Into the Wild
Jon Krakauer Cycle 18 Reading Assignment 23-46
In October 1990, three months after McCandless left Atlanta, a National Park Service ranger named Bud Walsh was sent into the wilderness of Lake Mead National Recreation Area to give an estimate of how rare the bear-paw poppies were in that location. While he was resting on a hill he saw a blue tarp covering a vast object sticking out of the soil. When he pulled off the tarp he found an old yellow Datsun with a note on the window that said, “ This piece of shit has been abandoned. Whoever can get it out of here can have it.” Inside of it were a guitar, a razor, $4.50, and 25 lbs. of rice.
The Datsun was Chris McCandless’s. He had arrived in the area on July 6 and ignoring posted warnings, he drove out to the sand riverbed. It was 120 degrees Fahrenheit outside, yet Chris set up camp there. On one night, a thundercloud appeared overhead and caused a flash flood. Chris had enough time to get his tent and belongings out of the way before the surge hit. The wave wasn’t strong enough to push the Datsun away so all the water did was get the engine wet. Chris tried to start up the engine right after the flood but the engine was wet so all it did was just drain his battery. Faced with the decision of abandoning the car or looking for help with the rangers, he decided to ditch the car. He saw it as a positive way to shed unnecessary weight so he burned his $125 and buried his rifle. He loaded a few stuff into his backpack and began to hitch hike around Lake Mead on July 10, but due to the heat he almost got heat stroke. Luckily for him a passing boater gave him a lift to Callville Bay. He hiked through Sierra, Nevada ad at the end of July he got a ride from a man who called himself Crazy Ernie. Ernie offered Chris a job at his ranch in Northern California and Chris accepted. After working there for 11 days, Chris knew that he wasn’t going to get paid so he stole a bike and pedaled into Chico.
Chris went to Arcata, California and a pair of drifters picked him. On August 10, McCandless was ticketed for hitchhiking and strangely he gave his parents real address. His parent had no idea where he was, but once they got the ticket in the mail, they were really concerned about what Chris was doing. One of the neighbors was the director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, and he told the family of a private investigator named Peter Kalitka. Kalitka contract worked for the CIA and DIA so he was the best there was. He started the search for Chris with the ticket lead in California and chased down any lead form Europe to the northern part of Africa. In December he learned from inspection of tax records that Chris had given his entire college fund to OXFAM.
As Kalitka was looking for Chris, he was already hitching east across the Cascade Range, and into Montana. Outside of Cut Bank he met Wayne Westerberg and began to work for him. Once Wayne was jailed, Chris left for a warmer area. On October 28, he got a ride from a long-haul trucker into Needles, California. He then walked to Topock, Arizona and bought a secondhand aluminum canoe so that he could paddle down the Colorado River into the Gulf of California. Chris paddled through the U.S. Army’s highly restricted Yuma Proving Ground. On December 2, he reached the Morelos Dam and the Mexican Border. He snuck through the floodgates and then got confused in the irrigation canals. On December 10 after being lost, Alex gets a ride from some duck hunters who drop him off in El Golfo de Santa Clara. He paddled down the coast and on December 14, he hauled the canoe up the beach, climbed a sandstone bluff, and set up camp. He stayed there for 10 days, until high winds made him go into a cave where he stayed for 10 more days. On January 16, 1991, Chris ditches the canoe after it is beached and then heads north. He was caught trying to sneak back into the U.S. without an I.D. so he was jailed but was let out because of a story he made up. On February 3, Chris went to Los Angeles to get an I.D. but had to return to the road since there was to many people. On February 24, seven and a half months after ditching the Datsun, he unearths the items that he buried with it. He then lived on the street with the bums in Las Vegas.
Chris stopped writing his personal journal so not much is known after he left Las Vegas in May 1991. He probably spent July and August on the Oregon coast where he complained the fog and rain was intolerable. In September he hitched down US Highway 101 into California. In early October he was in Bullhead City, Arizona. Chris stayed in Bullhead for two months and in a letter to Westerberg in October he said, “It’s a good place to spend the winter and I might finally settle down and abandon my tramping life for good.” When Chris wrote this while he was holding a full time job as a burger flipper at McDonald’s on the main drag. Chris got to live in a mobile trailer that a lunatic named Charlie was able to live in but didn’t own. He also visited Burres and helped him at flea markets since he was a vendor. Chris had to leave because he wanted to head to Alaska.
“It’s a good place to spend the winter and I might finally settle down and abandon my tramping life, for good. I’ll see what happens when spring comes around, because that’s when I tend to get really itchy feet.” This is what Chris is saying about Bullhead City and how he might want to stay in it for good. He is saying that usually in the spring if he stays in one place for to long, he’ll want to go elsewhere. Chris is indecisive and is unsure where to stay and for how long.
