Glen Waverley area cycle routes

tez001
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Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby tez001 » Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm

Hi all

I'm heading to Victoria for a week or two and am looking for recommendations for cycling routes I can rid around the area.
I'll be around the Glen Waverley area. Prefer to ride off the road, only because I am not familiar with the area.

Looking on Google maps, there is one which runs close by to the Monash to the city

Any other recommendations?

Thanks

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MattyK
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Location: Melbourne

Re: Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby MattyK » Sat Dec 23, 2017 8:04 pm

But if a dead zone unfortunately.
Follow the train line to the city
Scotchmans Creek trail
Jells Park
Eastlink trail
Dandenongs for hills

https://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#12.22/ ... 57/hot/all

Avoid Springvale Rd
Burwood Highway is goood

BJL
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Re: Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby BJL » Sat Dec 23, 2017 8:23 pm

tez001 wrote:Hi all

I'm heading to Victoria for a week or two and am looking for recommendations for cycling routes I can rid around the area.
I'll be around the Glen Waverley area. Prefer to ride off the road, only because I am not familiar with the area.

Looking on Google maps, there is one which runs close by to the Monash to the city

Any other recommendations?

Thanks
With so many options from Glen Waverly, I was going to say 'where do I start' but it's pretty obvious you'll be starting from Glen Waverly :)

The path you've described is Scotchmans Creek Trail which connects to Gardiners Creek Trail and goes to Burnley. From there there are multiple options include circling the city on the Capital City Trail / Main Yarra Trails. From Gardiners Creek Trail, you can also take Anniversary Trail to Kew or Gardiners Creek Trail to Blackburn. From Blackburn, there's a new path along the railway line to Ringwood which connects to the Eastlink Path at Heatherdale so that forms a nice loop via Jells Park.

In the opposite direction (away from the city), take Scotchmans Creek Trail to Jells Park and from there you can explore Eastlink, Dandenong Creek, Peninsula link, Mullum Mullum and Koonung Creek Trails plus a few more minor trails. To get to Jells park, the trail does take some back roads and you'll probably get lost due to poor signage, particularly near the Monash Aquatic Centre where the path goes through the car park. From here, the trail follows Settler Ct / Callaghan Ave / Winmalee Dr (via a park) / Koonalda Ave, cross Springvale Rd, then take Whites Ln / Sunnybrook and then the trail picks up again on the right just past Heatherlea Dr.

If you ride out to Jells park, you can ride a loop around Dandenong using Eastlink / Dandenong Creek trails (now fully sealed north of Dandenong for those interested). You can also get to Belgrave via Blind Creek Trail and the Ringwood - Belgrave trail (you will probably get lost around Upper Ferntree Gully, just stick close to the railway line and you'll find it). Or you can ride to Ringwood on the Eastlink Trail, or The Basin on the Dandenong Creek trail (yes, it actually goes all the way to The Basin roundabout if you follow it, but most people would take Beresford Drive (off Colchester Rd) and just ride on the road from there) where you can ride the 1 in 20 (Mountain Hwy from The Basin to Sassafras). Do this early on if on a weekend. During the week it's pretty quiet. From Sassafras, it's well worth the extra climbing to ride to Sky High via Olinda.

If you use Google Maps and click 'bicycling' in the sidebar menu and/or search for these trails, you'll see what I mean.

There's a few 80 - 100+km really nice rides along the trails from Glen Waverly including a couple of long loops to the city and back, via Ringwood to the north (Koonung Creek, Main Yarra and Mullum Mullum Trails) and Beach Rd via Patterson Lakes to the south.

I hope I haven't confused you too much.

BJL
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Re: Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby BJL » Sat Dec 23, 2017 8:38 pm

MattyK wrote:But if a dead zone unfortunately.
A 'dead zone' ?

Only Scotchmans Creek and Gardiners Creek but a few K's in either direction opens up almost all of Melbourne. If you really want to see a 'dead' zone for cycling, try Yarra Ranges. Lilydale to Warby trail is all there is which is really great except you can't really ride there from anywhere else without taking out life insurance, lol.

