Now an adventure story that is
compelling and puzzling. The saga of Chris McCandless,
a young man determined to put himself to some kind of test.
What was he thinking when he headed west, rejecting his privileged life,
his family, even his own identity? Almost certainly he never envisioned the fate
that awaited him. His journey and it's gipping conclusion
were the inspiration for a best-selling book. Tonight Tom Jarriel
brings this young man and his powerful story to life.
It was an odyssey in the traditional sense of the word.
He called it the spiritual revolution to kill the false being within.
A grand journey that would change everything and transform his life.
Chris McCandless was captivated by the spell of Alaska:
rugged, wild and challenging. At age 22 he was itching for a romantic adventure.
A chance to live like his hero, novelist Jack London,
who penned "The Call of the Wild". Alaska!
For the Northern Lights stir that yearning for adventure which can
haunt the young man. Outside magazine editor Jon Krakauer
was also drawn to Alaska in his youth.
As an offer he wrote a book about McCandless called
Into the Wild. When a young person is
is moved by this sort of passion and feels, it feels compelled it to go this
sort of quest I think you have to let him and there's no way you can stop it.
In our culture that we don't have formal rite of passage like
some each in cultures there in taking risk
subject yourself to a dangerous rite of passage maybe something many
people have to go through to become a man or a woman.
The mosaic of Chris McCandless growing up was typical
on the flu and family in the seventies. Snapshots reveal
a happy youngster waving to his family,
hiking in the mountains, vacationing with his parents in the Caribbean,
birthday celebrations and academic achievements.
He emerged from childhood handsome and highly intelligent.
His closest confidante was his sister Carinne.
This is Chris right here I like that picture.
Chris looks so cute.
Looks happy. The unconventional side of Chris McCandless
appeared in high school when he became captain at the cross country team
The Road Warriors. They just got on his suicide
trecks. The whole point was to get lost.
They run out get lost, find their bearings
run a little slower until they found the bearings and then run home again at full speed
when his teammates so this was an effect how Chris
where his whole life 0
while it Emory University in Atlanta mccandless and his friends made a video
of college life
which included an uninhibited solo
he graduated with honors in May of 1990
he had achieved his future was assured
when at the party his parents through Chris announced he was going to drop out
our site for a while
he explained he needed to quench a thirst for adventure.
He headed west and like the Setting Sun slowly banished from the
life he had known
and the family that had raised him McCandles was transformed
a nomad with the new life and a new name Alexander Supertramp
he aspired to be a super tramp
y'know wandering the world hanging out with bums and drifters
living on nothing but his wits and for two years he did that wandering
around the West
one of his favorite songs was Roger Miller's
king of the road. "Trailers for sale or rent
There were ups and downs y'know times where he was
feeling very alone
but then there were days where he was so illated
and overjoyed and felt great
within months
the letters and calls home petered out his parents were distraught
their son had rejected them and their lifestyle
he just wanted to go from adventure to adventure an experienced life
fully um he wasn't after security he wasn't after
the house, the kids, the car. My parents were concerned as
any parent would be um that they hadn't heard from their son in so long
and they basically just wanted to know that he was alright and that he was still alive.
and um so they hired a private investigator.
The investigators search reached as far as Europe and South Africa
but Alex Supertramp was just cruising through the west.
Some disturbing clue surfaced the family was shocked to learn Chris had donated
all of his money over twenty four thousand dollars to famine relief
but the Supertramp had vanished. And this really freaked them out because they
realize he was trying to
not be found. They got really worried then they
soon you know they contacted the police missing person stuff
and it turned up anything. Years later Jon Krakauer
retrace chris mccandless is journey he learned that when Chris had arrived at
Lake Mead California
he was caught in a flash flood and forced to abandon his car.
He took out the last money in his wallet, 123 bucks,
put in a little pile in Sand, lit it on fire took a picture of it
what was the significance in giving away his remaining funds and burning even his
pocket money?
Chris thought money was inherently evil he thought nothing good came
of it. You didn't need it, was corrupting, it made you cautious and
greedy
and overly concerned about the wrong thing.
