Sparkler-Monday...find the route

[glitch]

Patiently sitting out the first 2 days of CoVid19 lockdown easing and the resulting countryside being awash with eager "get-outers", the last day of a run of glorious blue-skied autumn days finally came around.

Time to crank up the Husky, bump away some of the frosty early morning fog and head for the hills in search for the very last of the autumn colours.

Camera,
a full tank,
a few chewies,
no maps,
no plans.


Maybe someone can guess the route out of the clues in words and pics and post up the Gmap or whatever you use?
Happy to provide a few more hints


With Jumping Creek Rd. still closed for roadworks it was through Yarra Glen first and up the hill to a well-known (inofficial) lookout above town.





Still morning fog in the troughs...






Time to go...





It wasn't that steep...and I came the other way.





A well-known set of climbing corners towards the Kinglake Ridge.





The National Park is brimming with those...














More frosty morning fog out the back of some pub, where they also replaced the old timber bridge with a brandnew concrete version and added 7+km of quiet, rural walking/ cycling tracks and some bbq/ play area in the river meadows. The pebbly micro-beach at the creek was still "covid-ed".













A quiet, little lane around the back...









....which doglegs into the next quiet, little lane towards Strath Creek.

[glitch]

....which doglegs into the next quiet, little lane towards Strath Creek.


I think this was the place I was hanging out for the last few months...the narrow little gravel road... round, green hills cradling the cow and fog filled valley floor...blue skies above and the wispy fog changing the picture every second...




























Yea Spur half in cotton wool... from the southern side.











I doubt there will ever be another pub (or much-fabled brewery) in Strath Creek, the 3 lonely Harleys somehow looked totally out of place.
Dawdling towards the main town (displaying BIG "Welcome Back" signs either end of the main street) on some still lumpy asphalt despite the new tar-skin and 80kmh speed limit now, there is one more gravel lane across a shallow ridge, with glorious views across the Goulburn River flats.





With folks lining up outside the bakery due to the CoVid customer-limits, the pie from the other small bakery in town turns out a total success...and I'm not one for pies.
Excellent!
Only a few bikes around today, the weekend has reportedly seen the little place swamped by 'em.

Chewing away, I'm thinking about some "long way home" for the afternoon.

[glitch]

Trying to be back home before the cold comes back and numbs those fingers again, it's off for a little loop towards the east, skimming above the Goulburn River flats and those endless green paddocks studded with big, old river-gums...






...before another short dogleg across the main highway and following the old Seymour-Mansfield Railway line down a side-valley.
The grass and shrubs are slowly making the verges narrower, the line-up for the small timber bridge is half obscured by branches.

Bumping along the fence line, there are a couple of pedallers on the rail trail...
The gate at the top of the hill above the roof of the tunnel is half-closed, swinging in the breeze.

Frog Pond Rd. runs south parallel to the Hwy but far enough away to hear and see nothing of it.

A spot further south that I always wanted to stop at ever since lightning hollowed out this old giant.










Checking the time and abhorring the idea of a hwy-run back to Yarra Glen or thereabouts, I take Two Hills Rd. into the Toolangi State Park, remembering some "zigzag-thing" to tie into
Spraggs Rd. which turns to asphalt a few k's north of Toolangi.
Maybe dogleg back onto gravel into Dixons Creek then?

Things turn soft and muddy upon entering the State Park, fresh roadworks ahead. "Zig-zag thing" turns out to be Criss-Cross Rd.... which was choked with machinery and trucks and big, yellow "CLOSED" signs.

Marginal Rd. then....and back to the Hwy.
Never done that piece of it, always wanted to.
No maps, so I stick to the signs.

The next downhiller brings this...





Another 6k's and there are two 4WD's coming up, backwards!, the other way just as I round the crest for the last descent.
"It's all locked up solid down there, can't get onto the Hwy...and no space to turn around either, so we backed up the last km"

This thing blinking away at me is making me nervous.... I turn tail and follow the 4B's out the same way we came.
I make it to the United at Glenburn before skidding down the Old Slide Rd. into Steels Creek on more fresh and slimy gravel/dirt/mud.

Barely a shotglass of juice left in the tank
Cutting it fine....but still no Tiger yet


13.93 out of 14.00...time to throw a couple of bottles of extra fuel into the topbox, methinks.

[K1W1]

Meanwhile the rest of us are here reading tender documents, creating spreadsheets and once again explaining to idiot customers that the Conoravirus pandemic has in fact affected global supply chains and the fact that the one product they want is not in stock again till next week has not been organised purely to upset their schedule.
Jealous is probably the best I can say at this point.

[glitch]

Sounds like there's no interest in today's little loop then