In October, Sky Island Alliance Biologist Sergio Avila and long time Coalition supporter Bruce Gungle set out to complete a 508 mile bike race through southern California as a fundraiser for the Coalition. Bruce and Sergio along with their support crew Cory Jones of Sky Island Alliance and Sean Sullivan of the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, together known as Team Coonhound, tackled this champion of endurance bike races and completed it in less than 36 hours.

On October 8th and 9th, Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection supporters Sergio Avila and Bruce Gungle, known as Team Coonhound, will set out to ride the Furnace Creek 508 — a brutal, world-renowned ultramarathon cycling event where riders traverse 508 miles of mountains, stark deserts and desolate roads — all within 46 hours! The race begins in Santa Clarita, California, crosses 10 significant mountain passes, 35,000 feet of elevation change, crosses Death Valley National Park, Mojave National Preserve and historic Route 66 before ending in Twenty Nine Palms, California.  

Like a stick of butter left out in the summer heat of 2005, Team Coonhound re-coagulated with the cooler weather of early October to participate in its first two-wheeled event, the Furnace Creek 508. The 508 is a bicycle ride of 508 miles that begins in Santa Clarita, California, travels NNE through the towns of Mojave, California City and Trona to Stove Pipe Wells in Death Valley, then turns SSE through Furnace Creek, Badwater Basin, Baker, and the Mojave National Preserve, to end at Twenty Nine Palms….

Dear friends, The adventure is over, the race is past now and all the training, riding, planning and thinking is gone; but the happiness, the sense of achievement and the pain in the… legs, remain and grow with every one of your kind messages of support and shared satisfaction. I am personally very happy with the results of the race, but more than that with the group of friends I spent the weekend with and the work that we all did together to achieve this. There will never be enough "thank you" for each one of you: Bruce, Sean and Cory — and back in town: Kevin, Carolyn, Jenny and all of you who donated in honor of Team Coonhound or followed the race with interest.