December 23 Los Alisos to unknown wilderness (Climb to the Top)

We awoke in an environment similar to the unseen world experienced by Spanish explorers. The Sierra Tarahumara is a vast land that only local Indians know well. Only ancient trails reach parts of this wilderness and no signposts point the way. Though our map brought us to this wilderness, only a few reclusive Indians knew our whereabouts. The topographic lines on our map offered few clues to our exact position, as the landscape was so grand that only the largest features appeared on it. We followed the knifeback toward the high ridge, but found no passable route. We couldn't determine where the man on the horse had come from the night before, so we turned and went back down to the arroyo. We searched for the source of the small stream until it became so steep that even the four-legged animals no longer made paths. As the sun stood straight overhead casting no shadow, we returned to Los Alisos to ask advice. A local man led us up the arroyo and pointed up a slope of exposed rock with a path barely visible. We began the climb late in the day, around 3:00 pm, with the sun well into the western sky beating on our backs and the exposed stone radiating the days heat in front of us. By 6:00pm, near dark, we met a man with a small flashlight leading a horse, mounted with a small boy, and a little dog happily following behind. We asked where he was coming from. "Batopilas," he said. He had left fourteen hours earlier and would arrive in Urique in little more than six hours, he told us confidently. We knew after the descent, followed by the river crossing, he would be on level ground the rest of the way to Urique. But if we had spent more than twenty-four daylight hours getting to this point, we imagined him a local superhero. We pitched our tents on the uneven rocky slope and went to sleep, too tired to snack, and not daring to drink our last few ounces of water. A campfire flickered across the canyon and several howling coyotes talked well into the restless night. NEXT PAGE