Mordialloc to Baxter by Secondary Drain and Rail Trail

Take 1

The ride was due to start from Mordialloc Railway Station at 10.00 on Sunday 10 December. It was a hot day, with a north wind blowing smoke from bushfires. After John Kuljis and George Durbridge reached the start, we received a message "Smoky hot, no ride". We had a coffee before abandoning the ride.

Take 2

The ride was rescheduled for 17 December, which was a much cooler day, with clear skies, a moderate southerly and loads of sunburn cream. John (with Komett and the silver GT3) and George (yellow MR Swift) came again, and were joined at Mordialloc by Robert and Jana (blue tandem), Alan and Eric Ball (orange trike and low racer), Ludo and Renild Schoenborn (yellow tandem), and John Reynoldson (TW-Bents Jetstream ASS recumbent bike). At Frankston, we were joined by Ron and Mickey Bottrell (matching yellow Tri-Sled Gizmos).

To Frankston

We set off south from Mordialloc on the trail along the Mordialloc Creek (Melway 92 F1) and the Secondary Drain (92 H2) past the Edithvale wetlands to the Patterson River (at 97 G4), which we followed to its mouth, crossed it by bridge and doubled back to the boat ramp at 97 E6. This trail is good gravel, through a wide reserve between the houses, with trees and grass. Then we took a metalled trail south to the Carrum Roy Dore Reserve and gravel again along the Eel Race Drain as far as 97 G10, where we met a gate, fortunately unlocked. Continuing south from there, we followed back streets and metalled trail along the edge of an extensive wetland to Seaford Road at 99 F5. On this stretch we met a couple of utterly pointless obstacles, which could simply be ridden around, probably even more easily on a trail bike than on a pushbike, and another which was a stop-and-lift.

Here there was something of a hiatus, with the lead party following the proposed route (as interpreted by George and his GPS) along Seaford Road to the north end of Wells Road and the rest following Robert's interpretation, involving an undocumented additional street, to a point further south on Wells Road. No harm done, as we found the strays in Wells Road, and together braved the mixed pleasures of the Frankston streets (baseball caps back to front, octocylindrical rumblings, squealing tyres, shouts of "Geddoff the road, ya mug" and other evidence of high culture) for about 2 miles south along Wells and Dandenong Roads. Perhaps we need an alternative route through Frankston.

And on to Baxter

John K guided us from Frankston railway station to the beginning of the rail trail east to Baxter (102 D3 or 100A E9), and a little way down the trail we met up with Ron and Mickey Bottrell. The trail is partly suburban, but runs mainly through attractive eucalypt woodland. It is about 6 miles long and has a good metal surface. Although the trail runs beside the railway, rather than along the permanent way, it makes easy work of the hill between Frankston and Baxter. (Some of us had crossed that hill on the Frankston-Flinders road the previous day, and found it pretty considerable.) On the other hand, it has two bike-proof obstacles at the Frankston end: one of them can be ridden around, although on loose sand, but the other is a stop-and-lift. It also has some half-hearted obstacles along the way, which are narrow enough to endanger trikes, without being effective to exclude trailbikes. For the last half-mile to Baxter (106 C1 to B4) we had to ride along Fultons Road, as the trail extension marked as "proposed" on the map has not yet been constructed.

(If you follow Fulton's Road past Baxter for several more miles, you reach Somerville, from where another trail runs along another stretch of the railway line from Frankston to Hastings and Stony Point, along which we have had several rides which have been reported on. It would be good if the misplaced ingenuity which went into blocking the trail had been devoted to completing it, but even better if there were a continuous off-road trail from Frankston to Hastings, by the time that the EastLink motorway is completed to the intersection between the Frankston-Flinders Road and Coolart Road.)

John K left us at Baxter, and the rest of us had lunch under a tree in the grounds of the Baxter Tavern (no, just water and soft drink) and returned the way we had come to Frankston for coffee (Cilantro in Young St - not bad). Ron and Mickey left us there, and the rest of us returned the way we had come. As on the way out, the ride was not interrupted by any mechanical failures or serious navigational issues, although we occasionally paused to lift cycles over pointless obstacles.

High Technology

John R showed around his latest recumbent seat (anatomical upper surface, moulded from life, with strong ribs behind it), and a mould he has taken from it, to make an even lighter one in carbon fibre instead of GRP.

This ride was the first on record to be guided by satellite navigation. This innovation didn't revolutionize the navigation, which wasn't very challenging anyway, but more work may be needed on perfecting the new system. It would probably help, for instance, if everyone who needed guidance was within view or hearing range of someone with a GPS unit, and wasn't already lost. John R brought a couple of radio handsets, which would usefully have extended hearing range, if the relevant people had been carrying them when needed (we used mobiles instead).

There was some uncertainty as to how long the ride was, some saying it was 60km, others that it was 64km, still others that it was 40 statute miles. Tricky things, kilometres, particularly as it was authoritatively ascertained to be a 50km ride.