgotten section. This section of the trail gets minimum usage due to lack of access, especially from the southern end, although alot of Templestowe residents use it to get to the Main Yarra Trail, which leads to the Diamond Creek Trail and Westerfolds Park. I have tried three alternatives to reach the trail from the Mullum Mullum Creek Trail from Mullum Mullum Park, which I will detail below.

The first option had me leaving the Koonung Creek Trail at Mitcham Road and travelling on the shared path north west to Springvale Road, which I then went north up, before taking a right turn down Old Warrandyte Road (which had fairly recently been reconstructed with bike lanes :) ) to the trail entrance. This was the easiest way by far but the Springvale Road section was annoying since the two lane road with no proper shoulders forced me to follow the rough gravel path alongside the road and on some grass at some points.

The second option I will NEVER do again. I left the Koonung Creek Trail at Park Road, soon after leaving the Mullum Mullum Park and headed north. Park road is wider and has much less traffic which meant I could actually ride on the road here and I enjoyed the downhill to the tight corner, which just before this corner you will notice a short section of bike track and a car park. This is where the Mullum Mullum Creek Trail will eventually cross Park Road. I continued north through the corner and then turned left down McIntyres Road (Melways Ref 35 A12) and headed north. I spotted this route on the Melway and although it had "Steep" written next to the road, because it seemed to be a direct route to the trail entrance, I decided to give it a crack. I'm not the fittest cyclist (I also ride a MTB and don't wear lycra!) so it was abit of a struggle, even in low gear. There was a nice downhill in the middle, but the road surface changed from asphalt to gravel half way down the hill so I had to slow down :( . Then, when I thought I had reached Tindals Road, I had another steep hill ahead of me. I eventually got there, but then I had to turn left and travel west past Donvale Christian College. I got to the trail after all that.

Then there was the third option, which I took before taking the above second option. I decided to go down the incomplete Mullum Mullum Creek Trail section which started from the car park I talked about above on Park Road. The Manningham Council had a sign erected saying that there was no access to Tindals Road via the incomplete trail, but I naturally ignored it! The path was formed and gravel had been laid ready for asphalt to go on the top, a completed bridge allowed me to cross the creek once, and a small section already had been asphalted which was heaven to ride upon. The path then quickly turned back to grave and I approached a dilapidated wire fence with a "Private Property" sign as well as another Manningham Council sign, the same one as at the car park. I climbed my bike over the somewhat broken wire fence to have a peek. I got about 100m on natural earth before I had to stop. There was a roughly 3 metre cliff drop to the creek below. A footbridge is going to be constructed here. When I visited, the path supports on both sides of the creek had been constructed but that was it. I assessed possible options for me to cross the creek. I could have possibly done it by leaving my bike behind, but I decided against it. It would have been impossible with a bike so I had to abandon my curiosity trip and turn back. There was an adjoining natural earth trail which went up a hill between the wire fence and the cliff, but since I was on private property, it probably went to a residence so it would not be the right thing to do.


View Larger Map

Note: Map may be buggy. Pressing the zoom out (minus) button three times should fix it.

So that concludes my little trip out to Park Orchards / Donvale way. The section of path should be completed by the end of 2009. After that, only the section from Park Road to the Mullum Mullum Park to go, then we will have a handy link to the Yarra River from Ringwood!

What trail am I riding on?

Although not a common issue on Melbourne's bicycle network, in the eastern suburbs, there is an emerging problem with the newly implemented trails which have recently been constructed. It is hard to know what trail you are actually riding on!

Take the example of these four trails: The Mullum Mullum Creek Trail, Koonung Creek Trail, EastLink Trail and Dandenong Creek Trail all intertwine and link and it has only been since June this year that the problem has been created. The simple question of "What trail am I riding on" needs to be answered. I will explain it as easily as I can here.

There are 2 parts to this post. The first is actually finding out what each stretch of trail is named. The second is an analysis of the intersection signage and why this confuses so many people! I will go through the first part initially. Please click the map below to view the full size.

ORANGE: Mullum Mullum Creek Trail
GREEN: Koonung Creek Trail
RED: EastLink Trail
BLUE: Dandenong Creek Trail
GREY: Other major trails
Dotted lines: Proposed trail / trail under construction
I will go through the intersections at a future date.

