Written by Dave

Day 1 –Sept 25 – 49 Miles, 3,545 feet climbing

We made it to Kalama just as planned. A good day all round.

 Highlights of the day included a nice ride on forested Terwiliger Boulevard, some funky, fun Portland vibes, some safer than expected North Portland rolling, a few kind of active looking drug deals in the Jantzen Beach area and finally seemingly miles and miles of riding to break out of the Vancouver, North Clark County urban sprawl.

We knew that we’d have some city riding and we did, but knowing it was coming made it more tolerable. It really wasn’t until a late light lunch in La Center when we felt we finally made it out into the countryside. That is, until we dove down to riding next to Interstate I5 in Woodland. I don’t know how one would live in Woodland – the constant roar of the highway would drive me crazy.

We were almost happy to leave the I5/Woodland area but we knew the steepest climb of the day was coming and had some trepidation about giving up the nice highway grades. And we should have. Green Mountain Road started right as we turned and it ended up being a 1.6 mile beast with gradients peaking at 18.2%. Later I learned that my heart peaked on the climb at 191 BPM. I’m not sure all the data these modern cyclo computers provide is all that good to have. I didn’t need to know about either 18.2 or 191.  We were very happy to finally reach the top. From the top we had about 8 miles of downhill rolling terrain. There a couple short climbs to make sure that our legs were completely finished.

We arrived in Kalama about 3:30, rolling right to our destination the Kalama Harbor Lodge. This is actually our third McMenamins of the day. We stopped for quick photos at the Hillsdale McMenamins and then stopped again at the North Portland McMenamins coffee roasters. Yes, McMenamins does more than just beer and wine. The roaster was not officially selling coffee or giving tours today but the roaster gal working there was pleased we made the detour and even happier that we knew that McMenamins does more than beer and wine. Had we not just had a cup of coffee at home, we would have certainly taken her up on the offer of a cup from her personal pot that she’d just brewed.

I wrote earlier that McMenamins tries taking over old buildings and repurposing them. As soon as we got to our room, I looked for the flyer to get the story on the Harbor Lodge as the building looks like it’s been here for years. Well, they tricked me. The building was purpose built in 2018! It has a story, but being an old building is not part of it.

Kalama the town is named after John Kalama, a full-blooded Hawaiian who came to the area in the early 1800s as part of the Hudson’s Bay Company. John was a carpenter and remained in the area after marrying a native Nisqually woman. McMenamins chose to honor John by modelling the Harbor Lodge building after The Pioneer Inn in Lahaina, Maui.  With 40 guest rooms, 3 bars and a couple restaurants, the Harbor Lodge has to be one to the larger employers in Kalama. Perhaps it lacks a true historical building but it is still nice to see such a positive impact on an otherwise sleepy highway/river town.

Having read all about McMenamins Hammerhead Ale, it seemed almost disrespectful to not try a glass this afternoon. After showers, we headed up to the 4^th floor pub for happy hour and to give Hammerhead a taste. It hit the spot perfectly sitting in the pub watching the river traffic heading to Portland.  After that it was down to the main floor restaurant to refill the reservoirs for tomorrow’s ride.

Tomorrow we head to Centralia and another McMenamins. We’ll try venturing into other parts of the pub menu, once again slipping in before the 5PM happy hour cut off. Now off to get some sleep…