I was on the Stampede Trail twice while Chris was out there
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 7:34 pm
While I am here, and on the subject of Chris McCandless (and on the anniversary date of his death no less), I thought I might as well share with the forum a few new and interesting bits and pieces of the story that I have come across in the years since my documentary was released, or that I haven’t spoke much about publicly. No, I’m still not going to tell what I know about the muddled truth surrounding Wayne Westerberg’s relationship with Chris—told to me firsthand by Gail Borah’s son and based on something specific that Chris once said to him (it is what you think…it is not what you think…in fact, it exists somewhere in between, I suppose); I still don’t feel it’s a topic I am comfortable going public with (for the uber-curious, talk to people in Carthage—they know enough to head you in the right direction). In any case, there are a number of other things I want to share that are perhaps far more relevant to the story.
Before I start, however, I want to say a word in defense of both Will Forsberg and Dermot Cole, not that either of these good souls needs me defending them. I couldn’t help but notice some of the wild ideas that have been put forth regarding Will and his relationship to the story (posted in the “IS THERE MORE TO THE CHRISTOPHER MCCANDLESS STORY” topic). Although I respect every person’s right, especially on a forum such as this, to put forth a new hypothesis, to me, the suggestion that Will may have had something to do with Chris’s death makes no sense whatsoever—both logically, and based on everything I know about Will Forsberg. I don’t want to waste any time and space herein getting into the specifics as to why, but I did feel it necessary to mention that I found Will to be one of the best people I met up in Alaska, and with a truly nuanced and insightful view on McCandless. Based on my experiences with him, and what I know about the story, the idea that he was some kind of vengeful villain in the tragedy seems like the most unlikely of all unlikely scenarios.
As for Dermot Cole, although I know that his column (which he writes to sell papers and hook in Alaskan readers) might sometimes rile McCandless devotees, I actually think his feelings about Chris are far less strident than they may appear on the surface. He seemed to me like a really decent guy, and what he said when I interviewed him strikes me as closer to the ambivalence he actually feels toward the story: “I think McCandless really was, from what we know about him, was a young man who was, you know, trying to find out something about himself. And his story to me is really a tragedy. And I feel bad for his family and his friends. I am, though, very wary of glorification of him. Many people are like him. When you're young you're trying to find out something about yourself. And in doing so you'll test yourself in different ways. Part of the problem is when you do that in Alaska without being well prepared, you very well may end up, you know, hurting yourself or dying. And the margins there get pretty slim.”
Anyway, one person that I did not include in the documentary, although I interviewed him on camera, was an Alaskan climber named Jeff Benowitz. I am sure most people have never heard of him. To make a long story short (if possible), according to Jeff, back in the winter of 1992, after getting himself in over his head out on Stampede Trail, he sought shelter in the bus one dangerously cold night (some three months before McCandless would stumble upon it). Benowitz claims that among the books he left at the bus the next morning when he departed were a copy of Walden, a book of Tolstoy short stories, Louis L’Amour’s Education of a Wandering Man, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Dr. Zhivago, and O Jerusalem, most of them having been picked up by Jeff at the Fairbanks Salvation Army before he set out, and brought out there on the sled he was dragging. If true, sadly enough, this story removes yet another brick from the edifice that is the McCandless legend (and, ironically enough, part of what first drew me to the McCandless story, and what made him such a romantic figure for so many of us—or foolish according to others—was that he brought all these books out there with him in lieu of more food or supplies).
Why didn’t I include him in the documentary? Well, it basically came down to two things: first, even during the interview, my instincts were telling me that there might be more to the story (or perhaps less) than he was letting on; and second, when I did some further digging while in post-production, I was given info that contradicted his story. According to Roman Dial, whom I had asked about Jeff’s story (everybody up in Fairbanks knows about it), at Benowitz’s urging he had told the Penn movie producers, who were up in Alaska filming, about the possibility that Jeff, rather than Chris, had brought the books out to the bus. They told Dial that it wasn’t true, and that they had “pictures of the books from McCandless’s camera from before Alaska.” I don’t think they showed Roman any pictures, however. In any case, because at one point in my interview I had gone book-by-book with Benowitz and asked him specifically if he had brought out each one, to which he had said yes to all, taken with Roman’s new information, for me it was enough to undermine his overall credibility, and I pulled the sequence.
