Chris McCandless graduated from Emory University in 1990 and saw titles and honors as immaterial and irrelevant. Shortly after graduation, Chris gave the remaining money from his education fund with a cheque written to Oxfam for $24000. and left home to begin his adventures and assumed the name Alexander Supertramp which came from a book title “The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William H. Davies written I 1908. When asked by someone where his family were, he would reply that he didn’t have a family anymore.

Chris travelled through various states of America in his car, by train, hiking, canoeing and of course walking. The challenge to himself was to travel with the least number of belongings as possible and as little money as possible. He had no map and no agenda, just the will to travel.

He’d tell those he met along the way about about his dream of heading to Alaska for an adventure. he Working odd jobs, some people would try to convince Chris to stay and insisting on giving him supplies to help with the journey…he seldom accepted and reached his final destination on April 28, 1992 in Fairbanks Alaska. Two days after arriving Chris discovered a City Transit Bus numbered 142 which was abandoned on the Stampede Trail.

The Alaskan adventure was a goal that would see Chris cross the Alaskan landscape to the Bering Sea, however the dense brush made too difficult to pass, so Chris turned around and made his way back to the shelter of the bus where he stayed for the next four months.

He kept a journal along the way which became the movie “Into the Wild” directed by Sean Penn with the soundtrack written and produced by Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam).

McCandless would have returned to civilization in early July 1992 but was stopped when he was unable to re-cross the Teklanika. Four months after originally crossing, the water level had substantially risen from the snow melting and with the fierce current, made it all but impossible to cross.

Forced back to the bus, he weakened due to little or no food, and died in mid-August.. However, in his final days McCandless journaled his own conviction that the seeds of the wild potato, or Eskimo potato, had disabled him (L-canavanine, an amino acid that is found in wild potato seeds and functions as an antimetabolite). Chris was discovered by hunters on September 6, 1992. The cause of death was officially reported as starvation.

Some thoughts journaled by Alexander Supertramp – May 1992” on Alaskan Adventure.

“Happiness is only real, when shared.”

― Alexander Supertramp