With all the events of recent here in flag, I don’t think anyone would have put a sure bet on the forest being open in time for cruiser nation this year.

Crusier Nation, for those not ‘in the know’ is a downhill race on cruiser bikes on lower moto trail every 4th of july. It’s a fairly long-standing tradition here in flag, and a damn good time.

But, as with all good traditions, this one pulled through. The crowd was a bit smaller than years past, and since the gate on schultz pass road was closed, the after party was a bit of a bust, but that didn’t stop anyone from having several adult beverages and having a damn good time.

Even though there were only about 20 racers, the regular powerhouses were out in full-force.

Chris was up escaping from the phoenix blast-furnace and he came prepared.

It was only the 80 proof wild turkey or as he referred to it “breakfast turkey”.

I was a little late rolling up there, but found that (as expected) everyone was still sitting around having beers and getting ready to rage on down the trail. In fact, I left the bottom of the trail at 11:55, got to the top, and had time to have 3 beers and more wild turkey than I care to measure.

This ultimately resulted in me being way too drunk for my own good, and getting a nice big fat flat tire on the way down. Fortunately I met up with the Hobo crew and they had a couple beers waiting for me to ease the pain about halfway down.

We stuffed my tire with pine needles (since the only tube anyone had was a shrader which wouldn’t fit my rim) and I rolled down a little ways further. I finally picked up a tube (and another beer) on one of the favorite spectator descents, and rolled in dead last.

Bret took the big W this year, his third on the record.

And, as tradition has it, I got the yellow hat of shame for my last place finish. Here’s Bret signing the hat before I wore it around for the last few post-race beers.

Unfortunately the keg and the BBQ never showed up, so the post-race party was a little shorter than normal. We did, however, have a pretty decent bike pile considering the number of folks who were out this year.

I promptly went home and passed my drunk self out on the couch for the next couple hours. Happy 4th of July.