Oh Dear, Shelley can’t get a signal on her phone…  So once again the present intersects with what appears to be a throw-back to an older, simpler time…  And what is that on your hat, Wesley?  Leopard? Bengal Tiger?  Difficult to tell, but either way it makes you out for what you are- Apex Predator, Alpha Male… Good thing that Mark is secure in his role as guide and factotum…

I am having trouble figuring out how this is going to get even slightly suspenseful, other than the tension that Shelley is bringing to the scene in the form of incessant whining… Despite Mark’s first priority of making sure that the “Ladies” are “comfortable.”  But where is the privy, Mark?  What of their more delicate needs???

And what is this in the first panel- did the Chapmans bring a Valet?

Has Jack Elrod been watching too much Downton Abbey??

He appears to be toting a leather valise and a fishing rod case…  Orvis?  L.L. Bean?

Or is that Mark- but I have never seen him wear a ball cap before…

When Bighorn Sheep turn their thoughts to banging heads and Grizzly awake, looking for their first meal… I don’t know, but the Bighorn in the foreground of panel two looks a might dazed…  I hope he won his battle!  But considering that Lost Forest is in GEORGIA, and Bighorn Sheep tend to roam the WESTERN UNITED STATES, that little plane has quite the range!!  And since the RHODODENDRON’s native range is the middle Atlantic states on down, this is one confused ecosystem…  unless the namer of said lake was from the east and missed the flowering bush and so decided to name a lake after it despite the fact that the climate is much too cold and dry…

And Apparently when you are a VERY RICH PERSON, which obviously Wesley Chapman is, hiking is optional… “Let’s take the sea plane… there WILL be a place to put it down, won’t there, Trail?  Considering that Mark already had a nice place picked out “near a ranger station,” that Wesley had no prior knowledge of, this is all very coincidental…

…not far from a RANGER STATION?  Whatever part of M Trail Inc. scripts this dialogue must know I get up every morning and look to make fun of it… “Secluded area not far from a Ranger Station.”  Uh, OK…  I guess we’ll know soon enough why that’s important…  I am still dying to know who the blonde is in the framed portrait on Shelley’s nightstand…  These things can’t go unmentioned, and certainly they would not have gone to the trouble of inking it if it did not feature in some future plot point… But isn’t Wesley the picture of success under an old-time/ robber baron/ we love profit era?  ***sigh*** As we head into another round of “Teddy Roosevelt and the Trust busters,” we can only look upon such vim and vigor and say, “we knew you when…”

Love the first panel- no rack-focus here…  cranking the aperture down and keeping near and far in crisp focus, we get to see male and female bonding over cups of strong black coffee… Wesley, with his hand on Mark’s shoulder and Shelley, who by now must be sweltering in her ribbed turtleneck sweater, remaining nonplussed by the notion of sleeping on the ground under canvas, regarding the whole thing as “silly…”  Careful there, Lassie, you have just entered the Trail-verse, where such notions are met with less than an approving nod.  Mark’s Cherubic face, on display in panel two, makes us think that he’s on the verge of tears, so excited is he to go in to the woods, not on assignment…

How many times have we remarked, while watching a story arc build ever too slowly, “OK, enough already…  can we just get on with this?  It would seem that our writer was anxious to have Shelley employ her Dale Carnegie Training (Always use the person’s name when interacting with new-found acquaintances…) in panel two where she blurts out awkwardly “MARK AND CHERRY TRAIL!”  Not so much as a question mark in that offering, so confident is she!  But then it must be chilly up in the clouds, otherwise, why would our visitors be so wrapped in warm clothing!

Channeling Howard Hughes, Wes (I’d rather call him Wesley) Thompson, is resplendent in his fedora and sweater/ blazer combination…  wringing his hands in anticipation of taking to the woods with one Mark Trail, whom he secretly wishes he could “chuck it all” and just be…  Ever smug, Mark busily answers to the thought that Wesley is apparently having, otherwise his blurting out of “YES, I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THE CAMPING TRIP” just seems a little awkward.  But then, that’s Mark.

Thank goodness we only have to endure one more awkward hand gesture from Editor Bill Ellis…  Seriously, what is he doing with his right hand?  Is he in mid-thrust on a hand shake, looking to take Mark’s Manly Paw into his?  Or is the hand going to continue its upward trajectory and find paydirt inside the Editorial Schnozzola?

