The Mystery of the Superstition Mountains

I could feel the wind in my hair. I could feel it. I was going too fast, and I knew it. However, that was my favorite part of horseback riding, just going fast. It was cold that day; I remember. Even my heavy coat wasn’t enough to keep my body warm against the fierce winter wind. It helped though that my horse, Bandit, had his winter fur already. Bandit and I were on a trail ride through the beautiful Superstition Mountains, but we sort of got lost. I couldn’t help myself to the freedom of being on my own. Besides, the guide to the trail ride probably didn’t know I had left anyway.

We had been riding for hours. and we weren’t even halfway to the bottom. I was starting to get afraid that I was really lost. My plan was to just head for the bottom and once we reached it, we would head to the ranger station. As I was thinking about these things, Bandit suddenly stopped. I knew that something was wrong. I dismounted and looked around. That’s when I found it. Embedded into one of the Superstition Mountains was a giant, old mine. I tied Bandit to a tree and thought about whether to go inside. I remember it took me a lot of time, but finally I chose to grab a flashlight and head inside.

It was dark, and all of the boards supporting the cave looked rotted and creaky. I kept going anyway. The farther I got, the more dark it was. I had that feeling that something was going to happen but I ignored it. Eventually, I got to a end. I was very relieved. As soon as I turned around to go back, one of the rotted boards fell in my path nearly slicing off my foot. Another board followed that one, and another, and another. That one board caused a chain reaction, the entire mine caved!

I was trapped. I started to cry, and I wasn’t embarrassed in the least. There was no one there to hear me anyway. All of a sudden, I felt a strange, cool wind sweep by my shoulder. It made me cry even more, but it was strangely comforting. I had been sitting there crying for at least an hour thinking about how I was going to starve and die. I was so into these thoughts that I didn’t even realize there was an old man, I’d say maybe 50 years old standing, in front of me. I was startled, I mean who wouldn’t be, but the kind look on his pale face was comforting. He seemed to glow a bit, but that was part of why he made me feel like everything was going to be alright.

We sat there, looking at each other for a long time. I finally broke the silence.

“Who are you?”

He just sat there and ed his head. It felt like he didn’t understand me so I asked again.

“Who are you?”

He put his finger to his lips like he was telling me to stay quiet. Then, he pointed to a small rat hole in the wall. A small mouse scurried out, and the old man leapt for it. He missed. He motioned me to try, but I couldn’t feel in my heart to kill a small, defenseless mouse. So, I just shook my head. The old man looked a little disappointed, but then he nodded his head and smiled a small proud smile. Once again he gave me that comforted feeling inside. He walked over to the wall at the end of the end and pushed. I didn’t understand so I said
“What are you doing?”

He motioned for me to come over and help him push. I thought this was rather strange, but I did it any way. As I pushed, I saw a small sliver of light. We were actually pushing the wall! My heart was thumping very fast. I was so excited and relived to get out of the mine alive! By the time we finished pushing the wall, I could see that I was on the other side of the mountain! I bursted out of the mine, I couldn’t wait to get back up on Bandit and ride down to the ranger station. Then I stopped. I thought about the nice man with the pale face, and the way he glowed, almost beaming with comfort. I thought about how he had helped me. It felt like it was my turn to help him so I asked, “Do you want a ride?” I turned around to see his motion of yes or no, but when I turned around he had disappeared and the stone door to the mine was closed. I was so startled that I ran all the way around the mountain, jumped onto Bandit, and galloped the whole way down to the ranger station. I didn’t know what else to do. I was so scared and my heart was beating so fast. By the time I reached the ranger station, I was saying everything in gasps.

“There was *pant pant* guy *pant* old yeah *pant pant* real old *pant pant* he helped me…” The ranger on duty had a very puzzled look on his face.

“Slow down, now what are you trying to tell me?”

“I went into some sort of mine and the entire thing caved in on me. I thought I was done for, but this old man came out of nowhere and helped me escape. He didn‘t talk, but it wasn‘t like he didn‘t want to, it was like he couldn‘t. I asked if he wanted a ride down the mountain, but he seemed to have disappeared.”

“Ma’am,” He said to me. “ I have seen every person that went up onto the mountain today. There was no old man.”

I was shocked. I was about to say something else, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw my trail group coming down the mountain. I left the ranger station without another word and went to my trail guide. I told him I had “Gotten lost.” As my trail group and I exited the national park, I could have sworn that I saw an old man waving and his pale face smiling that proud smile.