In quick site news, I have also updated the top banner. I will change the banner on a regular basis to show the site is still active as well as places along Melbourne's network which I believe are perfect for placement in the top banner.

Looping Circuits: 65km Eastern Suburbs Creek Loop

I'm introducing a new type of blog post called "Looping Circuits". I will post up a review of a cycling circuit I have completed and commenting on it's pros and cons to give riders some ideas for some good trail circuits to complete if they are wanting something different in terms of riding environments.

This first circuit uses the EastLink Trail, a Jells Park un-named path, Scotchmans Creek Trail, Gardiners Creek Trail, Main Yarra Trail, Koonung Creek Trail and the Mullum Mullum Creek Trail (short section). All up it is very roughly 65km long. I managed to complete it about 4 hours 30 minutes, but that time includes strong winds, the use of a MTB, a on-road detour as a large section of the Gardiners Creek Trail was closed due to the M1 Upgrade and a rest at Dights Falls.

One fact to note is that I have never been on the Gardiners Creek Trail or the Scotchmans Creek Trail west of Blackburn Road. This ride was primarily a way of riding these trails for the first time. I also wanted to ride the trail around East Malvern before January 12, as that is when the bridge over the Monash Freeway (M1) will be demolished and a new cycle/pedestrian bridge will be built.

Here is a map of my route, with the base map coming from the brilliant OpenCycleMap, which is based off the OpenStreetMap site:

Positives:

Mostly off-road (excluding temporary Gardiners Creek Trail detour).

Many underpasses and bridges. There are not too many intersections to deal with and most are either local roads or traffic lights.

Mostly runs along creeks and through linear parks.

Virtually all sealed.

Links to many other trails along the way.

Negatives:

The on-road sections of the Scotchmans Creek Trail, but there is nothing that can really be done about this, unless you pay the residents to hand over a small slice of their land (2-4 metres from their back fence) to create room to run a shared path through it. If this unlikely concept went ahead, a shared path from Jells Park to the Watsons Road / Whites Lane roundabout is possible, which bypasses all the local roads through Wheelers Hill. On-road lanes would be applied to the rest of the on-road sections.
Gardiners Creek Trail detour (although it is temporary, it is still a negative, but at least a higher quality path will be built).

Not many directional signs. There are very good fingerboard signs to direct you along the on-road sections of the Scotchmans Creek Trail, but directional signage was lacking on the Gardiners Creek and Main Yarra Trails.

A few steep hills, mainly around Wheelers Hill and the Eastern Freeway area.

The Gipps Street and Chandler Highway steps. Both of these annoy me so damn much!

Some narrow sections which require you to take extra care and SLOW DOWN!!! I'm talking about the pipe bridge near the Fairfield Boathouse which needs the remaining pipeline removed and that side converted to a path as well.

The section of the Main Yarra Trail between the underpass to the Outer Circle Rail Trail and Bellford Road is quite dangerous as the path is narrow, unnecessarily windy and plainly quite dangerous considering it is on a quite steep slope. Tight almost right angle turns do not help.

Interesting:

The extremely long pedestrian underpass under the Monash Freeway in Mount Waverley. This was awesome to ride through and has to be Melbourne's longest shared path tunnel. A measurement on Google Earth told me it is an astounding 150 metres long!

The different types of surfaces and varying qualities of the trail, simply because there was so much variety. Some good, some bad. The section of the Gardiners Creek Trail where the pedestrians and cyclists are given their own space was very interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing this form of path in more places where there are a large amount of pedestrians using a shared path, such as in places like Jells Park and along the Capital City Trail where space permits.

The suspended footbridge under the Monash Freeway between the Main Yarra / Capital City Trail and Glenferrie Road was a totally different cycling experience. The unique red surface made it seem I was going quite fast up hill!

There is a short divided section of the Main Yarra / Capital City Trail next to the Yarra Boulevard which was quite different, all to save one large tree!

On a scale of 10, I give this looping circuit a 7. It loses points for lack of signage, poor standard of some sections of the trail and the two flights of steps.