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3 day's tearing up the Nations Capital


commandokamikaze's picture

By commandokamikaze - Posted on 23 February 2015

Hi all,

Myself and a few buddies are travelling down to Canberra this weekend for 3 days on a dedicated Mtb road trip, call it mtb boot camp if you will. None of us are very familiar with the trails down there and want your advice, where should we be riding for those 3 day's?? Stromlo is definitely on our list but we'd like to ride some more trails also I've heard you guy's are spoilt for great single track down there so give me the low down please!!!

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Pete B's picture

Sparrow Hill and Kowen are great, better than Stromlo in my opinion. I had heard that Sparrow Hill has been logged though, so not sure what that's like now. Somebody on here will know I'm sure.

spindog's picture

the trails out there have had a lot of loving' and are a great ride, they also have lots of trees there which really helps this time of year. I don't think the area around the mtb trails has been logged just yet and the CORC is lobbying hard to have the mtb trails preserved.
Stromlo's trails are a good contrast i.e. professionally designed but try and pick a cloudy/cooller day if you aren't shuttleing this time of year. Majura Pines is being revived now that the road works are complete but not sure if it's ready to ride...

MrSarcastic's picture

I would definitely recommend going to Bruce Ridge. They have a good setup there and it is pretty close to town.

skipper_nz's picture

Stromolo, great riding, pretty good run down the mountain, no surprises so launch into it! The climb back up isn't too hard depending on fitness. Have done a 5am 2 degree ride up for the sunrise which was unreal!

Kowen, fast and flown, nothing hard again, easy riding!

Bruce ridge, small and super fun, really good place to practice, and not far too drive., multiple tracks If your after a long ride this is not the place!

Ian_A's picture

I would recommend Stromlo for day one - just look at the big signs and choose a loop each lap you do. Make sure you do both Skyline/Luge and Double Disolution/Pork Barrel (they are separate descents).
Kowen/Sparrow double for day 2 - you can do pretty big kms around these two and will proably want to do Kowalski Sideshow a few times.
Day 3 I would head back to Stromlo unless you try somewhere new like Bruce Ridge (I've never been there).

commandokamikaze's picture

That's along the lines of what I was thinking Ian, just to clarify are kowen forest and sparrow hill the same place?

Pete B's picture

Yeah, they're linked together. You start by doing a 30 ish km loop through Sparrow Hill and then link to Kowen and do more kms. It's all really well signposted, just take enough water and food as there's no taps there.

Here's a link to one of my rides there. It's a couple of years old now but I can't imagine it's changed too much.

https://www.strava.com/activities/50592356

commandokamikaze's picture

Just checked out your link Pete, looks like a solid ride linking up kowen forest and sparrow hill 60 plus km's right? How is the ride in terms of technical sections and climbing? I do like a challenge btw!

Pete B's picture

It's not technical in the way of jumps, roll overs, timber features, etc. It's one long ribbon of well built singletrack.

Most of the climbing is hidden within the flow of the trails, I don't rember any stem chewing climbs anyway. There are a few fire trail climbs but nothing to worry about.

You'll have a great time.

Matt P's picture

I've just returned from a few days in CBR.

Majura is open but not everywhere. Mind you the new trails look like a lot of fun (Jindabyne Landscaping have some good info and vids on their FB page).

I rode Tuggeranong Pines a couple of years ago. It was VERY sandy at the time but certainly a lot of fun. I think that there has been work done - def worth a few mins of research.

Stromlo is great and agree with the run combos above (just dont do Double Dissolution first - you'll have a funny order if you do).

Bruce Ridge needs a hardtail to get the most out of it. Its fairly smooth and flowing single track. My 6" bike was ok but overkill.

Look into CORC and The Berm for more info. The bike shops are also VERY good for local info - the Specialized shop at Fyshwick were v helpful.

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