# Portland riders: McNamee road?



## bismo37

Some of my favorite routes include Skyline, Hwy 30 and Sauvie. I generally use Cornell/Thompson roads and Rocky Point Rd to get onto Skyline and to avoid heavy, fast traffic. 

I've heard mention of McNamee Rd and some other roads but have not ridden them. 

What are the % grades and road surface like on McNamee? Any dirt or gravel? What about Newberry?

I'm looking for low traffic (unlike Germantown), no semi trucks (unlike Cornelius Pass), no killer farm dogs or motorists. Any other Skyline to Hwy 30 routes that are safe and worthwhile?

Thanks!


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## b4_ford

Funny seeing this question, I was planning on riding it in the morning. I've never ridden it, but it's a favorite in my old Volvo. Road surface is good, low traffic, and many curves. According to mapmyride.com it is 870 foot climb over 4.5 miles. I'm not sure of the % grade but I cooked the brakes in my '71 144 on the bottom part. I'll go up Germantown from St. Johns and down McNamee.


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## bismo37

Thanks for the description. 870ft over 4.5 miles sounds likely easier to climb than Cornell or Rocky Point. 

As soon as I saw your screen name, I thought: old school rwd Volvo enthusiast? I was right! I have a B4 China Ford-Volvo :frown2:. It's a C30.

Have a good ride tomorrow.


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## Wookiebiker

jeebus said:


> I've heard mention of McNamee Rd and some other roads but have not ridden them.
> 
> What are the % grades and road surface like on McNamee? Any dirt or gravel? What about Newberry?


*McNamee* has a lot of rollers for the top 2/3 of the climb and the average grade is not all that bad...just lots of short stuff followed by some flats or slight downhills. The bottom 1/3 however is pretty steep and probably averages around 10% for about a mile.

There is currently gravel on parts of McNamee because I think they are looking at resurfacing some of it. It's not bad and no solid sections, just gravel sparsely placed on the road. It won't effect an uphill climb, but you should slow down if you are going downhill.

*Newberry* road is a pretty steep climb, especially the first 1/2 where the average grade is over 11% and sections over 14%. The upper section is shallower with a flat to downhill part for a short period and grades only in the 5%-7% range on the top.

The road on Newberry is well paved and fairly low traffic. I find it more fun to descend than climb with all the turns and high speeds  



> I'm looking for low traffic (unlike Germantown), no semi trucks (unlike Cornelius Pass), no killer farm dogs or motorists. Any other Skyline to Hwy 30 routes that are safe and worthwhile?
> 
> Thanks!


Don't forget heading up Logie Trail from the HWY 30 side. It's probably the steepest climb in the west hills with the steepest parts near the top.

Other good climbs...Old Germantown Road (I like to descend Germantown then make the turn onto Old Germantown road and climb back up) and springville. If you go west the climb up Mason Hill to Moreland is a good one the bottom is steep the top is flatter and low traffic. The west side of Logie Trail is also a fun hill...it's longer than the HWY 30 side but not as steep overall.

Also if you are coming from the city you can head up through the park to the Zoo, then connect to Skyline at the top of HWY 26 overpass. Then take Skyline all the way down to Rocky Point for a nice ride...add in a few downhill/uphill sections and it's easy to put together a 50-60 mile ride with 4000-5000 feet of climbing.


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## danielc

Newberry and McNemee are great climbs. Both have relatively low traffic. On Skyline they are close together but from 30 McNemee is further out.


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## bismo37

Finally tried climbing McNamee. I loved it. Nice and quiet. The first mile was nice and steep: My Garmin read grades from 7-11% on the straight sections between the curves. In the early part of the climb near the railroad bridge and at the steeper curves/switchbacks, the Garmin was briefly hitting 14-18% grades. Not sure that's entirely true, but it did kick my butt after a short 2.5 mi warm-up from Sauvie. 

Beyond the first mile, it was a nice series of rollers.

I started at Sauvie, rode Hwy 30-McNamee-Skyline-Old Cornelius Pass-Phillips-Helvetia-Logie-Johnson-Skyline-Thompson-Cornell-back to Hwy 30 to Sauvie. It came out to be about 45 miles with about 4200 ft of climbing.


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## dfltroll

You should consider going up Rocky Point. That's a great climb. And it's not so bad going out Hwy 30. Also, consider exploring Beck, Munson and Moreland and other roads that spider off Skyline. The riding out there is great. Lots of great dirt climbs too.

And consider doing Dixie Mtn from Scappoose. From Hwy 30 you get on Dutch Canyon then left at Otto Miller which becomes Dixie Mtn and takes you to the end of Skyline. It's about 10 miles of gravel but still totally doable on a road bike. If you have room for 28s, or better yet, 32s, you'll have no problems at all but I think there are a fair number of folks who do it on smaller tires.


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## OldHouseMan

One of my favorite rides includes McNamee...

Up Cornell to Thompson to Skyline across Cornelius Pass and down Old Cornelius Pass Rd to Rock Creek and back up to Skyline across Cornelius Pass on Skyline down McNamee to Hwy 30 up Newberry to Skyline then down Thompson and Cornell to home.


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## bismo37

dfltroll said:


> You should consider going up Rocky Point. That's a great climb. And it's not so bad going out Hwy 30. Also, consider exploring Beck, Munson and Moreland and other roads that spider off Skyline. The riding out there is great. Lots of great dirt climbs too.
> 
> And consider doing Dixie Mtn from Scappoose. From Hwy 30 you get on Dutch Canyon then right at Otto Miller which becomes Dixie Mtn and takes you to the end of Skyline. It's about 10 miles of gravel but still totally doable on a road bike. If you have room for 28s, or better yet, 32s, you'll have no problems at all but I think there are a fair number of folks who do it on smaller tires.


I've done Rocky Point Rd and really like it. I was looking for other options up to Skyline off of Hwy30. McNamee was great. I'll explore Beck, Munson and Moreland too. Thanks for the advice!


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