“Into the wild”

[Beegod Santana]

Fuck idealism. Go far, make money doing it and die screaming is my motto.

Edit: or, you know, just do you and don't write drunken nonsense on the internet...

 

[iamwhatiam]

I was living in Anchorage when this happened. Alaskans were pretty unimpressed and the comments I heard mostly consisted of "Another stupid Cheechako, they always die."
Cheechackos, a deprecating term for newcomers to Alaska, come to Alaska seeking riches or isolation or escaping from something and failure is often the outcome even for the well prepared. I remember another incident where some black bears approached a homesteading family in an isolated area. The man, having no gun, put his wife and children on the roof of their small cabin while he took a skiff across a lake to summon help. By the time help arrived, the family had all been killed and fed upon by the bears. They think humans are yummy and can be more dangerous than the enormous brown Grizzly Bears. We always carried firearms when camping, hiking and fishing as help was often hours away and the wilderness is just 3 steps off the road.

Hmmm... Do you have a source for that story? I'd be interested to read it. I know that black bear attacks on people do happen, but attacks by brownies and grizzlies are more common. Though of course, if anything is hungry enough...it will prey on humans. In my experience, all the black bears I've come across (once, I was hiking on a trail thru thick brush and came upon a black bear about 10 ft from me) have always been pretty skittish and just run away as fast as possible when you holler and make noise. One main exception of course being mama bear with her cubs... if you get in between, or too close. There is different advice given for what to do when you are attacked by a certain species of bear, and whether that bear is protecting cubs or is predatory/hungry and wanting a meal.

 

[iamwhatiam]

Read the book, watched the movie. His story is a lesson to always be prepared for the worst and to not be overconfident going in to anything. Even a badass like Richard Proenneke who lived a subsistence lifestyle, who lived alone for decades in the wilderness in a cabin he built by hand Richard Proenneke - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke - even he still had supplies and food flown in occasionally by a bush pilot friend. (There are some amazing documentary videos on youtube of him you should watch if you haven't btw)

On a side note, if I were going to pick anywhere in Alaska to live off the land...or anywhere else in the world for that matter, I would choose somewhere by the coast. There is an old saying amongst the native tribes in the coastal Pacific Northwest: "When the tide goes out, the table is set". Sea cucumbers, urchins, crab, fish, seaweed, clams, mussels......yeah, ya aint goin hungry.

 

[iamwhatiam]

Maybe the black bears in southeast are a different breed so to speak than the interior ones. The ones in town I grew up in would always be getting into people's garbage cans in the middle of the night and you'd have to run out there in yer underwear and shoo them off. Lol But they did have lots of garbage, berries, and salmon to eat.....so they wouldn't be hungry enough to try and go after a human I guess.

It surprises me the guy from your story would take his family to go and live out in a cabin in the woods like that and not bring fire arm of some kind. That's Alaska 101...common sense! Just another example, like Into The Wild.......you don't underestimate mother nature. She doesn't care if you wander off and get lost and die of starvation or get eaten or what have you. Always be prepared, know your limits, stay humble.

 

[NewMexicoJim]

'Into The Wild Bus Claims Another Victim'

https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/into-the-wild-bus-death

They just keep coming and dying, lol

" Veramika Nikanava and husband Piotr Markielau, of Belarus, were attempting to ford the Teklanika River on their way to the bus last Thursday when Nikanava lost her footing and was swept away by the current, ...According to the Alaska State Troopers, search and rescue personnel responded to 15 calls involving the bus between 2009 and 2017."

 

[roughdraft]

'Into The Wild Bus Claims Another Victim'

https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/into-the-wild-bus-death

They just keep coming and dying, lol

" Veramika Nikanava and husband Piotr Markielau, of Belarus, were attempting to ford the Teklanika River on their way to the bus last Thursday when Nikanava lost her footing and was swept away by the current, ...According to the Alaska State Troopers, search and rescue personnel responded to 15 calls involving the bus between 2009 and 2017."

"calls involving the bus" that's interesting, so it is basically a landmark?
is it this "Magic Bus" west of Healy on the northern edge of Denali?

