Into the Wild: What happened to McCandless?

[RoninAmok]

Very nice.......Thanks for posting.
I guess the Yukon is close enough....LOL

Skagway on up was the gateway to the Yukon , and though countries will draw arbitrary lines and call 'em "borders" anything east of a line drawn straight north from Tok is pretty much " The Yukon".

As I stated ,the country , especially north of the park doesn't suffer fools gladly. Romantic notions developed from watching too many episodes of Bear Grylls unutterable crap can get you killed. Folks would be infinitely better off to study folks such as Dick Proenneke and Heimo and Edna Korth , among others.

[hunter63]

Just pulling your leg a bit.......we down here consider that all "Up Nort"....Don't cha know.

[Wildthang]

He should have hung out with the Alaskan Bush people! They would have taught him how to survive......LOL

[Lamewolf]

How about stupidity?

I think you hit the nail on the head ! Go into the a harsh wilderness with hardly any equipment and no training or experience has stupid written all over it !

[Mazer]

READ The web page The New Yorker put out on the issue - Look for how McCandless Died. It is a fascinating read

[WalkingTree]

You may think that you know fear
even the grip of panic sheer
but true terror makes those feelings meek and mild
the terror that will rise
in the Blue Bush crazy eyes
of those who have survived the Indigo Wild

They mutter and they rave
of secrets dire and grave
and ghosts of gods and temples made of flame
and they swear they'll never return
to where demon armies learn
how to torture, how to torment, how to maim

But still there are those
whose path rarely goes
through the tunnels of reason and of sense
the poets and the dreamers
the revolutionary schemers
who travel unknown forests dark and dense

There are things in there that roar
that bite and claw and gore
and things that are too horrible to bear
they'll eat your heart and brain
they'll take pleasure in your pain
and dance upon your bones within their lair

But for some the lure of danger
can make sanity a stranger
and set them on a course for risk and gold
they enter with hopes high
with adventure in their eye
and leave with spirits broken and hearts cold

And every Mongi knows
from the Uppers to the Lows
that no matter which way Heaven's path may lie
that the quickest way to Hell
for the In-betweens as well
is to take the trail that turns as blue as sky

A trapper name of Zinn
thought he would his forture win
with furs and pelts of rarest, deepest blue
they found his bloody remains
minus flesh and guts and brains
leaving only that too difficult to chew

Then there was the scholar who
wishing to learn from the Bush Blue
took pains to guard his safety and his life
but what he learned drove him mad
took what reason he still had
and guttted it as cleanly as a knife

So beware all creatures blue
the shagamaw and the gumberoo
the deathdiver and the agropelter
but most fearsome of all
are the Oxes, fierce and tall
who even the devil wouldn't shelter

Nothing is as it seems
in the indigo land of dreams
where space and mind and time are all the same
where the thing you most despise
has your mate's beloved eyes
and all your pride and honor turns to shame

But if battle's what you want
if pain and madness do not daunt
then the Indigo Wild's the place you want to go
for there's always something to fight
every bloody day and night
and every size and shape and breed of hungry foe

It has been around forever
and it will show its mercy never
not to soldier, not to seeker, not to priest
whatever secrets it might hold
whatever power, truths, or gold
it will give them not to Mongi, not to beast

For some it is red
that paralyzes with dread
the color both blood and fire's child
but even worse than that hue
is the eerie, fearsome blue
of the place called the Indigo Wild

- anonymous, date unknown, planet unknown

[WalkingTree]

Just a little only-slightly-relevant weirdness for everyone's entertainment. Would hate for ya'll to get bored with the same old same ole.

...if non-fiction doesn't save someone, maybe something from fiction would?

[pete lynch]

A trapper name of Zinn
thought he would his forture win
with furs and pelts of rarest, deepest blue
they found his bloody remains
minus flesh and guts and brains
leaving only that too difficult to chew

My favorite part!

What's a Mongi? My finger is too tired from scrolling through that whole poem to do a Google search myself.

[1stimestar]

mongi
an evil person

a pervert

a female

a verbal hole filler

From urban dictionary.

[WalkingTree]

Sorry 'bout that guys...actually it's a kind of species or culture from some sci-fi book. Don't remember which or what. But so any definition from our real world wouldn't apply. Only those according to that fictional world. It's 'made up' stuff.

The poem itself only stuck with me because, underneath it all, I appreciate the strength of the ecosystem being spoken of. It bespeaks an untamedness of that wilderness.

[natertot]

mongi
an evil person

a pervert

a female

a verbal hole filler

From urban dictionary.

For some reason, I am not surprised to see one word that is usable for all four terms! (Hides from wife!)