The Bauer Family

It had rained most of the prior day leading up to the race and the forecast was for more rain on race day.  However, a check of the radar and forecast in the morning showed we may get rain?  We got everyone up and fed and headed for Timber Ridge, which is the start and finish venue for the Slush Cup and finish for the full Iceman.  We wanted to be there early as in years past there would be a lineup to get into Timber Ridge as they would not open the gate till 8pm.  To our surprise we arrived and there was no line to get in.  The gate was open and they were directing traffic into the campground.  They must have listened to the feedback from prior years.  Things went ok while getting ready for the race, everyone was just a little stressed out.  I ran into Don Miller by the porta potties and we got caught up quickly. He had changed his mind at the last moment and transferred his entry to the Slush Cup.  He felt he was not ready for the Iceman...

This year we were not sure if we would even make Iceman.  Michelle's Grandfather passed away on Tuesday.  We didn't tell her mother our weekend plans because we did not want that to play into the planning of the funeral.  If things worked out they would work out.  We learned late Wednesday that the funeral would be on Friday (more on that later).  So we decided to go ahead with Iceman. By the time we got home, got the van loaded, picked up JJ's girlfriend, got gas, got food and got on the road it was after 5pm.  We didn't stop till we got to Grayling and then drove straight to Traverse City to the Expo.  It was shortly after 8pm when we reached the expo.  We got inside and picked up our race packets. After that we did a short walk of the expo to see what was there.  Brendan was in search of a free water bottle. This year my focus was looking at taking photos of as many Fatbikes as I could.  Here is a sampling of what I saw.  The...