Start point: Yackandandah township, High Street Yackandandah. Just follow High Street uphill towards Beechworth. Trail starts on the footpath adjacent to the primary school on your right but quickly turns into the rail trail proper after Kars Street.
Distance: 23.1km (46.2km return)
Track: Good – mostly smooth bitumen with some gravel, steady uphill out
Birds: Honeyeaters, Pied Currawong, thornbills, Kookaburra, Rufous Whistler, Crested Pigeon.
Notes: A trail with wide, sweeping views as you climb up out of Yackandandah. It is not an easy ride up but the compensations of the scenery make it worthwhile. Vegetation is mostly restricted to narrow strips along the sides of the trail. There are long sections of open farmland and some of these run parallel to the main ride. So expect a bit of traffic noise as you pedal along.
The trail does have some sections along quiet country roads and an options where two routes are available. The official route takes you to Wooragee where you turn left into Factory Lane where the bike trail is beside the road and then left again into Fanning Lane before turning right into Start Lane and then left again back onto the trail proper. The alternative iso turn left into Star Lane a long way before Wooragee and proceed down here to the trail proper. Star Lane can have a bit more traffic and there is no parallel dedicated bike path, but it is quite a bit shorter.
Don’t let the negatives deter you – it is an interesting ride for the scenery as well as the birds. If you have transport available, you could start from Beechworth instead and just mostly roll down and then be picked up in Yackandandah. However, with an electric bike the climb out is not a problem – I did it this way without any issues.
Views over the valley as you climb out of Yackandandah
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