Chris McCandless

Chris McCandless (February 12, 1968 – August 1992)

Chris MacCandless grew up in a wealthy family and was gifted intellectually and athletically. He graduated from Emory University with Honours in 1990 and had plans to attend Harvard Law School. Soon afterwards however, he gave 24,000 dollars  that he had saved to Oxfam and went ‘walkabout’, severing all contact with his family and friends, creating a new life for himself tramping around the US. In April 1992 he hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wild. Five months later his decomposed body was found by a hunter.

A self-portrait of Christopher McCandless outside the 'magic bus' on the Stampede Trail which was found undeveloped in his camera after his death.

‘The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlesssly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun’

The story was told by Jon  Krakauer  in the 1998 book 'Into The Wild'

The story was also told in the 2007 film 'Into The Wild' directed by Sean Penn with music by Eddy Vedder and starring Emile Hirsch.

Here is a Charlie Rose interview about 'Into The Wild' with director Sean Penn and musician Eddie Vedder, who composed the soundtrack to the film.  (The picture is of Jon Krakauer who also appears)

 A documentary 'Call of the Wild' by Ron Lamoth takes a less romantic, more balanced look at Chris, his journeying and death. Ron travels to the places Chris visited and talks to the people he knew and who crossed his path at different stages in his life.

The parents of Chris have set up a Memorial Foundation  and a book of his photos and writings (logs, letters, postcards and notes in books) 'Back to the Wild' is available

 

Son of the Wilderness

It was the anniversary of the death of John Muir recently (21 April 1838 – 24 December 1914)

‘Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.’ John Muir

Born in Dunbar in Scotland, Muir emigrated with his family to the United States when he was 11. His travels through the country and his love of wild places became the basis of the many books and essays he wrote.

As well as an author, he was a botonist and geologist. An early champion of wilderness preservation, he was instrumental in the establishment of the US National Parks system.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity..."  John Muir, 1898

His beloved Yosemite Valley became one of the first areas of the US to be granted National Park status.The Sierra Club, which he founded, continues to lobby for the protection of wild places in the US.

The John Muir Trail -  a 211 mile/340 km hiking trail in California was named after him. Here is a series of stunning time lapse sequences shot by  Eric M. Keen and William B. Watson during their hike along the John Muir Trrail in 2010.

'Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.'
John Muir Our National Parks , 1901, page 56