Yarra bank ride, the B line.

Having some leave from work for the arrival of a new family member, even with spare time for riding wanting I have snuck in a few rolls out around town on my CX bike.  One occasion I had noticed some MTBers on the opposite bank of the Yarra River as I rode upstream on the sealed [Melbourne] Capital City Trail , which was odd as I didn’t realise there was a traversable trail there.
So on my next chance out I sort to go where I have never been before, which pretty much was the east bank of the Yarra River, anywhere downstream of the Fairfield boathouse.    

The trails on the banks of the Yarra River upstream of the pipe bridge at Fairfield Boathouse, are well frequented MTB trails, known & loved by many. I was looking at for something new, & kinda closer to home (Melb CBD).

Riding from Kensington on the Capital City Trail, I then rolled off the sealed path just under the Eastern Fwy overpass at Dights Falls & rode out along the various single-track & gravel sections to the pedestrian bridge at Yarra Bend park (off Yarra Blvd.). From here I first rode downstream, hugging the bank but the café here forced me up onto the roadway to Yarra Blvrd. Here at the sectioned off roadway of Yarra Blvd (where they do road crits on Weds evenings) there are a few walking trails which had since been rolled over my quite a few sets of MTB tyres , by the looks, & there are some pretty interesting sections of single-track here. The single-track descent on the east bank of Dights Falls is pretty rocky & quite techy on a rigid CX bike rolling commuter slicks. Following the trail here it then runs alongside the Yarra River downstream, with a sharp drop away along most of it. Steps placed into the trail at places indicates it was primarily built for walkers, so it pays for bikers to play real nice along this bit. Not much, if any room to pass without stopping & someone getting off the 10~20cm width of navigable trail along here. This continues to the Gipps St pedestrian bridge over the Yarra where it then joins the Capital City Trail again.

I doubled back & rode upstream from the pedestrian bridge at Yarra Bend park, on the east side of the river & came across some really nice single-track [sorry – walking trail]. I only did a short ride upstream here due to time constraints, & then rode back to the Capital city trail to loop back via the city to home again.

Endomondo Cycling Workout: was out cycling 39.55 km in 2h:01m:48s using Endomondo.


My intention is to suss out off-road trail between Yarra Bend Park upstream to Fairfield Boathouse, so I can string all this single-track together.

Some of the trails along here are too technical for me to really groove along on a bike like my Broadman CX Pro, even though it is possible to navigate it with some degree of dismount/carry/ride, in places, so I’m building up to putting in a fun hour of MTBing on my Specialized Epic (2009) soon.