The 2025 Course
Iceman course design literally begins on race day the year before. Typically we pick a challenging section and literally watch (and help if needed) every racer navigate through it. This makes for a long day but it is truly eye opening. We see the traffic back-ups, some of the wipeouts and hear the racer-to-racer encouragement and the expletives. Investing a year’s worth of passion into the course does not make the course designer unique whatsoever. If you have raced any of the Iceman events you have directly experienced the work of the entire staff of stellar humans that make this event run smooth by managing the bag/bike logistics, the packets, the merch, the safety, the road crossings, the wave assignments and all the millions of things it takes to make the Iceman Cometh Challenge the event you have come to know and love.
Our 2025 course moves us a few steps closer to the ultimate racecourse on public lands which we are graciously allowed to use each November by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). This year’s course breaks down like this:
Just after the traditional airport start, the Village of Kalkaska has once again trucked in gravel and smoothed what is likely the sandiest two track the world has ever ridden on a bike. The goal is to get 5,000 people sorted out and moving in one direction and if 30 yards of gravel and ten hours of excavator work is what it takes – the Village of Kalkaska has responded. Next up you will surely notice some trees missing on Smith Lake Road. The highspeed left hand turn onto the two track after Smith Lake road is still there but it will look different. The rain has helped so expect the pace to be fast. Within a mile of Smith Lake Road, the course takes a new merge to the right onto the “Sow’s Ear” single track. This new section avoids the beach sand of the pine valley that never earned an Iceman section name and replaces it with a ribbon of single track that is carefully placed between the tree line between two harvest areas. Be sure to look left to see all the sand you’ll be missing this year while catching your breath on the slight downhill sections.
Next the course takes another new turn and shares a short section of the horse trail. This is a gorgeous tunnel of trees on an old rail bed and it offers a small hill to allow more passing before the Dockery single tracks. Shortly after riders will find themselves back on Brownfire road which is nearly a mile of grade A gravel (passing galore). The course stays the same until the dark black loamy single tracks of Dockery Hills. The section that has been called “Gussied Up” has been rerouted to remove a significant hill that bunched racers up. If you never noticed the name before, that’s likely because you were pushing your bike or breathing so hard your eyes would not focus. We changed this section to a mostly level single track with one very short climb. The trail has been carefully built to be wider than most single tracks but still single track and should keep nearly every rider on their bike versus pushing – even tandems.
The drumbeats of “Make It Stick” are back this year as racers grind past and continue to “Tom’s Cabin” and “Tighty Whitey”. Next up is the same slight left into Sand Lakes Quiet Area as last year. If you danced with the “No Motor Vehicles” sign post last year, our sincere apologies. On the bright side, we have received approval from the DNR to remove one of the posts. You will still have to avoid the other post. Can’t remove them all. The section through Sand Lakes Quiet Area stays the same as last year, but the DNR did us another solid and allowed us to reroute and improve the bikeability of one section. More sand and tree roots you will not miss. After the 1.9 mile Quiet Area excursion, racers return to the same route as last year from Broomhead Road to Williamsburg Rd (mile 21).
After the applause at Williamsburg Road fades and just like last year, racers will rock the two tracks of the Oak Savannah, enjoy very short sections of single track before going LEFT at the rock (like last year). The same fast 25k section and “Intermingling” single tack as last year will keep things interesting for all skill levels. The high-speed straight section of “Special K” also returns this year along with the same series of corners and connectors that return racers to the 10k. Unlike last year, a new right-hand turn takes you into a very short single track and then right back to the 10k. This additional gives both Iceman and Slush Cup racers a small taste of the section called “Tight and Light”.
The infamous Anita Hill will once again watch from the sidelines as racers take the same short cut that diverts around Anita. This change will allow both the slush cup and the Iceman courses to remain the same and should dramatically reduce the number of lost slush cuppers. The remainder of the course is classic Iceman and takes riders directly to “Icebreaker” and then a taste of Steve’s Secret Finish that drops racers to the base of the leg burning “Woodchip Hill”. A quick right at the top of Woodchip and racers face another climb waiting to stab at the quads and calves. After pedaling through the cramps, the placard lined fencing will funnel you the rest of the way to the beat of the pounding/roaring fans.
The Northern Michigan Mountain Bike Association worked closely with the Festival Foundation and the greatest group of volunteers ever assembled, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, all the great people of Kalkaska and numerous other organizations and individuals to make the 2025 course our best course yet. We hope you love it.
One last thing. If we experience race evening and race morning rain, there will be course reroutes to help reduce muddy single track hike-a-bike sections. Be flexible and follow the signs. See you at the finish where we can talk about next year’s course.