Into the wild begins not with the birth of its main character, or even with the beginning of the journey that the book will trace, but with an important turning point late in christopher mccandless's trip through the american west: His final encounter with another human before he enters the alaskan wilderness. Hitchhiking north, chris arrives in alaska on april 18, 1992 and crosses the teklanika river onto the stampede trail ten days later.
Here's Chapter 6 -- the rest is in the comments!
Chapter 6
On January 4, 1993, Jon Krakauer (the author of this book) received a letter. The letter asks for a copy of the magazine article that Karkauer wrote about McCandless. The writer of the letter, named Ronald Franz, drove him from Salton City in March of 1992. He left McCandless in Grand Junction to hitchhike to South Dakota, and the last letter he received from McCandless was in April of 1992. He also asks to know more information about what happened.
Ronald Franz was 80 years old and met McCandless in January of 1992. After McCandless left Jan, he set up camp on the edge of Anza-Borrego on the east of the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea was caused by an irrigation canal from the Colorado River that breached its banks. It is 50 miles from Palm Springs, and the original development failed to happen, so the great resort town became reclaimed by the desert.
McCandless camped under a hanging tarp 4 miles outside of the main town near Salton City. One day in January, he was hitchhiking back to his spot, when Ron Franz picked him up. McCandless told him he was camped outside of Oh My God Hot Springs. Franz replied with, I lived here six years and never heard of it. The encampment of Oh My God Hot Springs was about 200 people who were all sorts of fringe. Some even walked around completely naked.
McCandless camped outside of the springs though. Franz dropped him off, chatted and then went home where he lived rent free taking care of an apartment building. Franz spent most of his life in the army stationed in the Pacific. On New Year’s Eve in 1957, his wife and only son were killed by a drunk driver. From that point on, Franz started drinking whiskey hard. 6 months later he quit cold turkey, but still wasn’t over the loss. He soon started adopting Okinawan children, eventually having 14 and paying their way through school.
Franz said McCandless seemed nice and intelligent, so that Sunday after church, he drove up to the camp to talk to him. McCandless’ response was “Look Mr. Franz, you don’t have to worry about me. I have a college education. I’m not destitute. I live like this by choice.” That same day they drove to Palm Springs for lunch, took the tram up San Jacinto, and the returned to the base where McCandless dug up some of his belongings he hid there. They went back to Franz’s apartment and Franz showed McCandless how to work leather. McCandless made a belt with the name Alex on it and pictures of his journeys.
As Franz talks to Krakauer, he pauses when he says how smart McCandless was. It takes him a minute to continue his story. While remembering him, Franz remembers that McCandless would often get angry about American life or some ideology; but he still remember him very fondly. One day in February, McCandless told him he was going to San Diego; Franz drove him there.
After McCandless was dropped off, he had trouble finding work. He wrote to Jan saying he was going to Alaska no later than May but wanted to make some money first, so he might go to South Dakota to work for Westerberg. On March 5, he wrote a letter to Jan and Franz saying how he was now a hobo riding the rails in Seattle. One time he was caught and the “bull” threatened to shoot him if he saw him again. Of course he jumped back on the train five minutes later.
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