26-Jan-2008 -- Right after the 2007 year ended, we had the first meeting of 2008 in our 4x4 Club called “Nogales 4x4”. Right in this meeting we decided to set the dates for the search and conquest of our 4th. Confluence point. This time we had to make big plans, the point was in the neighbor state of Chihuahua but according to all maps checked, in the middle of the Sierra Madre Tarahumara and around 800 Kilometers far away from Nogales, Sonora. The goal was 28N/108W.

The departure date was set for Friday January 25th, and the plan was to drive from Nogales to Yecora, town located very close to the state border line between Sonora and Chihuahua, stay overnight and leave early in the morning all the way to the point. Plan was to carry all necessary camping gear, food and beverages in case we had to stay overnight.

Couple weeks of intensive work plotting several options to get there in case we needed alternate plans. Thank’s to google earth we could trace our route pretty close, capturing all necessary coordinates at every intersection. If google was right, we could drive almost all the way to the point !. At least that’s was the closest road we could find in the maps and they seemed ok for us, since we all have 4x4 vehicles pretty much ready for any kind of terrain we could find.

Plan was ready and so the cars. Weather reports predicted several degrees below freezing line but we all were very anxious and wanted to leave right away, no matter what. That Friday the following comrades signed in for the journey. Jose Pedro Acuña, Audias Gonzalez, Miguel Rodriguez, Julio Arenas, Mario A.Campos, Luis Alonso and Armando Pesqueira, Luis Davila, Luis Cedano, Macario Aguirre, Martin Rodriguez, Rigoberto Arias, Marco A. Serrano, Jesus A. Cuamea, Ernesto Burruel, Oscar and Jorge Cayeros, Cesar Ramos, Sergio Ulloa, Humberto Gastelum, Jesus Hernandez, Martin Ruiz, Julio Peligro, Oscar Burgos and myself, Guillermo Terrazas, 25 in total, pretty good size group.

6 AM in Saturday morning we got up, took a shower, had a good breakfast and left towards the state of Chihuahua driving east on highway 16. A little over 2 hours we crossed the state line and then passed the town of Basaseachic. From there we headed south and drove into the National Park of Cascada de Basaseachic, the tallest waterfall in Mexico with a free fall of 247 meters, equivalent to 810 feet tall !. Needless to say we stopped overthere to take the obligatory pictures from the outlook.

Not far from there, the real “four wheeling” adventure started. The area was covered of snow and the unused road was hard to find, but thank’s to the coordinates taken in the computer and the GPS units we had, we find the entrance pretty quick. We were more than 8000 ft high above sea level in some areas. Scenery was breathtaking. We stopped several times to take more pictures.

Around 5PM we stopped at a mere 60 meters off the confluence point which was located in top of a huge rock in a dry river bed, or at least looked like a river bed but it was full of beautiful rock formations. Definitively the best scenery of all confluence points we had visited. The same ceremony was followed, the picture of the point from about 40 meters off, then pictures of North, South, East and West, the GPS shots, the group, etc. etc. We celebrated “a lo grande” and then prepared to go back as the sunset was pretty close to hit.

We drove back all the way to the Basaseachic town and spent the night there in a small hotel. Next morning we drove all the way back home to Nogales, Sonora getting there around 9PM.

Well, too tired but too happy, and here I am writing once again the entire journey. It is time to start making plans for the next confluence visit …..