 

[Kenada]

Yeah, maybe saying it could have been any of us is a little far fetched. With that said tho, i know some pretty gnarly folks who have gotten into some crazy shit from time to time and i think its pretty spectacular that they are still breathing. ive certainly bitten off more than i could chew in my lifetime and feel lucky to alive right now. but yeah, im not gonna say he wasnt ridiculously idealistic. but i also think that's how alot of us started out. and i also just dont think that there's anything inherently wrong with that. like i said, he was just tryina live his lofty ideals, not tryina be a hero. that was hollywood's doing

side note: i had a friend who went into the alaskan wilderness alone 8 years ago and never came back and his body was never found. unlike mccandless, he knew his shit and had a lot of experience doing long solo trips in the wilderness. his name was thomas seibold. its still a mystery what happened to him. i guess it wasn't good enough of a story for hollywood to make a shitty movie about. but he was really an incredible person.

Hopefully your friend is alright. Who knows maybe he made a life for himself in the wilderness. Maybe he’ll come back with an awesome story to tell! I’m a wishful thinker so hopefully he’s out there living his best life.

 

[coltsfoot]

Hopefully your friend is alright. Who knows maybe he made a life for himself in the wilderness. Maybe he’ll come back with an awesome story to tell! I’m a wishful thinker so hopefully he’s out there living his best life.

thx bud.

he went out doin what he loved

 

[MFB]

"calls involving the bus" that's interesting, so it is basically a landmark?
is it this "Magic Bus" west of Healy on the northern edge of Denali?

Indeed. When I was up there; there were a ton of kids (lots of internationals) that were stoked and intent on that hike. It's surprising to me how many people get themselves in trouble on the stampede trail, as it's a fairly easy hike and youre never too far from the highway. Who knows.
Anyway, the McCandless story resonates with a lot of youngsters, and I understand why.

@iamwhatiam Ive always had the same experience with black bears being skittish.
Come spring time in CO you inevitably see videos of black bears coming into town and getting into peoples trash or hopping in restaurant dumpsters and being shoo'ed away by owners. My 30lb dog has chased them off too.
They're hilarious!
Last week I saw a biiiiig ol grizz sitting on his haunches grubbing on berries. So cool.

 

[jessuschrist]

Just saw this movie for the first time recently as well, even though I’d heard about McCandless years ago. I also recommend the 2007 documentary “The Call of the Wild” by Ron Lamothe. The filmmaker takes much of the same route as McCandless and interviews folks that knew him, but it’s mostly told through the perspective of the filmmaker and explores the question of whether or not the ideals behind McCandless‘ odyssey still translates to a new generation of young folk.

I see where folks are coming from about him being reckless and in over his head, but at the end of the day, I don’t think people who are inspired by his story laud him for his exceptional wilderness skill; rather, they connect with the reasons, the desire to let all the bullshit go and to live fully and authentically. Lamothe summarizes it well: “...the greater meaning of Chris’ journey is what lives on...It is the idealized McCandless, the seeker, who in the end matters most to me.”

Anyway, the documentary isn’t wicked accessible, so if anyone’s interested, lemme know

 

[Older Than Dirt]

They airlifted the bus out to avoid it being a magnet for any more folks anxious to die in the wilderness:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ok-into-the-wild-removed-by-alaska-mccandless

 

[Lamentations]

I hated Chris McCandless. He was a trust fund kid, and he died because he had a fragile grip on reality, like a lot of suburbans. Now he's famous because his parents were rich.

The saddest thing about his story is how he lost touch with his roots. I think maybe he was drawn to traveling because of Buddhism, and slowly committed suicide hoping he'd be poor in the next life.

This is really a dangerous film because it could draw more people like him to traveling communities, and then you'll have to worry about gentrification.

 

[Darren Scout]

I saw that the magic bus was removed with a helicopter a few weeks ago. Always wanted to see the bus, I don't know why.

 

[MFB]

Say that I starved; that I was lost and weary;
That I was burned and blinded by the sun;
Footsore, thirsty, sick with strange diseases;
Lonely and wet and cold....but that I kept my dream!