Everybody rallied around Eli at the hospital, where he received the first of several rabies shots for being a doofus. Interestingly, nobody rallied around Connor the week before for his self-inflicted thumb wound. I’m not too sure what warranted a hospital bed for Eli, but it’s a small hospital and maybe they thought he might have a reaction. Mark took this opportunity to apologize to everybody for his incompetent teaching and leadership, which should be a clear signal for him to stay in his safe lane. In the end, Mark was happy that his students were nice (or gullible) enough to accept his apology and share in his kumbaya gratitude by agreeing to go fishing with him. Quietly, one presumes.

Wrap Up: Well, even for Rivera, this was not your typical Mark Trail adventure. It was not based on a job-related assignment. There were no clear villains or environmental issues to resolve, other than Mark’s consternation at perceived dangers from bad survival guides. Mark pledged to create a survival school to teach men how to survive by providing real and accurate information. Good intentions, to be sure, and a sure-fire plot setup for useful information and even some drama. Unfortunately, Rivera dumbed down the survival concept to a fishing seminar. Also, why did Mark want to limit the retreat to only men? It was not at all clear at the start. It became apparent when the De-Bait Team talked Mark into focusing on helping men express their feelings to help them with their domestic issues. Why was this a good idea, anyway? So this story changed course and became a soap-opera parody of how men (like Mark) don’t like expressing their feelings. Did the story resolve anybody’s emotional issues? No. Did the men learn to deal with their feelings any better? No. Did any student actually learn to fish? No. Was this story worth our time? No!

Let’s see if today’s nature talk is more worthy.

This is a nice bite-sized piece of information, focusing on the contrast between the LMB’s invasive status in U.S. waters and its popularity for fishing. In other words, fishing for LMB is actually good for the environment and local water species! I may have to dust off my cane pole and bobber this summer.