[pct-l] Into the wild

[Dan Africk]

I tried to ignore this topic, but I can't resist any more....

2 years ago I spent a few weeks in Denali. One night while looking over my
maps, I recognized the stampede road and realize that I was pretty close to
wear Chris McCandless died. I was also quite surprised to see a ranger
cabin, clearly marked on the map, about 20 miles south of his position. All
he had to do was follow a river down, without crossing it, and it would have
led him to it. A little bit further south, and he would have reached the
park highway, the paved road that runs through Denali National Park. Even in
the middle of winter, that road would have led him straight to help, and
chances are he would have run into skiiers or snowshoers on the way.

Nevertheless, I still respect what he was trying to do, and I'm impressed at
how long he survived with such limited resources and experience. To
paraphrase someone else, He wanted to find a place that was off the map, but
since there are no uncharted places left, he simply didn't bring a real map
and achieved the same purpose.