Seville / Mt Beenak Loop

On a rather wintery morning I stumbled upon this route starting in Seville, smack back in the Yarra Ranges, starting right near town and initially spinning on the flat track that is the Warburton Rail Trail. 

You’ll set a land speed record if the wind is behind you for the first 20km on the freakishly smooth, Warburton rail trail before you find yourself beginning a shortish climb at first on asphalt and then taking on a gravel seasonal road called the Buffer Break Track. 
On the Buffer Break Track, you’ll find yourself in lush rainforest with fairly rough gravel, patches of mud in winter and a fair bit of tree litter with pinches of 10 – 12% probably more suited to a mountain bike setup but also doable on gravel.
You’ll descend on the same track, preferably with caution before you are immediately into the main attraction of the day.

Mount Beenak Rd is an absolute ripper climb of about 10km on beautifully smooth hard pack gravel. Gradients are all manageable until you reach The Tower Track which is an emergency road turnoff, taking you to the summit of Mt Beenak and possibly a view (too foggy for me at the time). 
The Tower Track is fairly rough with gradients of up to 20%, but it’s short at only around 2km so give it a crack. 

Following The Tower Track, you’ll descent straight down Mt Beenak Rd on some sweet, fast gravel as the route begins to quicken. 
After descending you’ll reach Kurth Kiln Regional Park and beyond which are a series of clean hard-pack and rolling hills.

From this point on it is rather smooth sailing aside for some rough single track through Duck Lane of about 500m, short cutting back through to Seville.
The road immediately after the rough section taking you to the finish is well worth the muck and puddles of the rough section.

*The second time, I did this with friends and we decided to ride the route in reverse which is the route you will find on the current RWGPS map. The reason for this is because it fits in better with a coffee stop. We also skipped The Buffer Break Track and the Tarrango Rd alternative route is very appealing and saves some rough vert.