Blackmail.  Johnny’s threatening to “expose” the Senator…  So Johnny has pictures of the Senator with what? Farm animals?  Senate Pages?  What’s on his Twitter Account??

And what an awful, sinister look Johnny has in panel three!  “WILL YOU SENATOR?” he says in a menacing way…  At least we know now how Anne Marie is going to “find out.”  Trail to the Rescue! With a cell phone! And a breach of privacy!  Can citizens “spy” on each other? Is it just the authorities that need a warrant?

And as Mr Lynx looks on, he wonders whether his habitat is going to be spoiled…  or more like whether that old geezer is going to bring down an elk to be field dressed on the spot, leaving him supper for days!!

Frightened Elk, damaging Fence line, that’s what… so Mark, what are you going to do now?  Frighten one even more?  Seriously.  “You and Johnny stay here and I will send the poor beast right into your shooting range…  Just keep your sight on the Elk, I wouldn’t want to be the one taking a bullet, here.”  Again, I don’t hunt, but is this typical behavior?

Mark I am so proud of you!  You are keeping your thoughts to yourself rather than verbalizing, and you are about to use your fancy phone-device to help you solve a mystery!! Not to mention using your Trail-brain in a truly cognitive manner, thinking ahead, forming and executing a plan.  Very impressive indeed.  Now just don’t get your mount shot out from under you!

Meanwhile, with Mark Trail out of ear-shot, the Senator shares his deepest thoughts with Johnny Walker… “Gee, I feel a little tingle in my leg, Johnny.  Haven’t felt that is a long time… not since the Goldwater election…”  Easy there, Hudson, don’t want you to soil your depends…  Look at him quivering with anticipation while Johnny holds a rifle that look twice as big as it should…

Johnny, Senator and his daughter (not to mention Mark Trail) are all onto you, and see through you like a sheet of isinglass…  I am still puzzled by the whole “putting them together” thing… as opposed to what?  Sending one east and the other west so they can all shoot at each other??

Oh and don’t mind Mr. Wolf, for Heaven’s sake…  he’s just roaming about waiting for a rabbit to happen by or something.  Not like the horses wouldn’t spook at the sight of it, right?

Would that be two elk?  Sort of like deer?  And what? Are they tied off to posts driven into the ground?

Oh Johnny, so grumpy.  What is your problem, really?

I am not a hunter, but isn’t two a bit much?  I mean, these are twelve-hundred-pound animals.  A trophy for each?  Even for Johnny Walker, mounted as a constant reminder of what would no longer be there to kill should the plans to develop the area go through??  I am so confused.

And how many guides and how many hunting parties are there?  “I am putting you and Johnny Walker together…”  “Uh, OK… are there other options?”

Yes, Heaven forbid we should cause these majestic creatures any suffering.  “Aim for the heart, Gentlemen.  Johnny, that’s the part of the anatomy you apparently do not have…”

…and Dusty still hasn’t caught up with current events… assuming these are federal lands, otherwise why would a United States Senator be on the scene, you should be erecting barricades and locking out the public just to increase the theater and the political impact of the Gub-Mint Shut-Down…

And by the way, have you ever thought about JUST ASKING THEM?  I mean really.  But as the Trailverse is replete with non-verbal, non-confrontational and passive aggression, that is until Mark starts punching and kicking bad guys, why don’t we take a long and circuitous route to the truth??

And remember Mark, the Senior Senator is but ONE VOTE…  any mention of his committee appointments, level of influence, confirming that his vote is the key to an otherwise deadlocked legislature?  These are plot points that might add a little tension, a little context.  Just sayin’.

A private thought being hatched and shared out of the Trail-head…  And such a concerned look.  Or is it just gas?

A threat?  Huh.  Not so much, Mark.  “Don’t get any crazy ideas… Know what I mean, Jelly Bean?”  Ooh, I am shaking in my boots… Maybe it’s the body posture that Mark is picking up on…  bent forward, sort of aggressive… I don’t know.  The Senator’s “old guy” features are becoming more pronounced here in the great outdoors, though… Head pitched back in panel one as if to say, “Huh?  What??”

And in panel three, Johnny has the stink-eye pointed at his meal ticket…  Jeez, what a control freak.

Nice that all the men are in uniform:  White collared shirt, buttoned up all the way to the top, with requisite L.L. Bean “Original Field Coat” Jacket… a steal at under $200…  it’ll wear like iron!  I know, I still have mine after 20+ years…

That cat must have real patience… I mean, it’s been lying in wait for a meal for days now, only to have its quarry slip away!

Oh, Dusty!  It’s been a while!  Dusty Rhodes, former WWE Wrestler and commentator, is now on the government payroll?  What an ignominious end!  Of course Ol’ Dusty is an Ol’ Friend of Trail’s… and part of the Aryan Brotherhood that makes up the Forest Service… Seriously.  Is there a spec of diversity in the Trailverse?  Nope.  Unapologetically so, it would seem…

And the air at your Lake Home is as fetid as the air at our Nation’s Capital?  Huh.  Anyway, it’s good that the Senator has his priorities straight- avoiding the vote on a continuing resolution to keep the Government “open for business.”  Strange that the Ranger still showed, given that all non-essential staff is now furloughed indefinitely…