After hiking the
Stampede Trail McCandless found an abandoned bus used as a hunting shelter parked on an overgrown section of the trail near
Denali National Park and began his attempt to live off the land. He had carried to the bus a 10 pound bag of rice, a .22 rifle, plenty of ammunition, a book of local plant life, several other books, and some
camping equipment. He assumed that he could forage for plant food and hunt
game. Despite his inexperience as a
hunter, McCandless successfully
poached some small game, birds, and a
moose.
However, his attempts to preserve the meat of the moose by smoking it failed. He had gotten the advice of smoking it from hunters in South Dakota, but Alaskan hunters would have told him to slice the meat as thinly as possible and let it air-dry on a makeshift rack, which is the best and easiest method in the bush.
His journal contains entries covering a total of 113 separate days. These entries range from ecstatic to grim with McCandless' changing fortunes. After living successfully in the bus for several months, Chris decided to leave, but found the trail back blocked by the
Teklanika River, which had carried a considerably lighter flow in April.
On
September 6, 1992, two
hikers and a group of moose hunters found this note on the door of the bus:
"S.O.S. I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?"
His body was found in his
sleeping bag inside the bus. He had been dead for more than two weeks. His official cause of death was
starvation. Jon Krakauer believes McCandless died from ingesting the seeds of the wild potato (
Hedysarum alpinum), which McCandless wrote about eating and blamed for his debilitating final illness. Although they are not commonly known to be poisonous, and the root of the plant is edible, there is evidence that the seeds contain an alkaloid which prevents
glucose utilization. However, Dr. Thomas Clausen – of the
University of Alaska Fairbanks – carried out extensive tests on the seed and found there were no toxins or alkaloids. (Note that this is the theory that Krakauer presents in his book on McCandless, and differs from the earlier theory he related in his article for
Outside magazine, about a second plant —
Hedysarum boreale mackenzii, a wild sweet pea plant — resembling the wild potato and known to be poisonous.)
In the most recent edition of his book, Krakauer has slightly modified his theory regarding the cause of McCandless' death. He believes the seeds of the wild potato had been moldy, and it is the mold that contributed to the seeds' toxicity.
