What McCandless attempted (and failed at) was entirely different from what most Alaskans are doing. He was trying to detach himself from dependence on the rest

What McCandless attempted (and failed at) was entirely different from what most Alaskans are doing. He was trying to detach himself from dependence on the rest of civilization. I've spent a lot of time in harsh wilderness. I've climbed Andes peaks, camped in deserts in the southwestern US, slept in tents in the Appalachian mountains in February in sub-zero temperatures. At no point was I ever not dependent on civilization. I always wore manufactured protective gear, slept in manufactured shelters, ate the products of agriculture, drank water I had hauled in from the modern water treatment. I know a lot of the local edible plants, but even when I've made a salad of garlic mustard and morels, it has always been an option to go to the store if I was still hungry afterward, or go to the doctor if I got sick from what I had eaten.