Tyler Gross
This story is presented as part of The Stranger’s Back to School 2018 issue, out now.
“I now walk into the wild,” Christopher McCandless wrote in his journal before heading into the Alaskan wilderness with a sack of rice and not much else (an adventure immortalized by Jon Krakauer in his book Into the Wild). His is just one of countless stories of people going into the woods and never returning. Here’s how to not be that ding-dong.
Let’s assume you’ve just moved to Seattle to go to college and you’ve never walked into the wild before. Here are a few basics:
1. The wilderness is not a theme park.
2. You can’t rely on other people for your own preparedness.
3. Nature doesn’t give a shit about you.