Gallien tries to talk him out of this, but the young man is undeterred, claiming there isn't anything that he can't deal with on his own. McCandless plans on following the Stampede Trail, an often unmarked route in the wilderness north of Mount McKinley. Other essentials that McCandless lacks include an ax, snowshoes, and a compass. Gallien recognizes, however, that McCandless lacks the basic necessities for surviving in the Alaskan bush: he has no food except for a 10-pound bag of rice, his hiking boots are not waterproof, and his rifle is too small for the large game he will have to kill in order to survive. He then tells the driver, an electrician named Jim Gallien, that he wants to "walk deep into the bush and 'live off the land for a few months.'"Īt first Gallien thinks McCandless is "another delusional visitor to the Alaskan frontier." But during their two-hour drive north, Gallien changes his opinion and comes to regard the young man as intelligent and thoughtful. The hitchhiker says he is from South Dakota and requests a ride to Denali National Park.
#Alaska into the wilderness driver
Officials didn’t detail what was in the suitcase.Outside Fairbanks, Alaska, a truck driver stops for a hitchhiker who introduces himself as Alex (though his real name is Christopher Johnson McCandless). The guard said its air crew also is safekeeping a suitcase that holds sentimental value to the McCandless family. A release from the Alaska National Guard said the discussion includes “possible plans to display the bus for the public to view at a safe location.” A great many people care deeply about what happens to it.”įor now the bus is being kept in a secure, unnamed location while the department decides what to do with it, Feige said. Krakauer said he respects the decision to remove the bus, “but some powerful history is attached to that old bus. “Seeing those photos of Fairbanks 142 flying out of the bush triggered a flood of complicated emotions for me,” Krakauer said in an email to the AP. The bus was abandoned in 1961 and had become an emergency shelter for those using the backcountry to recreate or hunt. The National Guard named Thursday’s bus lift “Operation Yutan.” when it built an access road about 25 miles west of the Parks Highway, the main thoroughfare between Anchorage and Fairbanks. The 1940s-era bus, sometimes called “Bus 142” or “The Magic Bus,” was used to house employees by the Yutan Construction Co. “However, this is an abandoned and deteriorating vehicle that was requiring dangerous and costly rescue efforts, but more importantly, was costing some visitors their lives.” “We encourage people to enjoy Alaska’s wild areas safely, and we understand the hold this bus has had on the popular imagination,” Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Corri A. State officials said there have been 15 other search-and-rescue operations since 2009, including one involving five Italian tourists last winter, one with severe frostbite. Two women, one from Switzerland in 2010 and one from Belarus in 2019, drowned on such pilgrimages.
But the Teklanika River that prevented McCandless from hiking out also has caused problems for people who came later on pilgrimages. Over the years, the bus became a magnet for those wishing to retrace McCandless’ steps to the bus to pay homage.
#Alaska into the wilderness movie
McCandless’ story was first documented in Jon Krakauer’s 1996 book “Into the Wild,” followed by Sean Penn’s movie of the same name in 2007. He kept a journal of his plight, discovered when his body was found. Christopher McCandless hiked to the bus located about 250 miles (402 kilometers) north of Anchorage nearly three decades ago, and the 24-year-old Virginian died from starvation when he couldn’t hike back out because of the swollen Teklanika River.
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