In April 1992, a well-educated young man walked into the Alaskan wilderness with a ten-pound bag of rice, a rifle, romantic ideals, and no map. Four months later a moose hunter found his emaciated body in an abandoned transit bus. This episode grounds the legend of Christopher McCandless, known on the road as Alexander Supertramp.

We trace his high-achieving suburban youth, the family secret that shattered his worldview, his donation of his savings, and the reckless journey through the American West that gave him a false sense of invincibility. We then dig into the years-long scientific debate over what actually killed him, from rabbit starvation to the toxin found in the wild sweet vetch seeds he ate.

• How Thoreau and transcendentalism framed his break from a family he saw as hypocritical
• The abandoned Datsun that police  ...