[pct-l] Into the Wild

[Bill Burge]

Ooooooooh!  I was thinking of the wrong guy!

I was thinking of the climber who cut off his own arm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston

HE had a chance of making it into Google Earth (though I suppose this  
guy would have too!)

Yeah, this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless

sounds like he was short on "his meds".  Amazing how someone who has  
trouble working within society and reads a little Thoreau, thinks they  
can just "strike out into the woods!"  Then it turns into "striking  
out in the woods".  I agree with you Mary - he never heard that it  
takes a village - to make a village!

Don't get me started on this guy!  (lived with the grizzly and got  
eaten by them)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell

BillB



On Feb 11, 2010, at 9:10 PM, Mary Kwart wrote:

> I promised myself I wouldn't comment on this thread--but I just have  
> to. As someone who has lived in the interior of Alaska (Tok) and  
> worked on a wildlife refuge next to the Yukon border, I can tell you  
> that Chris McCandless was not in anyplace that would be considered  
> true wilderness. A bus?? Really....most Alaskans think he was an  
> idiot from the lower 48 who was so enamored of his own abilities  
> that he foolishly didn't carry a map, didn't consult with people who  
> knew the area. Any kid from one of the villages in the interior  
> Alaska would have known how to process the moose he killed and  
> wasted through his ignorance. Three words--Traditional Ecological  
> Knowledge--are what Chris and others like him have no respect for.  
> It's just the lone dude against the wilderness, when in reality,  
> people in villages all over Alaska survive with no problem because  
> they have knowledge passed down from others on how to survive. The  
> romance of the "lone dude against the wilderness" is just balo
> ney--an artifact of our over civilized society, where the land and  
> the ability to survive is a matter of how "pure" you can be, not  
> down to earth knowledge appropriate to the place. it is nothing to  
> be proud of. I am sorry that Sean Penn glorified him in a movie. He  
> should glorify all of the young guys who live in the villages in  
> Interior Alaska and survive just fine, thank you.
>
> Also--if McCandless would have had a map he would have seen that  
> there was a way to cross the river on a funicular device that has  
> since gone defunct.
> --Fireweed