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Your story sounds amazing. I'm from the UK where every square cm of ground has been mapped, examined and sold to someone. Some questions. 1) What did you

Your story sounds amazing. I'm from the UK where every square cm of ground has been mapped, examined and sold to someone. Some questions. 1) What did you eat and drink? 2) Where did you sleep? 3) What was an average day like? 4) How did you deal with days like christmas day, new years eve, your birthday, the solstice and any other special day to you. 5) Did you see or find anything curious? Something that made you pause and wonder? 6) Is that sort of adventure a man thing? Did you ever hear of a woman doing something similar by choice? Just some questions that I have, don't answer them if they are impertinent. Just a curious :)

gaius 10y ago
Not true. I know people (men and women, not that it matters) who regularly discover and explore virgin cave in the UK, France, etc. Also in the UK is is very easy to have an adventurous experience if you want. The Brecons, the Highlands, etc are well beyond civilization.
- lostlogin 10y ago
  The highlands have a pub every few miles! Which is excellent when cold wet and tired. You would have to try quite hard to get really remote.
keenerd 10y ago
Every square CM of the US is mapped as well, and has been for a hundred years. The USGS is very thorough and all of their topo maps are freely available in the public domain.
- Piskvorrr 10y ago
  If you'd say "every square mile on the surface," I'd believe you; "every square cm" sounds several orders of magnitude too precise.
- kahirsch 10y ago
  http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8927720/ns/us_news-life/t/giant-waterfall-discovered-calif-park/ http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8927720/ns/us_news-life/t/giant-wa...
- grecy 10y ago
  Which is why, interestingly, Chris chose to not take a map when he hiked into the wilderness in Alaska.
  - exolymph 10y ago
    I'm part of the "Chris McCandless was an idiot" crowd, but I guess he was intentionally not optimizing for survival. Into the Wild is still a very engaging book, but it frustrates me so much that people idolize a guy who made bad decision after bad decision. The thing that pissed me off the most was when he burned his money instead of donating it to charity.
    - grecy 10y ago
      I understand where you are coming from. >he was intentionally not optimizing for survival That's a good way to say it. In all honesty - when I optimize for survival I actually find life too boring, easy and mundane. I want more excitement and adventure than that, so I understand why Chris did what he did. >who made bad decision after bad decision. It's very easy to armchair quaterback. Have you hiked into the middle of nowhere in Alaska and tried to survive? Have you hunted your own food? Have you struggled to cross glacier-melt rivers? I have, and a lot more. I've seen friends go underwater at -35C 100km from anywhere, had snowmobiles not start at -50C well over 200km from anywhere, had severe hypothermia where I thought I was hot, lost feeling in my fingers for hours, jumped up and down on the spot for hours in an attempt to warm up, etc. etc.) Anyone that does as well as Chris did is not an idiot. Most people wouldn't last a week, let alone 3 months.
      - keenerd 10y ago
        > Most people wouldn't last a week, let alone 3 months. Not even the native people of the area could have done it. Hunting for sustenance isn't a solo activity. Hunting large game is high reward with high uncertainty. You probably need a group of at least five people. With multiple hunters only one of them has to land a kill to feed the group. And it means there is the manpower present to process or eat all of the meat before it spoils. Which is what happened to McCandless. He was a skilled hunter to bring down a moose with a .22 but he only got a few meals from the carcass before it rotted, wasting hundreds of pounds of meat. I can point you to a record from 1770-ish of a native american woman who managed to survive for six months alone in far north Canada, after escaping from her slavers. The party who discovered her was shocked she could even be alive and none of them had ever heard of such a thing. (Samuel Hearne's journals) edit: Bagging a single moose during the season isn't "sustenance". It is sport. If it ends up in a chest freezer, then it doesn't count for this discussion. Sustenance means 100% of your calories come from hunted game. And sustenance-hunters at that latitude, even with a group, can go a week without seeing any animals. Scaling up what I've seen people do with white tailed deer, 5 people could probably process 800 pounds of moose in two days if they already had stockpiled all the wood. Groups of 100 could eat it all. And groups that large were common for moving across the land.
grecy 10y ago
No worries, I'm more than happy to answer questions. I love showing and helping others get out there. My site, http://theroadchoseme.com http://theroadchoseme.com has a lot of details on my Alaska->Argentina drive, and now my trip around Africa. I'll answer those questions as they apply to Alaksa->Argentina. Let me know if you meant something else, or want me to expand. >1) What did you eat and drink? I bought bottled water for the entire trip - it was easy to get 20L of filter water everywhere and fill up my container. I tried to cook all my own food on my little camp stove, rice, beans, pasta. etc. Then cooked food was very cheap in South America, so I was buying it at markets, etc. It was around $1USD for a huge plate. >2) Where did you sleep? In my ground tent about 3/4 of the nights, the rest in hostels or cheaper hotels. I always tried to "wild camp" for free - off the side of gravel roads, etc. I never had a single problem or bad encounter doing that. >3) What was an average day like? Wake up with the sun, eat breakfast, exercise, break camp, drive about 1-2 hours, then find something to do for the rest of the day - swimming, hiking, markets, cities, reading, chatting to people, walking on the beach etc. then find somewhere to camp (free, hopefully!) > 4) How did you deal with days like christmas day, new years eve, your birthday, the solstice and any other special day to you. A couple were lonely and I was a bit sad, for others I had friends fly in, and even my whole family came to Buenos Aires for Christmas. > 5) Did you see or find anything curious? Something that made you pause and wonder? Yep. The energy at the magic bus is something I still wonder about. It should be a sad place, but it's actually an extremely energizing, happy place. Something is going on there I don't understand. (I'm not religious... but... I dunno) > 6) Is that sort of adventure a man thing? Did you ever hear of a woman doing something similar by choice? Absolutely women do it too! A female friend just drove AK->Argentina solo, and another is setting out in the next couple of years. I met hundreds of solo female backpackers too, having the time of their lives.
- monk_e_boy 10y ago
  Wow! Thank you for the reply. Good luck with your adventures!!

