I was surprised that a bus needed to be removed because it was dangerous. Apparently you have to cross a river to get to it -- that was killing people.

The stories of McCandless's journey suggest that we should consider the psychology of self-harm and suicide when we ask about his motivations. He ignored even the most basic precautions, which considering his education and age should reveal something other than mere stupidity. He seemed to want to put himself at risk of harm -- leaving food behind, refusing assistance from locals, and not even learning to preserve meat, so the animals he killed could not feed him. It seems like his being at constant risk of death by starvation and exposure was not an accident.