When McCandless ventures into the Alaskan bush, he carries with him a crude and crumbled map that shows an obscure pathway to The Stampede Trail. But it fails to show a cluster of cabins, stocked with food and supplies, nearby Chris’s bus-campsite. Krakauer suggests that had Chris known about them, he might have looked to them for survival. In this way, Chris’s map is a symbol of his attempt to live off the map without help from the outside world and his ill preparedness for danger.