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Graduated High School and Summer 1986
I graduated High School in Annandale, VA. A few days after I planned to take a trip cross country in my yellow secondhand, 1985 Datsun, in which I bought myself senior year. During this road trip, along South California, I had found out my father was still not yet divorced and held an ongoing affair from his first marriage until after Carine's birth. I eventually came home two days before starting at Emory University, I came with the loss of 30 pounds because I got lost in the Mojave desert. -
Attended Emory University.1986-1990
Chris attended Emory University in Atlanta, GA four four years. For three years Chris lived on campus, his Senior year he had gotten an apartment of campus by himself. Right after graduating in May 1990, he had cut all card that were his and donated $25 thousand dollars to OXFAM. His graduation was the last myself and his parents had saw him. He then left for his adventure. -
Abandoned Car: Officially Started Journey
After driving across states, I finally settled down in my car in Detrital, AZ. What I didn't know then was that it was a flash flood zone, my car by the morning was drenched down into the engine, through many attempts trying to turn it on it finally ran out of battery. I left my car, destroyed my left over money, and threw out my license plate. My adventure was starting and I was happy knowing I had to live with what I had, I enjoyed the thought of being broke and trying to survive. -
Hitchhiking and My Parents
During this time my parents didn't know where I was, then again I just wanted them to get the message that I was out living my life. I was out one day and really needed a ride so I tried hitchhiking, thats when I got the ticket at Willow Creek, CA I put my parents address on it just to tell silently tell them what I've been doing. By this time I was no longer Chris McCandless, but I was Alexander Supertramp. -
Meeting Wayne
One day a man picked me up named Wayne Westerberg, September 10, 1990 in Montana. I was supposed to go to Saco Hot Springs but it was pouring when Wayne was going to leave me so he let me sleep in his trailer, in which I stayed in for three days. He had told me the day I left that whenever I needed a job in Carthage, SD, where there is "...only one grocery in town, a single gas station, a lone bar...", to just look him up. So in a few weeks I came back and found no work, I left October 23, 1990. -
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Canoeing: 1990-1991
Wayne was in jail and winter was coming so I headed for some warmer climates. I got a ride with an long-haul trucker into Needles, CA on October 28. After getting dropped of, I was on foot until I reached Topock, AZ. At Topock I found a secondhand aluminum canoe for sale and bought it to go down to the Colorado river and make it out to the Gulf of Mexico. Until Yuma, I was able to replenish and write to Wayne. January 16, I left canoe and came back they letted me go but they kept my handgun. -
Coming Back to Society
After not seeing or talking to another human for 36 days I went to LA “to get a ID and a job but feels extremely uncomfortable in society now and must return to road immediately.” Six days later I camped with a German Couple who had given me a ride. On February 24, 1991, seven months after journey had started I returned to Detrital Wash. I found my license plate and a few belongings bared my backpack, then went to Las Vegas where I found a job in a italian restaurant. -
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The Oregon Coast and Bullhead
When my camera broke I stopped taking pictures as well as writing in my journal. During this time I sent a post card to Jan Burres, where I complained “the fog and rain was often intolerable.”. From there I traveled a little but by October I was in Bullhead City, Arizona where I stayed the longest in working at a McDonalds for two months. In Bullhead I stayed with a man named Charlie. -
"The Slabs" and Meeting Franz
December 13, 1991 I remember randomly showing up at "The Slabs" and being able to help Jan and Bob sell books. January 1992 I met Ronald Franz while hitchhiking by Salton Sea, CA we became very close, did things and went places together. He worked with leather so he showed me how to work with it to. I made a belt in which I shared my journey. I last saw him in Grand Junction, Colorado March 14, 1992 -
Last Stop Before Alaska
Before Heading to Alaska I planned to go and stay with Wayne for a while in order to say our final goodbyes. March 1992, I worked again for a while at his grain elevator and at the end of March finally started hitchhiking north. I left my journal with Wayne in order for safe keeping. -
Going to Alaska
Liard River, British Columbia I had to wait out a two day blizzard in order to go back out onto the road. Once I found a ride up to Fairbanks which had already took three days, I took three extra days at the Fairbanks library preparing myself for the trip. Once I had started hiking a man named Jim Gallien drops me of Healy, Alaska April 28, 1992. May 1, I stay in a bus thats abandoned. Though I tried to leave I couldn't by how big the river had gotten. -
Death comes due to starvation.
Through many attempt to leave the "bush" I couldn't. My body was found inside of the bus, my twenty-four year old self. August 19, 1992 I died, yet my body as found nineteen days after i passed away.