Leg 3- 20km Run
Click on map to view full-size image. Cross Antill St and follow the dirt track over the horse logs. Climb over the first stile you come to, onto the Casuarina walking trail leading uphill. Go straight through the next parallel log opening, and continue uphill. Turn left at the T-junction immediately after crossing another stile, onto a 4-wheel drive track. After a hundred metres or so, leave this track to climb yet another stile on your right, leading to the West Face walking trail heading to the left. This track initially climbs quite steeply, then cuts back to the right and follows the side of the mountain until it reaches a saddle, where the course again turns left and uphill, onto a four-wheel drive track concluding at a gate just before the summit of Mt Majura. Cross the bitumen road and scramble up to the trig station. This is highest point in Canberra, and in the Sri Chinmoy Triple-Triathlon. Enjoy a well-earned drink.The course winds with the road half way down the mountain, taking a sudden right hand turn into the bush. Pass through a gate, onto a more obscure trail heading to your left. This trail will bring you to a fenceline, which you then follow, hugging the fence to your left. This will bring you down to a gate.
Over the gate, cross the main track on the other side and look for a small singles track straight ahead, leading down into the forest. Follow this track all the way down, ignoring numerous other singles tracks which criss-cross your path. Nearing the bottom, there is a right hand veer, which brings you out from the forest, across some fallen trees, to another main track, where you turn left.
Follow this track to the right at the next fork, then at the next main road head straight across into another singles track leading into the forest, called "Auto Alley." Follow "Auto Alley" for quite a way, veering to the left before you reach the Auto, to join with the main lower forest road, heading to your right.
Ignore the first few right hand side-roads, looking for the fourth right hand turn up a long rocky incline through the pine forest, emerging at a horse crossing.
Turn left after this crossing, through the large ditch and onto the walking trail heading up Hackett Hill (above the water tower on your right). Hackett Hill affords lovely views of North Canberra on one side, and across to the airport and Queanbeyan. Coming off Hackett Hill, veer right onto the trail which brings you onto the main track heading towards the city. Turn left under the power lines, onto another dirt track following the power lines around the base of Mt Ainslie.
After a few hundred metres, turn left again onto the "Old Tip Track to Summit", passing around a gate and heading up-up-uphill. Before this track reaches the road, veer right onto a smaller walking trail which mimics the contour of the road until just before the summit, where it lurches to the left up a serious little incline, crossing the road onto the large traffic island which constitutes the summit of Mt Ainslie. At the beacon, pause briefly to take in the most famous picture-postcard view of the nation's capital, before heading down the stone stairs, across the road and onto the walking trail leading off Mt Ainslie. This trail offers the very best views of North Canberra, Civic, Lake Burley Griffin, Black Mountain and the Brindabellas beyond. Take the left-hand option at the fork near the base of the mountain, cross the main track and head directly into the Remembrance Nature Park, leading over a small footbridge behind the War Memorial. Cross Treloar Cres, skirt around the left of the War Memorial (coming from the rear), through the bus parking area and down the sloping lawn in front.Take extra care crossing Fairbairn Ave at the traffic lights, then pass to the right of the monument, and follow the footpath down Anzac Parade. Turn left at Constitution Ave. Cross Constitution Ave in front of the old AGSO building. Follow Wendouree Dr under Parkes Way, then head straight across the grass, over the cycle path to the gravel path adjacent to the lake, turning left. Follow this gravel path along the edge of the lake, past the carillon and under Kings Avenue Bridge. Follow the new cycle path, then the main dirt track until you reach the beach and transition compound at Grevillea Park.