* Okay, there's a few other packed gravel shared paths scattered around the place and sealed shared paths which are now in a complete state of disrepair as they haven't been maintained since they were built 35 years ago. And these generally go from 'nowhere' to another 'nowhere' so are pretty much pointless even for locals. Oh, there is a 'new' sealed path from Bellara Drive (near Chirnside Park) to Bunnings. All of about 1km and completely useless. Nope, I'm going to stop now. End of rant about the idiot, incompetent Yarra Ranges council. For now :evil:

tez001
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Location: Sydney

Re: Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby tez001 » Sun Dec 24, 2017 1:52 pm

Thanks for the tips. I've been busy looking on Google maps and Strava. Here is what I've come up with based on the info above (most are on trails)

- City via Scotchmans Creek and Gardiners Creek and back - 55km
- Few variations of a city loop using Scotchmans Creek, Gardiners, Monee Ponds, Merri Creek, Western Ring Rd, Yarra, Koonung, Eastlink - distances of 60 - 100kms
- Dandy Creek Trail - about 60kms

Machoman121
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Re: Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby Machoman121 » Sun Dec 24, 2017 4:21 pm

I would suggest using ridewithgps.com - on the top right, enable the OSM Cycle function and cycle trails will be painted purple. It doesn't get any easier than that.

Glen Waverly is actually a pretty decent place to be thanks to it's close proximity to all the connecting bike trails as mentioned in earlier posts, they are mostly world class quality tracks for cycling.....nearly but good enough - there are so many more worse places that are away from proper bike trails.

defy1
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Re: Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby defy1 » Mon Dec 25, 2017 11:00 am

I live in Glen Waverley and ride often on local paths around the area. BJL's post pretty much covers it all :)
Glen Waverley is almost at epicentre between all the major cycling destinations in Melbourne, 1 hr to Beach road, 1 hr to Dandenongs, 1 hr to Warrandyte, 1 hr to City/Boulie, and pretty much off road paths to all.

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antigee
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Location: just off the Yarra Trail but not lurking in the bushes

Re: Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby antigee » Sat Dec 30, 2017 11:33 pm

Yep BJL's post is good I'll grind an axe before filling out an option and adding one

ref Google maps bike layers - my preference is OSM and ridewithgps supports this - might be using google maps wrong but all it seems to do is replicate local council cycling maps with some appalling on road cycle lanes given as preferred routes when there are better quiet street options (though crossing highways can be problematic and Google satellite is useful to find ped' crossing lights) - plus Google doesn't for example show the roads that you need to follow to link the traffic free shared path sections of the Scotchmans creek compare and contrast:

Google with cycling layer:
Image

OSM with cycle routes enabled:

Image

axe ground back to OP's request

good route to Jells Park and Eastlink/Dandenong trails and onward per BJL suggestions
heading east from Glen Waverly shopping centre/metro station (for want of somewhere obvious) cross the urban motorway that is Springvale rd at the lights and there is a contraflow shared path on left of one way Glen Rd, cycle route is then signposted down Townsend St and then Shepherd Rd to enter Jells Park and find signage for Eastlink etc all quiet roads (fingers crossed)

to expand one option which has some good bits and if use ridewithgps and osm then is reasonably obvious to map and not too bad on the ground.....Jells Park - head north up Eastlink trail ignore signs for Mullum Mullum / Ringwood but leave Eastlink trail on quiet Park rd head north and take Mullum Mullum trail on left north to connect with Yarra trail near Petty's Orchard and through Westerfolds Park on towards city to hopefully work out the connection to the Anniversary trail after crossing Yarra near Burke Rd under Eastern Freeway then through Hays Paddock and Stradroke Reserve / Lady Brasseys's drive then picking up Gardeners Creek trail at East Malvern station

for something more out in the country then Jells Park...Eastlink North around 12km from Glen Waverly to Heatherdale Station and train to Lilydale around 20 mins Lilydale to Warburton rail trail out and back is 70km ish with good cafes in Warburton or other points earlier

hope more helpful than a rant - regularly ride thru Glen Waverly to get to more distant stuff and it does work and don't forget outside of peak hours (or opposite to commuters) then bikes are welcome on metro trains (but check for works during holiday periods and ongoing - replacement bus means unscheduled navigation ...riding is easy :-) )

edit some gravel on Yarra trail but well compacted other than recent rain damage I guess - Lilydale Warburton trail is fine compacted gravel as well

tez001
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Re: Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby tez001 » Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:04 pm

Thanks. Been here in Melbourne for the past 5 days and I’ve done a few rides.

Did a loop using Scotchmans across to the city, up to the Ring rd and back down via Jells Park. It went for longer than I expected and near on killed my legs when I thought it would be easier to get home via Jells rd and Waverley rd. The climb was worse than the short section up Sunnybrook Dr.

Also did a ride down to Carrum via the East link trail.

What I didn’t realise was (as you called out) was the gravel sections on the Yarra trail, and also on the Dandenong creek trail too. But the compacted gravel makes it a non issue. Lucky the bike I bough down has Maxxis Refuse tyres on it.

defy1
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Re: Glen Waverley area cycle routes

Postby defy1 » Tue Jan 02, 2018 8:36 pm

hehe that climb to the roundabout at jells/waverley road is no joke :) good for work out repeats

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