But wait… “Time away from Work?”  What on earth are you talking about Mark?  Work?  You?  Huh.  Like what you do is SOOOO stressful. I don’t know, perhaps I underestimate what burdens are brought to the life of a self-righteous Nature Writer…

But let’s tarry no longer on that, let’s get to the transformational pose being struck by one Cherry Trail- And unlike in the Northern tier where Spring has hardly made a ripple on the collective populace, in Atlanta, home to Lost Forest, Spring is clearly in full bloom and Mark and Cherry are enjoying lunch, picnic style, with Cherry pulling out all the stops with the halter top and short shorts!!  Andy, Turn away! There may be shenanigans in the making!  And oh, could the bread be any Whiter?  We have serious diversity issues in the Trail-verse- even the bread has refused to yield…

He says with his finger gesturing mightily… But what exactly is Mark doing with his left thumb in the first panel?  And, um, Bill?  Do you ever actually SIT BEHIND your desk or in your comfy chair, or is furniture to you just so much stuff to lean on??

“You could set up a camp and act as a guide…” Well, duh.  Isn’t that what one does when one “escorts” people on a camping trip?  Get things set up and make sure they come back in one piece?  And Heaven forbid Mark should have to interact with Shelley! “So, Cherry, you down with this?  Don’t know these people, but I have been led to believe that this Shelley chick is a little squeamish, so no ‘Toads in foot of her sleeping bag’ trick, OK?” And what of the other Trail family? Is Rusty to Stay with Doc?  Does Andy get to go?  Tension mounts!!

“Never is heard, a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day…” Appreciate the look on Mark’s face.  The Calm, the Equanimity.  The knowledge that life is good.  Roles are distinct.  “I live by my own code and always come out on top.  I can play in the woods or the city, it doesn’t matter. I am Trail…”  Check out the Hat (and the pose) on the lady in the background.  Clearly they are on Madison or Park Avenue!

OK back to the story… Editor Bill Ellis has another favor to ask of Mark… And by the way, is Trail on salary here, or does he get paid by the story?  Oh that’s right, it doesn’t matter.  He married into the Lost Forest Empire, complete with swanky log cabin and a bottomless cup of coffee!  Shelley, with an ‘ey’ on the end, a girl who after years of shacking up with the wealthy benefactor, who finally made an honest girl out of her,  (sound familiar Mark? How long had you been stringing Cherry along before you made a commitment to her?) now wants to “fix” her and cure her of the misguided notion that the Great Outdoors is ‘icky.’

Ok let’s count the ways in which this scene is truly anachronistic… First off, it would appear that in the Trail-verse, Print Media is still alive and well…  the internet has yet to make its presence felt… have you picked up an issue of Time Magazine lately? It’s wafer thin… Second, the sumptuous office of the editor- big wooden desk, built to take the full weight of a grown man leaning against (suggestively) without yielding an inch, the overstuffed chair to drape oneself over (even more suggestively) third, the fact that both men are dressed like a scene out of MadMen- full suits and ties, and nice pocket square, Mark… And finally, the fact that Mark still gets all cleaned up to go into town to meet with his editor face to face… I think that is charming

And why is everyone an OLD friend?  Like they have known each other since the Pleistocene?  SO glad Mark found the time to actually write the article he was assigned…  He has truly superhuman abilities, in between tackling embodied evil wearing fins (shorts ones, but fins nonetheless) and bragging about saving Rusty, apparently he was able to crack off a few thousand quality words…

Not the subtlest scene change ever executed, that’s for sure…  but no matter…

Shelley and Wes, Wes and Shelley… one of them sure knows Trail, since Mark has effectively created, even from Lost Forest, and only writing about nature, established zero degrees of separation for everyone on the planet…

Another swanky scene, though- dig the gilded frame and the poofy valance… the fine bone china cup in Shelley’s delicate hand, while sitting up in bed with her robe on, as if she didn’t expect someone to come in a wait on her…

“I’d like to talk to you” usually precedes something of significant weight, portends and ominous tone… But no, Wes just wants to know if Shelly might not like to “go on a camping trip.”  “Oh Wes, honey, you know that my idea of roughing it is not having a mint on my pillow…”  “Don’t worry your pretty little head, my dear, you know Caruthers will be with us to wipe our backsides and such… oh c’mon, it will be fun!”

But who is in the picture on the nightstand???     Not a little girl, that’s for sure, she seems to have Daddy’s golden, flowing tresses…