In October 2008, my companions and I did a descent of the Urique Canyon to the Sausal gold mine. Following a return from El Fuerte to Creel via the Chepe RR, we arrived at the Sinforosa overlook. One look at the sinuous trail descending into the depths and I knew I had to go down there.

I only had a crude road map which indicated a road crossing many miles downstream, but I reckoned that I could make it somehow with the four days’s worth of food I carried. My camera battery died on the steep descent to the Rio Verde, so it was great to see your pictures of all those magical sights.

I made my way down river following foot trails that occasionally disappeared, forcing me into thick brush, over boulders, and across rough scree slopes. By the second day, the canyon sides became so steep that I was forced to swim long stretches. By inflating the dry bag inside my pack and using it as a flotation device, I made better time than fighting my way along the shore.

I saw a few people each day – cowherds, fishermen, Rarámuri men and women – but overall, I had an incredible feeling of solitude in the depths of an inaccessible wilderness. Every evening, I made camp on a sandy beach. I scratched my name, the date, and an arrow pointing downriver, in case I didn’t make it out and someone came looking, then I dozed off beside a driftwood fire.

Late in the afternoon of the fourth day, I spotted a bridge crossing in what turned out to be the hamlet of Rio Guerachi. Just as I was about to settle on the bank for a final evening, a lone car rumbled toward me, and I caught a ride out of the magical canyon and back to Guachochi. And just in time, as I discovered in the car that I had punctured my dry bag, and all my gear was sopping wet. In the hotel in Guachochi that evening, every scrap of clothing and every peso were hung on lines to dry!

I’m dreaming of a return trip, perhaps going all the way to the confluence of the river from Batopilas.