Excerpt from "Into the Wild" by John Krakauer

            A significant moment in the book, "Into the Wild" is when he discovers that the river he had crossed over was now much larger, meaning he had to wait until winter, when it would be frozen over. "In his journal he now wrote, "Disaster. ... Rained in. River look impossible. Lonely, scared." Chris McCandless  was planning to return to his home in Maryland, but the creek he crossed in April was now a fierce, raging river. He had no choice but to return to his camp and wait for the upcoming winter. In the end this proved fatal, unfortunately. He could be leading a normal life this very day, but the river would have washed him away.