Alongside a remote highway in november of nineteen ninety
Wayne Westerberg picked up the thin young man who was hitching a ride
turns out he hadn't age in a couple days he kinda ran out of his potatoes
whatever else. He ate quite a meal there
he was like sleeping at the table there before we hardly got done
Westerberg combine crews harvested grain across the great plains
he offered Alex Supertramp a job in Westerberg's hometown
Carthage South Dakota population 247. Here the lonely traveler discovered a
friendly community
and briefly took route. Alex Supertramp had found a new surrogate
family.
From then on he gave Carthage as his home address.
As the time came for him to leave to Alaska you asked him to stay at work a little
longer
You offered him an airline ticket. why do you think he didn't take it?
went back to the farm and hitchhiking the rails
all that was part of it to him I mean you couldn't do you couldn't do half the
adventure without having the whole thing
part of the whole thing was was making the whole trip
all the way to alaska by foot, rail.
the long-anticipated Alaskan Odyssey was underway
Westerberg received a postcard dated April 27th 1992
for the first time Alex conveyed concern at the danger of venturing
into the Alaskan Outback it read in part:
if this adventure proves fatal and you don't ever hear from me again
I want you to know it you're a great man I now
walk into the wild. The fantasy was becoming reality
Alex's message would turn out to be
prophetic. Over the next weeks he would keep a poignant diary of his wilderness
experience
which would and as he never expected. time Tom Jarriel brings the journey to its
dramatic conclusion.
after this
Alex
Supertramp as he now calls himself has come to the most
crucial part of his journey. Ahead of him lies the challenge of his life
the rugged Alaskan wilderness. He is alone,
equipt with the barest essentials determined to survive on his wits
but not every adventure has a happy ending. Tom Jarriel picks up the story
at a dramatic and irrevocable crossroads. Electrician Jim Galleon picked Alex up
hitchhiking on the road between Fairbanks and Anchorage
he says he knew right away the young man was in over is here
when I found out he didn't have any boots
I told him he can use mine just give me a call when he came out in the woods
just get them back to me. He said he didn't wanna see anybody
fact he gave me his watch he had a comb
he had about 85 cents in change and he just threw it on dash in my truck
threw the map down didn't wanna know what day it was what time
was or where he was. Galleon dropped Alex off
on an abandoned mining road called the Stampede Trail
and snap the photograph. It was the end of April 1992
and Alex Supertrapp marched into the wild wearing a stranger's boots
The adventure of his life was unfolding um
he was enjoying himself. He had to do the ultimate test and
anything less than that would'd have cut the mustard.
After a couple days came to a river Technica
Which at the time because things were still pretty frozen up it was only about knee deep.
was cold but he just waited to cross. On the third day
he caught a glimpse of America's highest peak Denali
away to the South. Four days in he found this bus.
Called it the Magic Bus. The bus
a junker from Fairbanks left for hunters was 28 miles from the main road
it was outfitted with a stove and a bed.
Alex's backpack was only half full carrying 10 pounds of rice,
a .22-caliber rifle, some ammunition and paperback books.
He was determined to live off the land.
There's plenty of while game from birds of prey circling overhead
to moose and brown bear. In this primitive land
the hunters often become the hunted. In the spring there's also a natural bounty
of edible wild plants.
Alex became philosophical. His declaration of independent life was
inscribed on the bus.
Ultimate freedom. An Extremist and Aesthetic Voyager
whose home is the road. He flees and walks alone upon the land
to become lost in the wild. And
he kept a daily log his successes and failures
posing with the game he caught he snap self-portraits.
Living off the land is a full-time job and he basically spent most of every day
gathering berries and mushrooms and Eskimo potato.
hunting small game he shot a lot of porcupines, squirrels, Grouse, ptarmigan
At one point he shot the Moose
which was like the jackpot uh the 7-8 hundred pound moose.
But he did not know how to preserve the meat
and it soon rotted. By early July Alex Supertramp had proven that he could survive
in the wild
and was ready to head for home. He hiked back down the Stampede Trail
toward the technique a river but the stream he had crossed easily in the
spring
had become a torrent of melted snow. Without maps which would have shown a
way across the river nearby
Alex had become a prisoner trapped on the wrong side a raging river.
