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Born
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High School
McCandless tried many different sports, and exceled in many of them. -
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College
Final grades for classes: A in Aparheid and South African Society and History of Anthropological Thought, and A- in Contemporary African Politics and the Food Crisis in Africa. Graduated at age 20. -
Leaves for good.
Chris took his old Datsun and drove directly West -
Name change
Chris started going by the name of "Alex Supertramp" -
Meets a new friend
Alex hitches a ride from Wayne Westerberg, in South Dakota. Wayne offers Alex a job, working at his grain elevator in Carthage, South Dakota. Alex, in need of money, gratefully accepts. Wayne becomes Alex's closest friend. When his friend is arrested he leaves for mexico. -
TO mexico
Alex paddles down accross the boarder into mexico using a small cheap kayak he found. -
Returns to america.
Alex is caught by immigration police at the Tex-Mex border, and is held overnight. Once he explains to the police what his situation was, they let him into America, but they confiscated his handgun. -
Meet franz
En route to Carthage, then to Alaska, Alex set up camp outside Salton City, California. One day, when hitch-hiking into town for supplies, he was picked up by Ronald Franz, an eighty year old man. Strangely enough, the pair instantly bonded, causing Alex to delay his trip into Alaska. ranz, having no relatives of his own, treated Alex like a grandson, He taught Alex some craftsmanship techniques, and Alex was able to fashion an elaborate belt and a scabbard for his machete. -
Leave for alaska
Alex makes his final preparations to leave for Alaska. After very difficult hitch hiking, Alex finally arrives in Fairbanks. fter hitching a ride from Jim Gallien, Alex arrives at his final destination, the Stampede Trail -
Arrive at the final resting place
After crossing the Teklanika River, knee deep at the time, Alex arrived at an abandoned bus sitting on the trail. His journal entry for that date simply states, "Magic Bus Day!" -
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Living in the wild.
After two months in Alaska, Alex decides to head back to civilization. But, to his horror, he finds the Teklanika River churning with rapids. It was swollen with melt water from glaciers. He deemed it impassable, and headed back to the bus. He figured he could wait until the violent water calmed, then head home. Alex survived the next few weeks by hunting squirrel, spruce grouse, jays, woodpeckers and frogs. Alex had been eating wild potatoes since he arrived in the Alaskan bush without incident -
death
His body was found, half decayed.