Goulburn to Canberra

[find_bruce]

Family is going to Canberra for Easter & I'm joining them later. It's been too long since I did a metric ton, so was thinking of catching the train to Goulburn then riding the 100 km to Canberra. Keen to avoid the Feral Highway & the road more traveled appears to be via Tarago & Bungendore. Alternative is via Collector & Gundaroo.

Interested to hear of other options, or reasons to chose one over the other

[LateStarter]

While the Feral Hwy has the attraction of noisy, high speed motor vehicle traffic it also has two (in each direction) wider lanes for them and a mostly continuous, usable width shoulder for us while the Tarago and Sutton Rd routes have their own share of speeding motor vehicles (especially weekends) in narrower single lanes and the shoulders are more variable (to non-existent) and poorer overall. Our roads authorities seem intent on turning every road into high speed dragways and now we know the minister is intent on clear felling anything remotely living within 500m of "his" roads. I am planning a Sydney-Albury later this year and the Hume, at least for say Goulburn-Gundagai looks more attractive then alternatives.

[cancan64]

are you looking at staying on bitumen or will some gravel do?

If Gravel will do you can pick this up from Goulburn https://www.strava.com/routes/23626884

[find_bruce]

While the Feral Hwy has the attraction of noisy, high speed motor vehicle traffic it also has two (in each direction) wider lanes for them and a mostly continuous, usable width shoulder for us while the Tarago and Sutton Rd routes have their own share of speeding motor vehicles (especially weekends) in narrower single lanes and the shoulders are more variable (to non-existent) and poorer overall. ... I am planning a Sydney-Albury later this year and the Hume, at least for say Goulburn-Gundagai looks more attractive then alternatives.

I'm riding mid week so hopefully traffic should be fairly light. What puts me off the highways, apart from the volume of b-doubles, is the amount of debris on the shoulders, everything from glass, bolts & bits of steel through to tyre carcasses

Sydney to Albury is tough to find alternatives - while the ride via Wee Jasper, for example is scenic, its a narrow road - less than a lane each way in parts. IIRC Warren is a fan of the traveling stock routes in the area

[find_bruce]

are you looking at staying on bitumen or will some gravel do?

If Gravel will do you can pick this up from Goulburn https://www.strava.com/routes/23626884

My attitude to gravel is it depends - there are plenty of gravel tracks & paths that are smoother than bitumen with repaired potholes & I don't mind these, then there are washboards which I will avoid whenever possible. The former can turn into the later with heavy vehicles & rain.

Looks like an interesting ride though. I was confused as to why it was gravel because I thought the road from breadalbane to collector was sealed - but then I noticed you went further west via Lerida. What was it like?

I looking around I found a third route, turning west just before Wakefield Park & going via Collector & then effectively joining your route - adds less than 10 km

[cancan64]

What was it like?

I was heavily hung over and the first section (before Goulburn) was badly corrugated.. head was pounding so I jumped on to the Hume Hwy just before Goulburn and just put up with the traffic

I did this loop which from Collector was easy gravel and Bitumen (except when I jumped into Mulligans)

https://www.strava.com/activities/4584986384