As I discovered on the weekend you can actually ride (a road bike) to the top of Mt Majura. I had long held suspicions about this since last summer when I ran to the top and found the road up there but it wasn’t until this weekend I discovered how to get on that road. For those of you interested, Mt Majura is actually higher than Mt Ainslie by about 40 metres but don’t let that put you off as I would rate it an easier climb because the road has a constant gradient.
The best way to get there is up Federal highway then down Majura Road for about 1km to the turn off, there is a good shoulder on that part of Majura road so it is quite safe unlike coming from the airport, which is what I did and can be considered a bit suicidal with the number of trucks on the road and lack of shoulder in parts. After you about 700 metres up the turn off you’ll come to a locked gate so you’ll have to throw your bike over the gate to continue but don’t worry I am lead to believe you won’t be breaking any rules in doing so. In fact there is a sign just up the road from the gate stating that cyclist are to remain on the form roads, so you can use that in your defence :-).
The decent is a interesting one and not for the faint hearted, the road is narrow and windy, so with trees lining the road it really limits your view. Given that kangaroos are know to frequent the area I would recommend caution. The gate also presents an interesting problem on the way down, as it wasn’t highly visible and at normal descent speeds it comes up on you rather quickly. On the upside because of the gate I can pretty much guarantee you won’t have a problem with cars on the road.
To give some perspective on the ride by the recommended route if you look at the elevation chart in reverse the low point at the 90km mark is the intersection of Northbourne and Antill in Dickson rising back to the 80km mark which is the summit of Mt Majura
Ignore the first half of the chart that is from the rest of ride which is another story. Below is the elevation of the ride taken from the yellow gate sign at the turn off to the start of the guard rail at the summit. As you can see the ride has a very constant gradient.
Below is a map show the ride from the Federal Hwy turn off
So everyone in Canberra knows about the 4 peaks ride which is Mt Ainslie, Red Hill, Mt Stromlo and Black Mountain. Well now for a bit more of a challenge you can do the five peaks ride
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