I will not eat them in a bar.  I do not like green geese and ham, I do not like them, Mark I am…  What’s up with the geese?  Too much green ink left over from the African Odyssey?  We will call it “Range Rover Green,” and it would seem that it’s made its way into the very core of these migrating fowl.

There is certainly comfort in old rituals… like Mark suggesting that he and Rusty go fishing, like reading an actual newspaper.  Getting ink on one’s fingers…  I bet Mark has a stack to go through, piled up and awaiting his return.  Does he see himself?  Testifying before congress?  Does he read the funnies?  The Sports page?  I mean really, what would even remotely interest this man of such limited dimension?

And yikes…  I could go a while without another close-up of Rusty…

Can’t you just hear it?  Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA??  As Mark continues to hold forth and opine on his latest adventure… And offer of words of gratitude… Andy has checked out and Cherry, Doc and Rusty would just wish he would stop already…  Kind of makes you wonder what they talk about when Mark is away… or whether they talk at all.  But of course Mark will keep on talking until he has sent everyone to bed, and Cherry is sound asleep where he won’t have to endure her advances…

Yup, living in the good ol’ US of A… Rent free and care free!

Now I really wish that Mark had followed Jacob Hickman to Sumatra!!  But here we are in the rutting season, and Mark has grown back his rack…  and only has eyes for Cherry.  How nice.

Well, get it on, you two, the clock is ticking before Mark will have to go off on another adventure…

James Allen just keeps breaking new ground.  Nipples.  There… I said it.  Nipples on Mark’s chest.  This could be a first, although I won’t spend the time to prove my thesis…  That, and once again, Mark seems to not have to ever shave…  This just seems unnatural along with the total lack of hair on his torso…  What about, oh, let’s not go there… but really- does he ever shave? I haven’t ever seen him with so much as a stubble.  Even Dagwood shaves… every morning in front of the bathroom mirror…

And Mark, you are so clever, and could not wait to vocalize all that you have endured and how you schemed your way out of it… but you left out the part where you backed up and went over the falls!!  That’s the best part!  Simply saying you “hurt your shoulder” doesn’t do your story justice…  But that’s you Mark, modest to the end…

Not sure about the look on Cherry’s face in panel one… is it gas?

…except an ever-so-tender kiss on the Trail-cheek after his brush with death!  Was there time for a life-flashing-before-his-eyes moment?  I wonder…  But Dusty and Cherry, not Rusty and Andy, found Mark a little worse for wear but alive and able to write non-stories and fight eco-evil another day…

OK, maybe this wraps a story line… we’ve been at this for 39 days… and we never even left Lost Forest!  Unless of course we consider the hint that Ol’ Dusty dropped a week or so back- the fact that there appears to be a poacher afoot!  Trapping bear and making them angry and aggressive…  So this is probably just a pit stop on the way to figuring that one out…

But a handful of stars and a thumbs-up to James Allen…  that was actually moderately exciting!

Everyone looking forward to going back to work this morning??  Getting your ass kicked by the Alpha?

Just remember… EVERBODY has a boss… everyone answers to someone.

… ha, ha, ha…

But we have certainly arrived at a new plateau in the Trailverse…  Mark shirtless and needing help, Cherry part of the story but NOT the one needing help… (well, never has she been shirtless, but always in need of help…)

Which reminds me of a Haiku I heard the other day…

Atop that plateau
We were greeted by an odd
Sense of inertia

OK, everyone, let’s take a breather…

James Allen can draw bears!!  And forgive me, Mark!  That wasn’t fear on your face yesterday~ that was happiness laced with surprise and gratitude…  So many emotions are now at your disposal it’s understandable if you don’t use them correctly, or in my case, I don’t read them well…  We are on the journey together, Ol’ Friend…  there I said it.  Could it be I have feelings for this two-bordering-on-three dimensional character named Mark Trail??  Perhaps…

So… as the bears decide who is the biggest and the baddest, Mark slinks away, stage left, hoping that he will not have to worry any longer about becoming bear chow…  Cherry and Dusty HAVE to be somewhere in the picture…  but then perhaps Mark has more trials to endure, more gauntlets to run as he makes his way back…

Nice left, Rex!  If the Black Bear goes 350 lbs., then the Grizzly has to run twice that!  That’s a lot of bear!  Paws the diameter of 165 gram Frisbees…  Well, Mark was right about Rex’s territorial tendencies…  it wasn’t two seconds before he emerged to defend his turf!

Really, Mark??  You think Rex “Knows his Name??”  You think he’s going to respond to that?  Is he now bearing down on you? (Ha!  Get it? ‘Bearing Down?’ That’s a joke, son! Nice man, but he’s about a sharp as a bowling ball…)  Mark, you keep showing fear… which makes you infinitely human, but I am not sure I know this side of you, nor do any of us…  let’s hope you can get out of this in one piece so we can get to know you better- the vulnerable, open, approachable and accessible Mark Trail.  Ewww…

Mark’s left arm and shoulder no longer immobilized…  dazed from his fall, but he still has the wits to know that he’s about to become lunch…  Met his match, as it were… Not that he was looking for a fight or even did anything to deserve this, but you know, life can be like that…  And life can also be like what is happening in panel two!  Ta da!  Straight from Cutter’s Bluff, it’s… Ol’ Rex the Territorial Grizzly!

All I can say is Hokey Smoke!  That’s one bad-ass bear.  But wait- could Rex actually be Chuck Norris’ Spirit?  Could be… Check it out…

Some days the bear eats you…  Looks like this is one of those kind of days.  I see this all playing out in super slo-mo… OOOOOHHHHH NOOOOOOO….. at the rate we are advancing this story line.  Tension, yes, I believe in tension, but c’mon is this chase going to last all week?

Down onto the other shoulder with the bad arm out and breaking the fall…  I know from experience that this DOES NOT feel good.  Oh Mark, this has turned into an interesting couple of days hasn’t it?