Summary
Highlights
Rangers counting bearpaw poppies in the Mojave desert found an abandoned yellow Datsun with a note claiming it was free. After five days, a ranger jump-started the car, which ran perfectly. Unable to trace the car's origin beyond Hertz, the park service used it for undercover drug busts, including a high-value meth bust. Even years later, the car was still running reliably.
While camping near Lake Mead, McCandless's Datsun was caught in a flash flood, damaging its engine. With an expired license, registration, and no insurance, and being in an unauthorized area, he chose not to report it. Instead, he buried his license plates, rifle, and some belongings, then burned his remaining cash ($123) before continuing his journey on foot.
McCandless spent two months traveling the West, hiking the Sierra Nevada and Pacific Crest Trail. He briefly worked on a ranch, then met 'rubber tramps' Jan Burris and Bob in Arcata, California, who sold books at flea markets. He stayed with them for a week and sent them postcards regularly thereafter.
A hitchhiking ticket given to McCandless in California, using his parents' Annandale address, alerted his parents. Already worried, they hired a private investigator, Peter Kalika, especially after learning he had donated his remaining money to Oxfam and had seemingly abandoned his beloved car. By the time Kalika investigated California, McCandless had moved on.
McCandless traveled to South Dakota, meeting Wayne Westerberg, then went south for winter. In Arizona, he bought a canoe and paddled down the Colorado River towards Mexico. He wrote to Westerberg, expressing his contentment with his free and simple life. He snuck across the U.S.-Mexican border through a dam spillway and navigated the canals, eventually being towed by duck hunters to the Gulf of Mexico.
After reaching the Grand Desert and surviving a severe storm, McCandless ditched his canoe and walked back to the border, having lived off five pounds of rice for 36 days. This solitary experience gave him confidence for future adventures. At the border, he fabricated a story to re-enter the U.S. Over the next six weeks, he traveled extensively, from Houston to the Pacific, and even tried to get an ID and a job in LA, but felt awkward around people. Six days later, camping at the Grand Canyon, he noted in his journal his personal transformation, having lost weight but finding happiness.
McCandless returned to the location where he abandoned his car, finding it impounded. He retrieved his buried belongings and then traveled to Las Vegas, where he found work in an Italian restaurant. He recounted burying his backpack outside the city to prevent theft, a trick he'd learned, and despite damaging his camera, valued the memories and the triumph of his life experiences.