SOTA Mt Gingera by mountain bike

With a forecast top of 29 c for Canberra and only 21 c for Mt Ginini decided a good day to activate VK1/AC-002, Mt Gingera. At 1855 m it is the 2nd highest in the ACT and a 10 pointer.

Set off from home. First obstacle was a bike race, hundreds of bikes on Uriarra Road from Uriarra crossing to the Brindabella Road junction. Crawled along behind groups until safe to overtake, lost a lot of time on the drive up. Headed up to the Mt Franklin Road, followed this to the locked gate and car park at the start of the walk.

As I have found the 4 Km road bash from the gate to Priors Hut a bit boring, decided to take my mountain bike this time.

The bike is a 24 speed "Giant" brand. Put on my pack as normal with the squid pole in the side pocket and started riding. Stopped to sign the walks register.

Noticed road was being upgraded with new drains, probably graded too as not too rough. Quite a steep quick descent to about 2 Km from the gate, then uphill, where I went back to walking...
Reached the stockyard spur track junction.

From here fairly level so able to ride a bit more. Got to Priors Hut in half an hour, this is normally about a good hours walk...

I locked the bike up here against a tree, as advised that no mountain bikes can be ridden past Priors hut. After about a Km walk reached the track to Mt Gingera, marked by a post with a blue rock on it

The blue rock...

The track head up to Mt Gingera. Just near the top took a short cut directly up to the summit

Mt Gingera summit. The trig pole looked a bit angled, didn't use it this time for squid pole support

Instead used a dead snow gum nearby

Shack at the base. A little bit of shade for the radio here,

Rucksack Radio Tool on the phone, which had only started working near the summit, reported Andrew VK1DA/P on Mt Coree, VK1/AC-023. Quickly got on air to work him. I then realized I hadn't tied the dipole legs up after laying them out! He was still a good S9...Tied up the ends. One leg tied to a well photographed snow gum near the summit.

Stunning views here. Looking South into the snowy mountains. The ACTs highest mountain, Bimberi Peak, VK1/AC-001 visible.

Returned to 40 m and a large pileup of chasers. Some more S2S contacts with VK3EK/P on VK3/VG-030, VK3PF/P on VK3/VT-046, VK3TCX on VK3/VG-049. 14 contacts before UTC and 14 more after.

Tried 20 m, there was the CQ WW DX contest on, the band was full of strong contest stations running high power...Managed to find a fairly quiet spot, worked VK5PAS Paul and VK5WG Nev.

Tried 2 m FM. worked Paul VK1ATP, and John VK2VEX at Yass with good signals.

Approaching noon starting to get hot with no shade, so packed up and headed back to Priors Hut for lunch in the shade. Rode back. There was a lot more "up" returning so walked a fair bit, took about 45 minutes.

Track log of cycle/ walk

Track profile showing speed and altitude. Due to rocky ground hard to maintain a top speed, best was around 28 km/h