For the first time his journal entries implied danger
day 68 and 69 disaster
rained in. River looks impossible. Lonely,
scared. There's no fighting I mean nature had spoken
and recognize that fact. He returned to the bus and resume gathering plants for
food.
so this is doesn't look much like a potato
but this is what they call Eskimo potato and he figured the root is edible
the seed is from the same plant so it must also be edible but they're not. What no one knew
is that these seeds are in fact poisonous and when you eat it it prevents your body from
digesting food.
His photograph shows a large bag of the poisoned seeds ready to be eaten.
The journal confirms his suspicion on day ninety four.
Extremely weak. Fault of potato seed.
Much trouble just to stand up. Starving.
Great jeopardy. Then in spite of this predicament a cause for celebration.
Day one hundred. Made it but in the weakest condition of life.
Death looms as serious threat. Have literally become
trapped in the wild
He posted a note on the door an SOS note saying if you happen to come by
please this is no joke I mean so. In one sense he hadn't written it off but he knew
he was in
in deep trouble. He knew that he might very well die and he was
facing death very bravely. The alaskan fantasy
had indeed become a harsh reality in signing the SOS note
Alexander Supertramp had become chris mccandless again.
what meaning did you attach to that? It's poignant
you know. It's speculation but he was acknowledging how we was
just in the end
a young man in trouble. The last stages of starvation
are said to be accompanied by a euphoric sense of well-being
the final entry in his journal reads beautiful blueberries.
With no fat left on his body he surely would have felt extremely cold.
It's impossible to know when he gave up hope of rescue
it's terrible to think about those last days. starving is not a good way to die it's
a very painful way to die. You go into convulsions,
hallucinations. Um its
it's not a easy way to go and a fact that he didn't put an end to it
on life he had plenty of ammunition, had a rifle but he faced death
he stayed to the end and he faced death very bravely. I admire him for that. On august
eighteenth nineteen ninety-two
Christopher McCandless died wrapped in the sleeping bag his mother had sown for
him.
his boots stood by the stove. He had survived 113 days
in the wilderness. Nineteen days later 6 Alaskans happened to ross the buss
and discover the body. It weighed sixty seven pounds.
This is the bed where he slept. it's eary almost as if it's frozen in time.
10 months later his parents Billie and Walt Mccandless
visited the bus. Billie came in first um
she sat here she looked at Chris's clothing his
belonging fingered finger them pressed them to her face.
You can still smell Chris she said. They brought up small brass plaques which walt installed
over here
honoring their son Billie left a bouquet of flowers.
She was worried that some. She didn't want any other young man to die here so she
brought the survival kit
and left it here um with some warm clothes,
a family Bible, and
some cooking, stuff some food most which is still here.
People have respected it. And there was the last message found on the bus.
It was carefully printed in block letters. I have had a happy life
and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all.
Then with the note in hand Chris McCandles captured
a haunting image a young man enduring a self-imposed
rite of passage into manhood. He was alone,
starving beyond desperation, aware death was near.
Hes look terribly gaunt, emaciated. He looks like a concentration camp at Camp victim
but he has this amazing look of serenity in his eyes
He was at peace in a very real sense and that's something
one has to admire. He doesn't run from It he just accepts it
and a forgives his family,
apologized to him for hurting them. He says I lead a very happy life.
No regrets Chris McCandless was 24 years old when his
Odyssey ended and the Alaskan wilderness.
If I had to bet my life on whether my brother was happy on the day that he died
I would tell you that he was.
Now he wasn't happy to be dying but he was happy
that he did everything in his life that he possible could
to live his life not just be alive. He got more out of his twenty four years
most people get who live to be 90.
Boy
It might have seemed deliberate but it really wasn't a subliminal suicide
situation. I don't think so Hugh. There was a tone of that in his first note to his
friend Westerberg. He was talking about if I die if I don't come back
toward the end though he was looking forward to coming back to his family
back to his life
and he definitely wanted to get out he just wound up trapped.
It does seem like a cruel thing to do to his parents though to drop out of site.
It certainly is and there was never an explanation of what caused the split
that's one the mysteries that died there on the bus. fascinating. Really compelling story.
Thank you to Tom.