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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.
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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.
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Arrives at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada.
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Hitchhikes to California's Lake Tahoe, then hikes into the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Travels to the Cascade mountains, across the lava beds of the Columbia River basin, and across the Idaho panhandle. Jan Burres and her boyfriend Bob discover McCandless by the side of the road and befriend him. In Cut Bank, Montana, meets Wayne Westerberg.
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McCandless's parents drive to Atlanta looking for their son and discover that his apartment was vacated five weeks earlier.
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Receives a ticket for hitchhiking in Willow Creek, California.
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McCandless's Datsun is discovered by a park ranger.
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In Needles, California, reaches the Colorado River. Walks south through the desert, arriving in Topock, Arizona, where he buys a second-hand canoe.
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The private investigator employed by McCandless's parents discovers that their son donated $24,000 to OXFAM.
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Reaches the Morelos Dam and the Mexican border.
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Encounters hazardous waterfalls along the Colorado River.
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Realizes that he will not reach the Gulf of California traveling this route. Meets duck hunters who drive him there.
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Seeking refuge from high winds, discovers a cave on the face of a bluff, where he stays for 10 days.
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Back in his canoe, encounters a violent storm that almost drowns him.
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Caught by U.S. Immigration officials when he tries to slip back into the country from Mexico. Spends one night in jail.
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Travels to Houston and then to the Pacific coast.
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Applies for an ID and a job in Los Angeles, then changes his mind and returns to the road.
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Camps at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with a young German couple. Notes in his journal that he has lost over 25 pounds.
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Buries his backpack and hitchhikes into Las Vegas.
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Leaves Las Vegas
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Arrives in Bullhead City, Arizona, where he works for two months at McDonald's and lives in an empty RV overseen by an old man named Charlie.
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Sends a postcard to Jan Burres in Niland, California, including a map so she and boyfriend Bob can visit him in Bullhead City.
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Unexpectedly appears at Burres's campsite at The Slabs campground in Niland.
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Meets Ronald Franz while hitchhiking near California's Salton Sea.
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Dropped by Franz at the San Diego waterfront. Mails Jan Burres a postcard telling her that he has been living on the streets in San Diego for a week.
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Calls Franz from Coachella, California, in the desert not far from the Salton Sea and asks Franz to pick him up
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Driven by Franz to Grand Junction, Colorado.
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Works at Wayne Westerberg's grain elevator in Carthage, South Dakota.
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He leaves Carthage, bound Alaska
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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.
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Hitchhikes north. Takes photo of the sign that marks the official start of the Alaska Highway.
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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.
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Sees Mt. McKinley.
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Kills and eats a spruce grouse.
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Writes in his journal, "EXTREMELY WEAK, FAULT OF POT. SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY."
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Prepares his backpack and sets out on the 20-mile hike back to the road.
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He arrives back at the bus.
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Writes "DAY 100! MADE IT!" and "BUT IN WEAKEST CONDITION OF LIFE. DEATH LOOMS AS SERIOUS THREAT."
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Posting an S.O.S. note on the bus door, forages nearby for berries. Writes his final journal entry: "Beautiful blueberries."
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Dies, apparently of starvation, in his sleeping bag in the bus along the Sushana River in Alaska.
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Hikers and hunters discover McCandless's S.O.S. note, then his body in the bus.
