Into the wild ... with Mark DeLoach

Note: The following was written by Mark DeLoach as way to answer the many inquiries he is receiving with the release of Sean Penn's film INTO THE WILD. Mark lives in the neighborhood. 

I know the book "Into the Wild" was a best seller in the States, but here it was a complete flop. The book stores had piles of them on the shelves with no sales that amounted to anything in Alaska as a whole.

The bus was taken out there years ago by either a mining or construction company back in the early 60's or late 50's and has been used by hunters as a camp for years since then.

After his story hit the presses, people came here to "Pilgrimage" to see the bus and where he died. My son and I on a couple of occasions ran into hikers headed that way and was astounded at what they were doing and that they had no idea of where they were headed. The fact that the river they had to cross was running high made very little impact on them either and I doubt they made it to the bus because of that issue alone.

Many people come to Alaska with that same kid's assumption of an adventure, and for that I can't fault them, but for the fact of the "Stupid" level is so high, that kind of balances out the adventure part a couple of fold. This is a good example where a little knowledge goes a long way and not enough can kill you.

Since this is in my back yard (about 40 miles from the house, about 12 from my fly-in cabin), I look at it as just another place to go to around here, and I know what to expect when I go there and what to look out for. Needless to say, so do most Alaskans and that is why the book had so poor of a sales run here.

My going to the big city like LA for "Adventure" while coming from a place like here where "Into the Wild" was filmed, would be "Ho Hum" for most city dwellers and they would be amazed at my stupidity of something that they take for granted.

To me, it is normal for wolves to look into my yard and size up my dogs for dinner, a moose grazing off the grass or having a grizzly knock over my burn barrel looking for something to snack on (there isn't anything in them to eat because of that problem), and it is not always a welcome thrill.

I assume that the movie "Into the Wild" will be a big hit, but then again of those that go to see it, most will have no clue to what it is like to be stupid enough to put yourself into that position in the first place to endanger their life or in Timothy Treadwell's example (The Grizzly Man), his and the life of others.

In Timothy Treadwell's opinion and own words, the bears "accepted" him. What he was too "Stupid" to know is that they accepted him because the coastal bears are well fed. They ignored him because of a full belly and he didn't appear to be a current threat at the time. Interior bears are not so forgiving because they have to work a lot harder for meals and guard them until they are gone and anything that threatens that is a threat. When he did encounter a bear that didn't tolerate him, he paid for his arrogance as well as the life of another that thought Mr. Treadwell knew what he was doing.

Anyway, I am here in the Prudhoe Bay area again watching out for the Polar Bears that never got the word that Global Warming is a threat to them.... They still keep swimming out to the pack ice and back with no idea that they aren't suppose to be able to do that.


Mark
www.fogtender.com
Oil spills will never be the same...