As I am sure 58Skylane can also attest watching movies like Days of Thunder for us is quite a laugh, while I am sure others loved it.

Ahhh.......why am I being drug into this one ?? I didn't mention anything about Days of Thunder.

Don't get started on movies, Guys...

Dick Proenneke was the real deal. A friend has the only other private property on Twin Lakes, and both of those guys are real outdoorsmen.

I ran into a guy out on the Yukon Flats in late fall who was building a cabin to spend the winter. With his wife, and three little girls--age 5, 3, and brand new. He had NO gasoline appliances, just kerosene for lamps. I went to town and did a little research on him with a couple trappers I knew well. Wanted to know if I should start organizing the recovery party. Turned out the guy had done this in a couple other places, and was a skookum trapper and woodsman. I stopped in that winter and the next to visit a few times, and was always welcomed to a nice warm, two story cabin, built with a hand saw, and hauled in and stacked by hand, by gracious people who just don't like the "big city" much. Good trapper, too.

Several years ago there was a TV program about two families living in the bush in the Brooks Range--the Korths and the Haydens. Both those outfits are the real deal as well. Durable, good trappers, and honest as the day is long.

I had the pleasure of working with a fellow who homesteaded up the Kandik River and wintered over up there for 5 or 6 years. He flew with me a lot on projects, and I always liked having him along--figured if anything bad happened, he'd rescue me from the wreck, build me a cabin and make us some coffee....

They are out there, but not many these days.

MTV

After reading Into the Wild, it seemed to me that what did the guy in was lack of a map. Then I wonder why Mongo is all upset about the Ramp Check, and the question of current sectionals.

Maps: Don't leave home without them.

ASW.

Problem is, ya gotta know how to READ a map as well....

MTV

The only thing good about Into the Wild, is nobody got hurt or lost there life to safe his stupid selfish ass!
GT

M6RV6 wrote:The only thing good about Into the Wild, is nobody got hurt or lost there life to safe his stupid selfish ass!
GT

Hahahaha
I guess we know where you stand

ASW wrote:After reading Into the Wild, it seemed to me that what did the guy in was lack of a map. Then I wonder why Mongo is all upset about the Ramp Check, and the question of current sectionals.

Maps: Don't leave home without them.

ASW.

I was not "all upset about the ramp check", just surprised that they ventured out as far as they did, and blocked his departure with there car.
As for the sectionals I always have a current one with me, but the guy whom got the ramp check, never does, and if he does it waaaay out of date.

I am very surprised that this move struck a cord (weather good or bad) with so many people, I totally expected that nobody else had even seen it.

mtv wrote:
Dick Proenneke was the real deal. A friend has the only other private property on Twin Lakes, and both of those guys are real outdoorsmen.

MTV

Twin lakes is absolutely beautiful -- also moose and caribou in the lower lake area and sheep in the range to the east if you hike far enough. Proenneke was in heaven before his time.

Say....has anyone seen GRIZZLY MAN?

There are some bush planes in that film.

I loved Grizzly Man!

Nizina wrote:
The cult following associated with the movie is amazing. We now have young people coming to Alaska and making the "trek" to the abandoned bus on the "Stampede Trail" in homage to the clown.

Phone calls from those at least sensible enough to do a modicum of research beforehand are forwarded to my office about every two weeks. Most are fellows younger than twenty years old.

We saw a constant parade up and down the stampede trail last summer. Only had to go rescue two of them.

TexasNick wrote:Say....has anyone seen GRIZZLY MAN?

There are some bush planes in that film.

Another movie where the central figure was an idiot -- but photography and bush planes were good.

I read the book, and liked it. My memory has the author describing the kid as an a$$wipe and s##twad that got in over his head -- I don't remember the book trying to make the kid out as "enlightened" or romanticize his idiocy. Maybe the movie did, I don't know, didn't see it. Maybe, as implied by MTV's post, Krakauer's comments painted the kid as some kind of folk hero (edit - apologies MTV, got it mixed up) - don't know, never heard him talk. He could be a maximum a$$hole, for all I know. (I mean Krakauer, not MTV, but I guess I don't really know either way...)

What I DO remember the book doing, though, is pointing out that there's a bit of a$$wipe and s##twad in all of us. I've gotten in over my head a few times (especially at that age), and it was more luck than skill that got me out of the messes I'd created. I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut that the same is true for a lot of you all out there too.

Had any of my screwups turned out differently, I'd like to think that I'd fair better in a post mortem review than this fool kid did. Don't think it'd matter though: I'd be just as dead.

--Tony

Well stated TonyG.