What do I think the truth is? I think it is, as is often the case, somewhere in between. I actually think that Jeff Benowitz did spend a night out in the bus that winter before Chris arrived (he has photographic and documentary evidence that appears to support this). And I also think that Jeff did drag out some of the books that were found with Chris in the bus that September. Did Jeff bring out all of the books? I don’t think so. Did he bring out the Thoreau and Tolstoy? I don’t know, but I suspect not.
I am curious, however, about the McCandless pictures that show these very books before he came to Alaska. Unfortunately, if they do exist (as you may remember from the documentary, I am ever wary of the truthfulness of Hollywood producer-types), these images are not included in Back to the Wild. This doesn’t mean, of course, that they do not exist. They probably do. However, I truly doubt that there are pre-Alaska pictures of every single book that we know was found out in the bus. Again, I suspect the truth is somewhere in between. Reminds me of my Dr. Seuss film, when I would dig the details on some of the best stories about Theodor Geisel—most of the time it turned out they were based on something real (like Jeff’s bus story, or Chris’s literary predilections), but inevitably they were adorned or exaggerated a bit for dramatic effect.
Speaking of photographs not published in Back to the Wild, I also wanted to mention a series of three pictures that were given to me following a screening of my film up in Alaska a few years ago. They were taken inside the bus, probably in August, and show Chris sitting on his mattress in long underwear, shirtless, and in one of the photos with his long johns pulled just below his knees (his private parts covered with something, perhaps the corner of his bed sheet). Out of respect for Chris and his family, I have no intention of ever releasing or reproducing these photos (though I do believe that quite a few people up in Alaska have already seen them), and as such I don’t really want to go into any further detail describing Chris’s extremely emaciated state in them, but I mention it for two reasons: one, for the sake of the historical record, and for it to be known that they do exist; and two, in so doing, letting it also be known that they provide further evidence in support of the BMI analysis that we conducted, and in support of the conclusion we reached that Chris died of starvation and not from a plant he ingested.
Lastly—and again I apologize for the length of these posts today—I wanted to chime in on the discussion that was taking place at one point on this forum about whether or not people in Healy knew Chris was out there prior to his body being discovered (in particular, the statement attributed to a Victor Hopka, who said, “I know that people knew that there was somebody in the bus that didn't have much of anything”). And, of course, as somebody else mentioned, this directly contradicts the long-held notion that Chris’s presence was unknown by the locals. Anyway, I have received a lot of interesting e-mails over the past four years, but one of the most intriguing in terms of the possibility that others were out on Stampede that summer, and may have been in close proximity to Chris and/or the bus—and that locals knew Chris was there—came from a guy who wrote to me that he “was on the Stampede Trail twice while Chris was out there.” His continued: “After my 1st trip, a local from Healy, upon my inquiry, told me nothing was out there, except for that kid that Jim dropped off back in the spring, and he’s probably dead by now (just an off-hand comment). He wasn’t, that was near the 1st of July. I went back out there, alone this time. Got out, hiked around 8 mile lake. Thought about what it would be like to just walk out there. I was 22, up there for similar ‘reasons,’ and planning on staying the winter in a rented cabin alone…Planning on making a return trip this year, to gauge how close we were on the 1st trip, late June. I’ve always thought we were probably the closest to him and the bus, that summer. We crossed several braided sections of the river, in my Toyota Tercel. Saw the 1st bus on the way in and out. I’ve been trying to find the friends that were with me on that 1st trip, fellow employees @Harper Lodge-Denali.”
