Remembering an Athlete Who Never Returned From the Wild

Chris McCandless, subject of the book and new film "Into the Wild," poses with a porcupine in a self-portrait. (Courtesy Of Mccandless Family -- Villard Books Via Associated Press)

Another former Woodson teammate, Eric Hathaway, was choked up after seeing a Friday matinee in San Antonio. Hirsch captured the kid he knew, the chip on the shoulder, the smile, the endearing nature, the catcher's-style crouch in which McCandless would rest, the way the character meticulously trained for his trek to Alaska and then, once there, screamed at the top of his lungs about how hungry he was. Chris would have done that, Hathaway said he thought to himself.

"I've been reading some reviews about how he graduated from college and was sick of his parents and kind of snapped," Hathaway said. "No, he didn't. . . . This kid was like this at age 17."

Hathaway remembers trips into the District in which McCandless would try to talk to prostitutes and pimps, not to do business but to learn about their lives. Another time he bought $20 worth of hamburgers at McDonald's to pass out to homeless people downtown and tried to talk to them to find out how they had ended up on the streets. McCandless took one man home and hid him in his parents' camper.

So for those who knew him, McCandless's story can be a series of contradictions. A guy who gave burgers to the homeless and wanted to end world hunger died of starvation. A guy who wanted to flee suburban comforts died because he underestimated nature and his ability to survive in it. A guy who rode his bike or ran to school because he hated to ride a school bus lived for months, and died, on a bus.

How would a guy who wanted to get away from it all feel about being the subject of a best-selling book and a major motion picture, in the process becoming a cult hero to itchy-footed idealistic youths across the country?

"I do struggle with that," said Horwitz, who upon the publication of Krakauer's book turned down many interview requests in part because he was unsure McCandless would have approved. "He's got to be up there just laughing. I don't think he's fuming over the attention. He probably just doesn't understand it: 'Why are people making such a big deal over this? [I] didn't free slaves, solve world hunger, cure cancer. Why are people so interested?' "

One final contradiction: For his high school graduating class's 20th reunion, Chris McCandless, subject of a book and movie, was on the "can't be found" list that circulated among class members.

Varsity Letter is a weekly column about high school sports in the Washington area.