"Over the past 15 years, I've run into several of McCandless' types out in the country. Same story: idealistic, energetic young guys who overestimated themselves, underestimated the country and ended up in trouble... His ignorance which could have easily been cured by a USGS quadrant and a Boy Scout manual, is what killed him. And while i feel for his parents, I have no sympathy for him.

• Although many of the people who met McCandless where very impressed, many experienced Alaskans that read his story found him to have been foolish to have gone into the wild with only what knowledge he had.