The narrator uses Franz?s story to start a line of investigation into the harm McCandless?s risk-taking behavior caused others. Krakauer meets Ronald Franz who describes his father-son relationship with McCandless. He spends some time enjoying in the social life of Buress?s drifters? camp but leaves hastily, planning a trip to Alaska. McCandless briefly works for an old man named Charlie before leaving for California where he meets Jan Buress and her old boyfriend. After his canoeing expedition, McCandless stays and works in Bullhead City, Arizona. In the meantime, the McCandless family begins probing their son?s disappearance. He spends next two months tramping and, on an impulse, buys a canoe and paddles down the Colorado River to Mexico for next five months. He leaves it and other possessions behind. After graduating from college, McCandless drives to Lake Mead in Nevada, where a flashflood wets the engine of his car. These details take the narrator back to the first leg of McCandless?s journey to the west in his used yellow Datsun car. Krakauer further tries to understand McCandless from the details of his middle-class Virginia upbringing and his dislike of materialism.
Westerberg employed McCandless on and off on his grain elevator and remembers him as engaging, intelligent, and determined. He provides an initial character sketch of the young man to Krakauer in a bar in Carthage, Wisconsin. Krakauer visits McCandless's former employer, Wayne Westerberg, who knew him as 'Alex McCandless'. They radio for help and the dead body is removed with the help of FBI. Into the Wild begins with the discovery of Christopher McCandless?s dead body by a group of Alaskan hunters who are on a yearly excursion trip to Alaska?s Denali National Park and Preserve.