…is to kill his father-in-law. If I am not mistaken, it was Mark who put the thought of this trip into Doc’s head…
With Accident-Prone Mark leading now, what could possibly go wrong… right?? A little slip and fall, it would all look so innocent-like… and BOOM! Lost Forest is his!!! Mu-ah-ha-ha-ha! Just that a little surprise would await him- the fact that Doc doesn’t own it either- it’s in some kind of Land Trust that has it set aside in perpetuity… No Trail-wood! No casinos! No development of any kind… Well, there goes Mark’s dreams of laundering money for the Mexican Cartel…
What are we doing here again?
The Daily Trail 
You have a point, Dennis! Also…
…either good ol’ Doc is more fit than most 80+ year-olds, or he’s holding down the fort at the base. Hey, maybe when Mark completes another feat of free-climbing, as he did in an earlier story, he’ll spot JJ loping across the desert—map in hand—towards the treasure. But wouldn’t it be more interesting, if not perversely pleasing, if Mark looked down and discovered JJ’s lifeless body splayed out in the now-dry gully on the other side?
On the other hand, we may have to suffer through the usual Trail Tradition: Leola tries to free-climb with Mark, gets stuck half-way up, and needs Mark to once again save her from certain death, thus missing the opportunity to spot JJ’s escape.
Hey, that could be planned! See, I still think those two are somehow linked together in this farce.