‘Into the Wild’ McCandless Pilgrims Descending on Remote Bus
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 07.01.08 | 5:13 PM ET
Last October we noted that locals in Healy, Alaska, were considering removing the old bus where Christopher McCandless died. They feared that people moved by John Krakauer’s book “Into the Wild” and Sean Penn’s movie adaptation would tramp 22 miles into the wilderness to see the bus, only to wind up in the same kind of trouble McCandless did. Well, the bus is still there—it has long served as a refuge for hunters—and the AP reports that, with temperatures rising, plenty of people are indeed making the trek or inquiring about it.
“The local chamber of commerce has already received a few dozen e-mails from would-be visitors,” the AP reports. What’s more, the owner of the EarthSong Lodge reports seeing hikers—“mostly young men”—headed that way “every couple days.”
Let’s hope they’re all better prepared than McCandless was.