Dark Rider

 Above:  A view of the wash looking south

On our last morning in Benson we took the two big dogs for their usual run up through the wash in the desert to the north of where we were staying.  This is an area that is dry right now but becomes a raging river during flash floods.  It twists and turns and has banks anywhere from 6 to 15 or so feet high, and varies from about 40 to 75 feet or so in width.  It is full of stunted trees and underbrush.

 Above:  A view of the wash looking north

On our way back down we were approaching a corner.  Our 165-pound Ovcharka dog was leading the way when a shadow appeared on the ground just ahead of him, indicating someone was coming around the bend.  He stopped in his tracks and was intently watching to see what was coming.  We yelled to the dog to stay so we could leash him, and grabbed the German Shepherd and put on her leash. 

When I looked up, there was a tall handsome man on a tall Mammoth Jack mule (these things are almost as big as a draft horse).  The man was wearing a blood-red shirt, a black cowboy hat, black jeans, black boots, and black gloves.  He was holding a large black pit bull on a chain, who was barking and jumping around beside him.  The mule was dancing around, the dogs were all barking, and the rider was trying to keep his dog untangled from the mule.

As he maneuvered past us in the wash, he commented with a laugh, "I think everyone here is new to this."

When he got about 20 feet past us, he turned back and yelled something that I couldn't hear because my faithful companion began barking at him again.  He then repeated it, saying, "Y'all didn't see a black knife up this way, did you?"  To which I replied, "No, sir, we didn't see any knives."

Then I remembered the iPhone in my hand and yelled, "Can I take a picture of you?"

He laughed and said sure, and turned his mule to the side and I snapped the photo.  When I looked at it later, it gave me a start because his face was all distorted, like some kind of a horrible mask.  Yet I was talking to him before I snapped the photo, and he had put nothing on his face.  Then the words from the song Red Right Hand came into my mind and I was totally freaked out.  Take a look at the photos below, but before you do, click on the play button on the video below to hear Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds performing Red Right Hand while viewing photos to get the full effect:

Click above play button to start the video and listen to the song while checking out photos below:

Above:  "On a gathering storm comes
a tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with

a red right hand ..."

Above:  Enlarged to see face
That's either a gun or a knife on his belt (Arizona has open-carry firearms laws)