Morgan: Tribute to Alexander Supertramp

Hang in there Byrne...I feel your pain. Life is hectic enough...all we got to do is hang on.

This weekend I went to see a movie by myself. "Into the Wild" Sean Penn's film adaptation of John Krakauer's book, the film is about a young eccentric man who disappeared, gave all his money to charity, had many adventures and eventually made his way to Alaska. I thought I was just going to see a backpacker movie, instead I got Christopher McCandless searching for truth and happiness. The movie was very well done changing time lines throughout and spectacular cinematography combined with an intriguing story had me hooked.
I was almost envious of Chris McCandless epic journey to Alaska. After graduating from Emory University in 1990 McCandless simply dropped out of society, hitchhiking across America, he became Alexander Supertramp. One part of me, would just love to throw the towel in and take off and follow in his footsteps...but thats not really realistic for me. I have obligations and family and I can't leave like that.

When I got home I started researching McCandless's life and was struck by many similarities between his life and mine. Chris would have been the same age as me, born a few months before me in 1968. He grew up in Annandale, VA where I lived for a few years. He graduated in 1986 (the same year for me) from WT Woodson HS were my son Chris now attends. He was on the cross-country team like me and was known for his endurance running. I don't know if he loved hiking or if it was a necessity for him, but he definitely appreciated nature and all its beauty. I have always dreamed of hiking Denali National Park and thats was Chris's ultimate destination also. I think Chris would have been the penultimate blogger...interweaving his philosophies and travels for the masses.

In 1992 he did just that, with little equipment he hike into the wild and for nearly four months lived in a remote part of the Denali National Park. He discovered an abandoned bus which he turned into his home. He was elated to be there. Inside the bus, on a sheet of weathered plywood spanning a broken window, McCandless scrawled an exultant declaration of independence:

Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.
Alexander Supertramp
May 1992

But the elation was overwhelmed by the reality that he was starving despite meager success at hunting rabbits, squirrels, wild birds. He made one attempt to return to civilization but was thwarted by swollen rivers. During this whole time he recorded every thought and hardship in a terse journal. Sick from eating poisonous berries and weak from starvation he wrote his last words.

I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!

Then he crawled into the sleeping bag his mother had made for him and slipped into unconsciousness. He probably died on August 18,1992 ...113 days after he'd walked into the wild, 19 days before six hunters and hikers would happen across the bus and discover his body inside.

The following is an excerpt from Jon Krakauer's celebrated book Into the Wild, which originally appeared in Outside Magazine, January 1993

I don't have a deathwish and I don't think Chris did either...maybe its the Call of the Wild, or an insatiable wanderlust. Maybe its the yearning for true freedom and the release of all fetters of obligation. To give up everything and just go...