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May 12, 1990
Christopher Johnson McCandless graduates from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He tells his parents that he is going to spend the summer traveling in his car, a used yellow Datsun. this is where he finds out that his father has 2 family's and becomes reclusive. -
June 1990
Mails his final college transcript and a brief note to his parents' home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. McCandless's family will never hear from him again. this is important because it is the start of his adventure and his no going back now moment. -
July 10, 1990
Abandons his car after it is damaged by a flash flood. Loads his belongings into his backpack and sets out on foot. important because this is where he starts to discard useless things and only Carrie what he needs -
October–November 1990
Canoes on the Colorado River, apparently traveling through Lake Havasu, the Bill Williams River, the Colorado River Indian Reservation, the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, and the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground. Sends a postcard to Wayne Westerberg at the Sioux Falls work-release facility where his friend has been incarcerated. this shows how much land he can travel if he himself travels by himself. -
February 3, 1991
Applies for an ID and a job in Los Angeles, then changes his mind and returns to the road. this is where he gets ideas to start settling down before he gets ideas of alaska. -
April 18, 1992
Stops at Liard Hot Springs in British Columbia, Canada, where he is stuck for two days before hitching a ride with Gaylord Stuckey in the cab of his sunflower-seed-hauling truck. this show to him that not everything will go his way and sometimes it will go against him regardless of what he wants -
April 28, 1992
Waking down the highway, is picked up by Jim Gallien, a truck-driving electrician on his way to Anchorage. A three-hour drive brings McCandless to the Stampede Trail. this shows to us that hes thinking of nothing but living in alaska even if it will kill him. -
May 1, 1992
Finds an old bus beside the Sushana River and writes "Magic Bus Day" in his journal. Decides to stay for a while, taking advantage of the bus's ". . . crude comforts." this is where he will stay there untill his demise but he still stays due to it being a more reliable shelter than whatever he can make -
July 5, 1992
What had been a series of frozen beaver ponds in April has become a lake. What once was an easily fordable river is now a raging torrent that McCandless cannot cross. Heads back to the bus this again shows that he even if this is where he wants to be not everything will go in his will -
July 30, 1992
Writes in his journal, "EXTREMELY WEAK, FAULT OF POT. SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY." he now realizes that he will die and he cant blame anybody.