If this account is true, then the “1st bus” they saw was indeed Fairbanks 142—it was the only bus still out there according to all the sources. Sort of mind boggling, isn’t it? Not only did several people in Healy know all spring and summer that Chris was out there, but at some point in late June this guy and his friends actually drove right by the bus in a Toyota Tercel! Where was Chris during this? Was he at or near the bus? Did he see or hear them? Try to make contact with them? Try to avoid or hide from them? And I can think of a dozen other questions that this story raises in my mind (and also related to questions surrounding where he was in late June), as I’m sure it does for others of you who are deeply invested in the details of that summer. In any case, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’m wiped out.
Before I start, however, I want to say a word in defense of both Will Forsberg and Dermot Cole, not that either of these good souls needs me defending them. I couldn’t help but notice some of the wild ideas that have been put forth regarding Will and his relationship to the story (posted in the “IS THERE MORE TO THE CHRISTOPHER MCCANDLESS STORY” topic). Although I respect every person’s right, especially on a forum such as this, to put forth a new hypothesis, to me, the suggestion that Will may have had something to do with Chris’s death makes no sense whatsoever—both logically, and based on everything I know about Will Forsberg. I don’t want to waste any time and space herein getting into the specifics as to why, but I did feel it necessary to mention that I found Will to be one of the best people I met up in Alaska, and with a truly nuanced and insightful view on McCandless. Based on my experiences with him, and what I know about the story, the idea that he was some kind of vengeful villain in the tragedy seems like the most unlikely of all unlikely scenarios.
As for Dermot Cole, although I know that his column (which he writes to sell papers and hook in Alaskan readers) might sometimes rile McCandless devotees, I actually think his feelings about Chris are far less strident than they may appear on the surface. He seemed to me like a really decent guy, and what he said when I interviewed him strikes me as closer to the ambivalence he actually feels toward the story: “I think McCandless really was, from what we know about him, was a young man who was, you know, trying to find out something about himself. And his story to me is really a tragedy. And I feel bad for his family and his friends. I am, though, very wary of glorification of him. Many people are like him. When you're young you're trying to find out something about yourself. And in doing so you'll test yourself in different ways. Part of the problem is when you do that in Alaska without being well prepared, you very well may end up, you know, hurting yourself or dying. And the margins there get pretty slim.”
Anyway, one person that I did not include in the documentary, although I interviewed him on camera, was an Alaskan climber named Jeff Benowitz. I am sure most people have never heard of him. To make a long story short (if possible), according to Jeff, back in the winter of 1992, after getting himself in over his head out on Stampede Trail, he sought shelter in the bus one dangerously cold night (some three months before McCandless would stumble upon it). Benowitz claims that among the books he left at the bus the next morning when he departed were a copy of Walden, a book of Tolstoy short stories, Louis L’Amour’s Education of a Wandering Man, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Dr. Zhivago, and O Jerusalem, most of them having been picked up by Jeff at the Fairbanks Salvation Army before he set out, and brought out there on the sled he was dragging. If true, sadly enough, this story removes yet another brick from the edifice that is the McCandless legend (and, ironically enough, part of what first drew me to the McCandless story, and what made him such a romantic figure for so many of us—or foolish according to others—was that he brought all these books out there with him in lieu of more food or supplies).
Why didn’t I include him in the documentary? Well, it basically came down to two things: first, even during the interview, my instincts were telling me that there might be more to the story (or perhaps less) than he was letting on; and second, when I did some further digging while in post-production, I was given info that contradicted his story. According to Roman Dial, whom I had asked about Jeff’s story (everybody up in Fairbanks knows about it), at Benowitz’s urging he had told the Penn movie producers, who were up in Alaska filming, about the possibility that Jeff, rather than Chris, had brought the books out to the bus. They told Dial that it wasn’t true, and that they had “pictures of the books from McCandless’s camera from before Alaska.” I don’t think they showed Roman any pictures, however. In any case, because at one point in my interview I had gone book-by-book with Benowitz and asked him specifically if he had brought out each one, to which he had said yes to all, taken with Roman’s new information, for me it was enough to undermine his overall credibility, and I pulled the sequence.
