Porcupine Ridge

Location: Aviation/Sir George-Etienne Cartier Parkway near the Aviation Museum
https://www.strava.com/segments/28093477

I got a bit lost in the Rockcliffe Air Force Base area recently and ended up riding down this segment and found myself sort of in the middle of the on-ramp that goes from the Aviation Parkway to the Sir George-Etienne Cartier Parkway. I was out of time that day, but made it a point to return to ride up it.

Finding the entrance to the climb again entailed riding on the grassy shoulder of the on ramp to the Sir George Parkway (the map is really needed to nail this down). As the above photo shows, in mid-summer it may not be super obvious, but there is indeed a trail here. 

You drop down into a ditch and immediately pop up the other side and start climbing. I miscalculated the gradient, stalled and fell over. I just couldn't unclip in time. I got a bunch of burdocks on me, and thus named this Porcupine Ridge. 

I was not the first person to ride up this, although there's only a handful of people to come before me on Strava. 

Once you start to climb the dirt path turns into old, very broken pavement. It's far more deteriorated than other parts of the area around here that are being redeveloped. It's not clear to me if this was originally a road or a paved path. Either way, it's fun to ride up. The gradient is steady at around 4% once you get going. You could actually create a loop here by adding in the Col de Polaris segment. That would make for a solid challenge, riding it in either direction. 

This is already a very popular area in general for riding, so this is just another little hidden feature that you may not know about.