It is possible he read no other books in that time. If the numbers in McCandless' journal represent days at the bus, he appears to have lived for almost three weeks after writing "Dr. 'Doctor Zhivago' was the last book Chris McCandless would ever read." Zhivago." From that brief entry, Krakauer concluded "(McCandless) had just finished reading 'Doctor Zhivago'. 92 in the journal, McCandless wrote the two words "Dr. There is not even that thin thread to support the observation that McCandless "saw a caribou, but didn't get a shot off.''Īt No. The date is a guess based on the numbers in McCandless' so-called journal. 105, Krakauer reported that "On August 10, he (McCandless) saw a caribou but didn't get a shot off.'' Where McCandless wrote the single word "caribou" at No. In writing the book, Krakauer took an individual word or two from McCandless' journal and around such entries created little stories. And what this reporter discovered is that the Alaska McCandless featured in "Into the Wild," billed as a "true story," is a fictional character. What McCandless was or wasn't doing in Alaska is hard to say based on the scant record he left behind. Krakauer is now pushing a third mystery poison.Īll appear aimed at reinforcing the author's belief, stated in "Into the Wild," that if the young man died as the result of a previously unknown poison, "it means that McCandless wasn't quite as reckless or incompetent as he has been made out to be." That led him to posit a second theory based on a fungus growing on the seeds. "From all the available evidence,'' Krakauer wrote, "there seemed little doubt that McCandless - rash and incautious by nature - had committed a careless blunder, confusing one plant for another and died as a consequence.'' That theory was based on the line, "Fault Of Pot. Krakauer in his 1996 book suggested that McCandless was the innocent victim of an unknown poison contained in the seeds of the wild potato. Forsberg owns a cabin near the Stampede Trail not far from where McCandless' body was found. The photo of the mushrooms was pointed out to Alaska Dispatch News by McKinley-area resident Will Forsberg when the newspaper began fact checking "Into the Wild," Jon Krakauer's best-selling book about McCandless. DREAM.'' Four lines of gibberish follow the DREAM reference in the journal. If the numbers in the journal are actually days, the latter posting would have come five days after wrote about the "Many Mushrooms. 94 - widely believed to be his 94th day at the bus - he wrote "Extremely Weak. McCandless' journal is not dated, but at No. That could also have handicapped McCandless. Other varieties of mushrooms identifiable in the photo are known to make people violently ill, Laursen said. Scientist Gary Laursen, director of the High Latitude Mycological Research Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said that along with the possibility of hallucinations, Amanita are likely to cause "malaise,'' which might account for McCandless staying at the bus until he starved. DREAM.'' DREAM is written in the largest, boldest letters of any word in the journal, and there are large, dark arrows connecting mushrooms to the word DREAM. 89 of 113 numbered entries, wrote, "Many Mushrooms. McCandless in his own 430-word journal, at No. Afterwards paranoid psychosis with visual and auditory hallucinations appeared and persisted for five days." 'Many Mushrooms' Writing in the Viennese clinical weekly they reported on a patient who "became confused and uncooperative. German doctors in 2006 reported "prolonged psychosis'' associated with eating those mushrooms. Some of those photos made their way into a McCandless family book "Back to the Wild'', published in 2011.Ī noted authority on Alaska mushrooms who this year examined one of those photos identified some of the mushrooms McCandless was eating as "Amanita muscaria.'' Those have been known to make people sick and cause hallucinations. Photos of the mushrooms appeared on film found with McCandless' body after his death. Twenty-two years after a young man named Chris McCandless was found dead in a long-abandoned bus north of Denali National Park and Preserve, a plausible explanation has arisen as to why the 24-year-old man stayed there until he starved to death: toxic mushrooms.
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