High country raid, day four Tallangatta to Myrtleford

 

 

We started this day's ride early as usual and I had somehow managed to lose my gloves in my luggage. I was mainly worried about getting sunburned on my hands without the gloves but they also warm my hands a little bit first thing in the morning.

So it was cold (but we had great views!) for the first few case on the bike track from Talangatta to Huon and then up over the hill to Tangambalanga and Kiewa. It warmed up soon enough though and Phil’s route was once again excellent, taking us through Allen's Flat and Osborne Flat instead of the main road to Yackandandah. Although in places, the road dwindled to a dirt track it never got too difficult. The route from Osborne flat to Yackandandah was on an excellent bike path through the forest.

We stopped at a great bakery in Yak, rested a bit and then headed off toward Beechworth. There had been a train line between Yackandandah and Beechworth and part of it has been reused as a rail trail, but that part is the bit leading in to Beechworth. For the first few ks up to Wooragee, we went on the bike path which followed the road. There is a slight detour in the path to take in the town of Wooragee, but soon after that we were passing through numerous rail cuttings to get into central Beechworth completely by bike path. We lunched at the Beechworth bakery then resumed a rail trail trip on the path to Everton. Unlike the Shelley to Tallangatta  path, this path is mostly smooth asphalt and we were heading down hill. I was able to absolutely fang it on the recumbent and the fastest riders Steve and Michael could not keep up. This was possibly partly due to aerodynamics but possibly also do to tyre pressure. I'd kept my tires pumped up hard and they seemed to like this road surface. There were only a few small uphill sections and with the downhill speed I had already and a bit of pedalling, I was able to slaughter them. We regrouped at Everton and rode on to the Myrtleford hotel where we were staying. Myrtleford is a nice town and it was good to see that it had two Op-shops and that with luck I would be able to visit them the next day.

As usual we met for tea at 6 and it was an early night.