http://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Mark_Trail/2013-10-04/
Aren't you supposed to be quiet when you are hunting? If so, why are they yelling? And the third panel is ominous. Mark thinks that there is a wierd relationship between Johnny Walker and the Senator, he is pairing them up and then telling them to take careful aim. I'm anticipating a Cheney-style blast to the face.
Now, turning to more important matters, what is the value of this trip (other than undermining [pun intended] the "Oil Exploration Act"?)? Using the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation and assuming that Mark, Dusty, Johnny and the Senator (what happened to Claire Marie? is she fixing supper back at the lodge?) are hunting in a "designated elk state" (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon or Wyoming), then the contingent valuation method can be used without much slippage. From the 1996 Addendum, the net economic value of a day of Elk hunting is $90 (inflated to 2013 dollars with the CPI). This trip is worth $270, over and above expenses (i.e., the cost of the plane ride, assuming it wasn't covered by the oil and gas lobby). Unfortunately, the coefficients on elk bag wasn't statistically significant, so we can't get a value on the expected two elk.
