Many of you guys have heard about this guy… Â There was a book and movie written about him… Â “Into the Wild”:
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Christopher Johnson McCandless was an American hiker who adopted the alias Alexander Supertramp and ventured into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992 with little food and equipment, hoping to live simply for a time in solitude. WikipediaI admire this guy for who he was and for his ideals and adventurous spirit and relate to the guy.  If you haven’t heard of him, see the movie.  There are some lessons to be learned about self isolation and other things.He basically starved to death out there, supposedly dying from accidentally eating some poisonous seeds.  Maybe that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but I think the guy actually starved to death, alone.  He learned some truths, evidenced by the writing he left behind.“Happiness is only real when shared..” –Chris MccandlessJust before he died, we wrote a goodbye note and took a picture of himself holding it and waving goodbye.  He was badly emaciated.  The pic below.
Learning about this guy helped me understand some things about myself.Hopefully I won’t make the same mistakes myself.Anyway, add the movie to your watch list if you haven’t seen it!A lot of his writing and pictures were not released until recently, simply because those that loved him couldn’t bear to take them out of the safe and look at them:
Just wanted to share.
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On a more positive note along the same vein, you have Harlan and Anna Hubbard, who built their own shanty-boat (which they then converted into a cabin after drifting down the Ohio river) out of driftwood and lived a long and fruitfully self-sufficient life.
Thanks Lorax! I hadn’t heard about them. I’ll check them out.
Just direct a browser to harlanhubbard – dot – com. Without the spaces or the -‘s. 🙂
There was a recent article in the New Yorker, ‘How Chris M Candless Died’. It’s online and quite fascinating. Apparently he died from a very rare form of poisoning.
meant to write McCandless
Yes, he said, (wild pot. seeds) in his journal… I think he was already mostly starved to death before he ate them.
Lorax, there was a documentary called WONDER made about Harlan and Anna in 2012. I’m currently trying to find a free copy via the internet.