into the wild

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I enjoyed the film myself, but realized it for what it was, a story account of an event.
I as much as I would want to step up to a .41 or .44 mag lever/revolver combo carryweight is a serious issue. So .357 it is! I would however consider a .44 mag airweight 329PD (and many do) in combination with a 10/22.
 
Like alot of people,I have visited the Bus that the young man died in.I carried a Rem870 with slugs and a .44magnum revolver.Thats alot of weaponry but the Bus is sadly fairly close to the road so you don't need much in the way of equipment.I saw alot of Bear sign but gladly no Bears during my night in there.I reccomend anyone to do a little research from the Book and find the Bus themselves,late fall would be a good time to go as the willows would have shed there leaves and make the bus alot easier to find.I walked past it several times before I noticed it,(its up a bank and you can just see the top of the Roof)
 
that is one of my favorite books never saw the movie but loved the book

my older brother was very very popular back in high school he says he actually sat next to chris in some math class said he was odd but a nice guy

a bolt .30-06 with a low power scope and irons

then a 1911 colt .45


.....that was easy since thats what im taking in june to alaska
 
The 45-70 and the 410/22 combo is hard to beat.

100 lbs and below......410/22.

101 lbs and above 45-70.

45 LC pistola would be smacking shiny,too
 
I can't be too critical of him because I nearly got killed homesteading off the Susitna. If I hadn't been on the road system that first winter I would have died. The heater burned the trailer out, so we had to ditch and go to a motel until I could repair the damage. When you leave the roads and transport, as he did, you make little things like that into really big things. Plus he had no idea how to prepare game. As the film shows he tried to "smoke" a moose by stuffing a fire in its gut.
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- He was within 0.25 miles of a cable bridge that would have gotten him over the river.
- There were 3 survival cabins within a few miles of the bus, filled with food and supplies.
- He deliberately chose not to bring either a compass or a map with him.

It's one thing to have something tragically unexpected happen, but the fact here is that a simple map would have allowed McCandless to literally walk out of his trouble.
 
Maybe, but I know that country and if you don't know what you're doing you can VERY EASILY blunder right past a cabin or bridge. It's endless, trackless and unforgiving. Also I don't remember any mention of multiple cabins "within a few miles" of the bus. IIRC there were some in the general area, but you'd have to know exactly where to find them.

He was grossly unprepared. But then again most people who think they are prepared are still grossly unprepared for Alaska. The maps are often absurdly inaccurate and outdated. You can guarantee nothing out there other than risk.
 
I try to avoid being overly critical of the departed. It tends to resemble arguing with the dead.
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my .02 cents


i had to read this book for English 5-6AP last year, and it made me rather angry. now, im a pretty free spirit, and i can easily see myself adventuring around the wilderness like McCandless. however, his repeating critical survival mistakes turned me off the book. I dont remember what kind of training/wilderness experiance Chris had, but if he had it he failed to use it. Now as for myself, im an eagle scout with extensive wilderness survival training, a emergency medic (CPR and defibrillator certified), an experienced wilderness backpacker, and accomplished outdoorsman. to read how someone is glorified in a book for dying of stupidity (not acnolaging nature/hostile enviroments as the killers they are) makes me kinda angry! wandering into the ALASKAN wilderness (not really wilderness, being so close to the road) with only a .22lr rifle is suicide! heck, i take nature hikes here in arizona with bigger calibers than that! im not even going to mention other stupid moves on his part for fear i will give myself an aneurysm and die on my keyboard.
 
not really wilderness, being so close to the road
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You wander 100 yards off the main highway anywhere along there and you are in genuine wilderness. Break a leg and you can easily die of exposure right there, nobody will know.

There's no safety net, no backup, unless you provide it for yourself. He opted to go in light with no backup. Not terribly smart, but then again not that uncommon for someone taking a pretty short hike into the woods. He walked in real easy and he expected to walk out the same way, no problem. Why would he need a map? I understand his point of view on the subject. Of course he discovered, too late, that walking out was impossible after the river level rose. And while his survival skills were enough to keep him alive for a few months, he couldn't last long enough.

As far as his choice of arms, a .22 semi was enough to get by if he'd known more about how to prepare meat. He poached a moose but didn't know how to smoke it properly. There are so many "what ifs" with his story, viewed in hindsight. But ignoring hindsight and just seeing what he saw, I can see why a young kid with a good deal of arrogance and (he thought) plenty of "roughing it" experience would charge out into the woods here. Heck he probably figured he'd meet some hikers and would be able to get help in a worse case scenario. In the lower 48 that would have been true, but not where he was.
 
Someone drove it out there during a dry part of the summer for use as a moose hunting shelter, IIRC. If he'd come later in the year he would have been helped by hunters. But he was there in early spring and mid-summer, when sportsmen are concentrated on the salmon runs elsewhere.
 
You wander 100 yards off the main highway anywhere along there and you are in genuine wilderness. Break a leg and you can easily die of exposure right there, nobody will know.
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i have been corrected! thank you for doing so! i had forgotten about something similar to the situation described in the above quote that once happened to me. i was hiking a thickly wooded valley bottom (about 5-7 miles away from the nearest vehicle access point) and ended up badly twisting my ankle after stepping into some critter's rather large (and deep) burrow. buddy system saved my butt (it really works folks!), keeping me from having to: A) hike rather far with a swollen ankle/foot, B) spend a VERY cold and damp night in the middle of no-where.


Someone drove it out there during a dry part of the summer for use as a moose hunting shelter
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i remember reading about it being taken out there for use as a shelter by the construction workers building that road to no-place
 
i googled it. it was left behind by the Yutan Construction Company durring the construction of the Stampede Trail for use as a shelter (by workers as well as hunters and trappers). also found where the trail was going to. it was being built for easy access to an antimony mine owned by a guy named Earl Pilgrim.
 
I've not seen the movie, but I've read the book.

My impression of McCandless was that he had a great discomfort with society, he was maladjusted, and largely an egomaniac.

But that does not diminish my respect for a man who is magnificently courageous in executing his desires, even though they may be crazy.

Let's not forget the years before he went to Alaska. Most people would have wimped out after a couple of months on the road and in the American landscape.

He decided to forgo materialism and he did just that. Perhaps we would all revere Thoreau just a little less if he didn't camp in his rich friend's back yard and mooched off his neighbors.

McCandless made a lot of mistakes, sure, but his courage extraordinary.
 
357WheelGun said:
- There were 3 survival cabins within a few miles of the bus, filled with food and supplies.
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One one of the links in this thread, it says the cabins had been vandalized and the food was spoiled. He was possibly the one who vandalized them.
 
I would take a 45/70 guide gun and a Walther P22. That a way I would have a small enough gun to take rabbits and a big enough gun to take Polar Bears and Brown Bears.
 
You can just follow two Ruts from repeated Bulldozer traffic from years ago almost right to the Bus.People drive quadbikes there and the guys who found Chris nearly drove the whole way in pickup trucks.

Sad.
 
Aight now that I've read this I'ma have to read the book.

As far as firepower goes if I knew I was just gonna go out there and live off the land I'd have a winchester 94 rechambered for .500S&W, and a revolver to match with 4" barrel, instead of a .22 I'd take a take-down bow, eventually you are going to run out of ammo but with the time you have with ammo you can practice shooting and making arrows as well as heads
 
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