gaius 10y ago

Not true. I know people (men and women, not that it matters) who regularly discover and explore virgin cave in the UK, France, etc. Also in the UK is is very easy to have an adventurous experience if you want. The Brecons, the Highlands, etc are well beyond civilization.

lostlogin 10y ago
The highlands have a pub every few miles! Which is excellent when cold wet and tired. You would have to try quite hard to get really remote.

keenerd 10y ago

Every square CM of the US is mapped as well, and has been for a hundred years. The USGS is very thorough and all of their topo maps are freely available in the public domain.

Piskvorrr 10y ago
If you'd say "every square mile on the surface," I'd believe you; "every square cm" sounds several orders of magnitude too precise.
kahirsch 10y ago
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8927720/ns/us_news-life/t/giant-waterfall-discovered-calif-park/ http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8927720/ns/us_news-life/t/giant-wa...
grecy 10y ago
Which is why, interestingly, Chris chose to not take a map when he hiked into the wilderness in Alaska.
- exolymph 10y ago
  I'm part of the "Chris McCandless was an idiot" crowd, but I guess he was intentionally not optimizing for survival. Into the Wild is still a very engaging book, but it frustrates me so much that people idolize a guy who made bad decision after bad decision. The thing that pissed me off the most was when he burned his money instead of donating it to charity.
  - grecy 10y ago
    I understand where you are coming from. >he was intentionally not optimizing for survival That's a good way to say it. In all honesty - when I optimize for survival I actually find life too boring, easy and mundane. I want more excitement and adventure than that, so I understand why Chris did what he did. >who made bad decision after bad decision. It's very easy to armchair quaterback. Have you hiked into the middle of nowhere in Alaska and tried to survive? Have you hunted your own food? Have you struggled to cross glacier-melt rivers? I have, and a lot more. I've seen friends go underwater at -35C 100km from anywhere, had snowmobiles not start at -50C well over 200km from anywhere, had severe hypothermia where I thought I was hot, lost feeling in my fingers for hours, jumped up and down on the spot for hours in an attempt to warm up, etc. etc.) Anyone that does as well as Chris did is not an idiot. Most people wouldn't last a week, let alone 3 months.
    - keenerd 10y ago
      > Most people wouldn't last a week, let alone 3 months. Not even the native people of the area could have done it. Hunting for sustenance isn't a solo activity. Hunting large game is high reward with high uncertainty. You probably need a group of at least five people. With multiple hunters only one of them has to land a kill to feed the group. And it means there is the manpower present to process or eat all of the meat before it spoils. Which is what happened to McCandless. He was a skilled hunter to bring down a moose with a .22 but he only got a few meals from the carcass before it rotted, wasting hundreds of pounds of meat. I can point you to a record from 1770-ish of a native american woman who managed to survive for six months alone in far north Canada, after escaping from her slavers. The party who discovered her was shocked she could even be alive and none of them had ever heard of such a thing. (Samuel Hearne's journals) edit: Bagging a single moose during the season isn't "sustenance". It is sport. If it ends up in a chest freezer, then it doesn't count for this discussion. Sustenance means 100% of your calories come from hunted game. And sustenance-hunters at that latitude, even with a group, can go a week without seeing any animals. Scaling up what I've seen people do with white tailed deer, 5 people could probably process 800 pounds of moose in two days if they already had stockpiled all the wood. Groups of 100 could eat it all. And groups that large were common for moving across the land.

grecy 10y ago

No worries, I'm more than happy to answer questions. I love showing and helping others get out there. My site, http://theroadchoseme.com http://theroadchoseme.com has a lot of details on my Alaska->Argentina drive, and now my trip around Africa. I'll answer those questions as they apply to Alaksa->Argentina. Let me know if you meant something else, or want me to expand. >1) What did you eat and drink? I bought bottled water for the entire trip - it was easy to get 20L of filter water everywhere and fill up my container. I tried to cook all my own food on my little camp stove, rice, beans, pasta. etc. Then cooked food was very cheap in South America, so I was buying it at markets, etc. It was around $1USD for a huge plate. >2) Where did you sleep? In my ground tent about 3/4 of the nights, the rest in hostels or cheaper hotels. I always tried to "wild camp" for free - off the side of gravel roads, etc. I never had a single problem or bad encounter doing that. >3) What was an average day like? Wake up with the sun, eat breakfast, exercise, break camp, drive about 1-2 hours, then find something to do for the rest of the day - swimming, hiking, markets, cities, reading, chatting to people, walking on the beach etc. then find somewhere to camp (free, hopefully!) > 4) How did you deal with days like christmas day, new years eve, your birthday, the solstice and any other special day to you. A couple were lonely and I was a bit sad, for others I had friends fly in, and even my whole family came to Buenos Aires for Christmas. > 5) Did you see or find anything curious? Something that made you pause and wonder? Yep. The energy at the magic bus is something I still wonder about. It should be a sad place, but it's actually an extremely energizing, happy place. Something is going on there I don't understand. (I'm not religious... but... I dunno) > 6) Is that sort of adventure a man thing? Did you ever hear of a woman doing something similar by choice? Absolutely women do it too! A female friend just drove AK->Argentina solo, and another is setting out in the next couple of years. I met hundreds of solo female backpackers too, having the time of their lives.

monk_e_boy 10y ago
Wow! Thank you for the reply. Good luck with your adventures!!