What do I think the truth is? I think it is, as is often the case, somewhere in between. I actually think that Jeff Benowitz did spend a night out in the bus that winter before Chris arrived (he has photographic and documentary evidence that appears to support this). And I also think that Jeff did drag out some of the books that were found with Chris in the bus that September. Did Jeff bring out all of the books? I don’t think so. Did he bring out the Thoreau and Tolstoy? I don’t know, but I suspect not.
I am curious, however, about the McCandless pictures that show these very books before he came to Alaska. Unfortunately, if they do exist (as you may remember from the documentary, I am ever wary of the truthfulness of Hollywood producer-types), these images are not included in Back to the Wild. This doesn’t mean, of course, that they do not exist. They probably do. However, I truly doubt that there are pre-Alaska pictures of every single book that we know was found out in the bus. Again, I suspect the truth is somewhere in between. Reminds me of my Dr. Seuss film, when I would dig the details on some of the best stories about Theodor Geisel—most of the time it turned out they were based on something real (like Jeff’s bus story, or Chris’s literary predilections), but inevitably they were adorned or exaggerated a bit for dramatic effect.
Speaking of photographs not published in Back to the Wild, I also wanted to mention a series of three pictures that were given to me following a screening of my film up in Alaska a few years ago. They were taken inside the bus, probably in August, and show Chris sitting on his mattress in long underwear, shirtless, and in one of the photos with his long johns pulled just below his knees (his private parts covered with something, perhaps the corner of his bed sheet). Out of respect for Chris and his family, I have no intention of ever releasing or reproducing these photos (though I do believe that quite a few people up in Alaska have already seen them), and as such I don’t really want to go into any further detail describing Chris’s extremely emaciated state in them, but I mention it for two reasons: one, for the sake of the historical record, and for it to be known that they do exist; and two, in so doing, letting it also be known that they provide further evidence in support of the BMI analysis that we conducted, and in support of the conclusion we reached that Chris died of starvation and not from a plant he ingested.
Lastly—and again I apologize for the length of these posts today—I wanted to chime in on the discussion that was taking place at one point on this forum about whether or not people in Healy knew Chris was out there prior to his body being discovered (in particular, the statement attributed to a Victor Hopka, who said, “I know that people knew that there was somebody in the bus that didn't have much of anything”). And, of course, as somebody else mentioned, this directly contradicts the long-held notion that Chris’s presence was unknown by the locals. Anyway, I have received a lot of interesting e-mails over the past four years, but one of the most intriguing in terms of the possibility that others were out on Stampede that summer, and may have been in close proximity to Chris and/or the bus—and that locals knew Chris was there—came from a guy who wrote to me that he “was on the Stampede Trail twice while Chris was out there.” His continued: “After my 1st trip, a local from Healy, upon my inquiry, told me nothing was out there, except for that kid that Jim dropped off back in the spring, and he’s probably dead by now (just an off-hand comment). He wasn’t, that was near the 1st of July. I went back out there, alone this time. Got out, hiked around 8 mile lake. Thought about what it would be like to just walk out there. I was 22, up there for similar ‘reasons,’ and planning on staying the winter in a rented cabin alone…Planning on making a return trip this year, to gauge how close we were on the 1st trip, late June. I’ve always thought we were probably the closest to him and the bus, that summer. We crossed several braided sections of the river, in my Toyota Tercel. Saw the 1st bus on the way in and out. I’ve been trying to find the friends that were with me on that 1st trip, fellow employees @Harper Lodge-Denali.”
If this account is true, then the “1st bus” they saw was indeed Fairbanks 142—it was the only bus still out there according to all the sources. Sort of mind boggling, isn’t it? Not only did several people in Healy know all spring and summer that Chris was out there, but at some point in late June this guy and his friends actually drove right by the bus in a Toyota Tercel! Where was Chris during this? Was he at or near the bus? Did he see or hear them? Try to make contact with them? Try to avoid or hide from them? And I can think of a dozen other questions that this story raises in my mind (and also related to questions surrounding where he was in late June), as I’m sure it does for others of you who are deeply invested in the details of that summer. In any case, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’m wiped out.