Chapter 2, The Stampede Trail Summary and Analysis

Graffiti written by Alexander Supertramp near the scene of Chris McCandless' death reads "Jack London is King" (pg. 9.) Krakauer provides a quote from Jack London's White Fang about the mirthless and merciless frozen Northern wilderness. This quote sets the tone for the chilling struggle for survival which is about to unfold.

The Stampede Trail traverses some fifty miles of boggy bottomland separating Mt. Healy and the Outer Range of Mt. McKinley. Blazed in the 1930s by an Alaskan miner, named Earl Pilgrim, the trail originally led to Pilgrim's mining claims along Stampede Creek. In the early 1960s, the trail was upgraded by Yutan Construction to an actual roadway meant to allow trucks to haul ore year-round from the mines. To house the construction workers laying down the roadway, Yutan converted three buses for wilderness camping...