Today was the third day-trip outing on the Munda Biddi. We were doing a shorter trip today than the last two - only 30km from Albany Highway (Gleneagle picnic area) to Jarrahdale. Based on our previous trips, we expected this would take 4 hours - 3 hours of riding with a couple of 20 min breaks. We set off at 7:45am and expected to finish before 12.
However, what I had neglected to appreciate from the map was that the gradient was mostly flat and we would be riding mostly on rail trails. So we had completed the first 15km of the trail in 45min when we stopped for our first break. We were flying!
Shortly after our first stop, we reached a sign "trail diversion due to logging". We were diverted from the rail trail, which had felt like a major road (compared to single track) to an unsealed corrugated road - which felt like a highway. The trail diversion was signposted, so we dutifully followed the signs, which lead us from unsealed road onto sealed road - Jarrahdale Rd. This was actual highway!
So the second half of the ride was on the unsealed road then Jarrahdale Rd the rest of the way back to town. Not exactly what we'd been hoping for. We were finished before 10am and all felt a bit cheated. But the logistics of trying to ride further were too hard to contemplate.
So we picked up the cars from the start point, loaded the bikes, got changed, and rewarded ourselves with the biggest parmigianas we had ever seen! We certainly hadn't done enough work to earn them and couldn't finish them, but we were in the country so we thought a big pub meal was in order.
No photos from the ride today as it was over so quickly! Thanks to Annie and Rod for joining us - hope you had fun. Hopefully the next leg of the trail is more interesting.