My .02,

Chris chose a life that most of us wouldn't. I'm not saying he's a hero as the dumba$$ did most things very unprepared (higher risk higher reward maybe), but I do admire him for living his adventure. He took the narrow road and learned more about life in 2 years than most of us would. I don't see him as acting "enlightened", but see him as just another lost kid from a broken family trying to find himself. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out well for him.

I done enough stupid sh%t that it's a wonder I'm not 6ft under. But on the other hand I have no regrets and working in cubical hell will make a man go crazy. Being outdoors and enjoying the pure simplicity of it all brings my sanity back. I think Chris was just trying to live as simple as one can. Each to their own I guess.

Now Grizzly Man, on the other hand, was just a f*#king idiot.

One of the best productions I have ever seen from National Geographic is "Braving Alaska"
Lots of used videos out there..check ebay This video has quite a bit of flying in there and and the Haydens and Korths are 2 of the 4 featured families. There is a 185 landing scene worth the investment.

click on video
http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/ ... ategoryId=

Tony,

Uh, I wasn't the one who said the guy was enlightened. I said I never read the book or saw the movie.

You're right--the guy was just a piss poorly prepared schmuck who got way over his head and died because he didn't take a very few basic common sense precautions.

I have NO problem with the kid who died. That is called "Natural Selection".

What I have a problem with is authors, and especially asshole Hollywood types, memorializing this poor dumb schmuck's "experience" as some sort of holy process.

If someone wants to go into the wilderness totally unprepared, let em. If they call for help, someone will have to go try to save them, but this kid didn't. I don't have any beef with the kid.

Hollywood, yes, I have a beef with those folks.

And, yes the National Geographic special that featured Richard Hayden's family and Heimo Korth's family is a VERY good production of people who went into the woods, perhaps not knowing a lot more than McCandless, but who not only survived, but thrived. We should be celbrating those folks.

MTV

I found Into the Wild a very good cautionary story. There's a lot of analysis of Chris's personality and why he chose to trek across America, and finally die in Alaska. It did not seem to glorify him at all, but was a true account of a young man's struggle with himself. People may be glorifying him, but the book certainly didn't do that. Maybe people are going out to the bus just because it's an odd thing, out there in the wilderness, and they wonder why he was there. I've often wondered if I could live off the land, but I'm too lazy and scared to try.

ASW.

Read the book and saw the movie.

Well, of course the movie was going to recieve the Hollywood treatment. They told the story in a manner to pull the viewer into caring for Chris and feeling his pain from his home life. Then they put his trek into a light that makes him look driven, idealistic and independent; people with these qualities are usually universally admired.

The focal point of the movie (for me) and the source of real tragedy was the central theme that "You don't need human relationships to be happy" He was running and trying to convince himself and everyone else that he did not need family or friends to find peace. This comes to a crescendo and an obious end when his last written words are "Happiness only real when shared."

The tragedy for me is that it took Alaskan harsh realities and a horrible home life to teach this young man a life lesson on his death bed. To me this story is not at all about a unprepared, stupid kid thinking he's going to survive in the wilds of Alaska. It's about a kid that wrongly feels that the cold, hunger and wildlife of Alaska is a refuge from the biggest source of pain in his life; people.

This hits home for me because I went to great lengths to come to this conclusion on my own....and it was tough, but I didn't have to die to learn it.

bill

59SC

That was a moving response. Having snowmobiled past the bus and muttered unkind words under my breath, I would now re-evaluate my opinions.

mtv wrote:Don't get started on movies, Guys...

Dick Proenneke was the real deal. A friend has the only other private property on Twin Lakes, and both of those guys are real outdoorsmen.

MTV

I'm not sure which Twin Lake you guys are talking about? There are at least 7 of the in Alaska. Plus East and West Twin Lakes. They are scattered across the state and are all in Pristine country. I know a guy named Jerry B. who has a cabin on Twin Lakes. He is quite the outdoorsman to. BTW his well maintained Super Cub on EDO floats is for sale (105K)

As far as "Into the Wild" I agree with most of the comments. That could have been me....But I survived it. So no one knew. I basically did the same thing he did, but in a bit more hospitable enviroment. I did it in the Selway/Bitterroot Mountains. I spent the winter of 79 living in a Tee Pee trapping and staying alive. I was working my way to Alaska when I got diverted in Dease Lake BC. (I spent the Spring there) RCMP diverted me back to the states. Something about a Visa?
Took me 9 more years to make it to Alaska....but damn it...I made it
I kept a journel for years and after my divorce, my wife found it and gave it to my daughter. She asked me why I never wrote a book? I told her I just figured nobody would be interested in my boring life I just kept a few notes for the grandkids to read about grandpa.