Furnace Creek 508

Furnace Creek 508 is an ultramarathon bicycle race that takes place annually each October since 1989 in Southern California. Its route starts in Santa Clarita, California (25 miles north of Los Angeles), goes northeast to Towne Pass and drops into Death Valley, traverses Death Valley in the southern direction, crosses Mojave Desert and ends at Twentynine Palms, California. The race is named after the total length of its course (508 miles) and the location of its midpoint (near Furnace Creek, California).

Rather than use names or numbers as in other races and other sports, the Furnace Creek 508 identifies riders and teams with "totems"; animal names said to signify or have a special meaning for a rider or team.

Read more about Furnace Creek 508:  Route, Participants and Results, Trivia

Famous quotes containing the words furnace and/or creek:

    A man may take care of a furnace for twenty-five years and still forget to duck his head when he starts going down the cellar stairs.
    Robert Benchley (1889–1945)

    It might be seen by what tenure men held the earth. The smallest stream is mediterranean sea, a smaller ocean creek within the land, where men may steer by their farm bounds and cottage lights. For my own part, but for the geographers, I should hardly have known how large a portion of our globe is water, my life has chiefly passed within so deep a cove. Yet I have sometimes ventured as far as to the mouth of my Snug Harbor.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)