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Annadale
McCandless took a road trip the summer before his freshman year of college. He promised to call his parents every three days, but soon stopped phoning them altogether. When he returned home, McCandless was almost unrecognizable to his parents. He had lost his way in the Mojave Desert and nearly died of dehydration. -
Graduating College
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. -
Derital Wash
Chris surfaces from Lake Mead in Nevada, when a ranger discovers his car. The car has been hidden under a tarp and is parked on a dry riverbed. His journal documents what happened throughout this chapter. Following the flash flood, he hid his car and buried its license plates along with his rifle. He piled his $120 and set it on fire. With the rest of his things in a backpack, Chris set out to hike around Lake Mead. -
Carthage
Westerberg picked up McCandless, who was hitchhiking, in Montana in the fall of 1990. McCandless was intense, talkative, and hungry. It was raining hard when Westerberg was going to drop off McCandless, however, so he offered McCandless his nearby trailer to bunk in. McCandless stayed for three days. -
Anza-Borrego
McCandless sets up camp along the badlands touching the Salton Sea. While hitchhiking into town for food and water, he meets Ronald Franz. Ron Franz tries to convince McCandless to leave the camp, which he believes is a bad influence. After a few weeks, Franz drives McCandless to San Diego. Where he lives on the streets before leaving for Seattle, jumping trains to get from place to place. -
Bullhead City
He works for a while in Las Vegas, then travels to Oregon before heading west once more, to Bullhead City, Arizona. McCandless lives in Bullhead City for two months. He working at a McDonald's and even opening a savings account. McCandless writes to Jan Burres and Bob, in California's Imperial Valley.He tells them he quit his job because he was tired of the "plastic people" he worked with. -
Carthage
In March 1992, McCandless appears at Wayne Westerberg's grain elevator in Carthage, South Dakota, ready to work. He plans on staying until April 15, when he will buy new gear and travel to Alaska. For four weeks, McCandless worked at the grain elevator. According to Westerberg, "Alex definitely wasn't what you'd call mechanically minded." Others said McCandless lacked common sense. For example, he was unable to use a microwave oven properly. -
The Alaska Interior
Chris McCandless pauses in his odyssey to visit the Liard River Hot Springs. But after taking time to sitting in the hot waters, he can't find another ride. He spends two days at the Liard River before making friends with Gaylord Stuckey. Gaylord Stuckey is a truck driver who reluctantly gives Chris a ride. -
The Alaska Interior
Outside Fairbanks, Alaska, a truck driver stops for a hitchhiker who introduces himself as Alex. The hitchhiker says he was from South Dakota and wanted a ride to Denali National Park. He then tells the driver, an electrician named Jim Gallien, that he wants to "walk deep into the bush and 'live off the land for a few months.'" -
Virginia Beach
Outside Fairbanks, Alaska, a truck driver stops for a hitchhiker who introduces himself as Alex. He then tells the driver, an electrician named Jim Gallien, that he wants to "walk deep into the bush and 'live off the land for a few months.'" McCandless plans on following the Stampede Trail, -
The Stikine Ice Cap
Based on his own experiences in Alaska when he was a stubborn, headstrong young man, author Jon Krakauer arrives at the conclusion that McCandless's death wasn't suicide or even the result of an unconscious death wish, but rather an accident. His conclusion is based on the evidence provided by McCandless's journals as well as the author's personal experience. -
The Stampede Trail
McCandless returns to the bus. He resumes hunting small game and gathering edible berries and wild potatoes, but he is burning more calories than he consumes. On July 30, McCandless makes an ominous entry in his journal: "EXTREMELY WEAK, FAULT OF POT. SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY." Wayne Westerberg suggests that McCandless ate some potato seeds he bought in South Dakota; potato seeds can become toxic once they have sprouted. -
Alaska
Chris dies, apparently of starvation, in his sleeping bag in the bus along the Sushana River in Alaska. There were reports about his death saying that he had been mentally disturbed -
The Stampede Trail
5 strangers meet by a bus near the Stampede Trail. A couple, noticed a bad smell coming from the bus. They were joined by 3 hunters. One of them discovers a dead body in a sleeping bag on top of a bunk. A hunter contacts Alaska State Troopers. The last person to see Chris alive was Jon Gallien. He thinks the dead hiker is McCandless. Chris' oldest half-brother, Sam, is questioned by the police, They show Sam a photo of a man, he prepares to tell his father and stepmother the heartbreaking news. -
Chesapeake Beach
Jon Krakauer interviews Walt McCandless at home after his son's body is recovered from the abandoned bus. Walt wonders how "...a kid with so much compassion could cause his parents so much pain."
