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Tourism Board Travel: Into The Wild

The Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau up in Alaska is worried about fielding a glut of angsty 20-somethings looking for an epiphany. With Sean Penn's new movie Into The Wild now in theaters, the tourism board anticipates a surge in visitors to The Stampede Trail, a remote path on the northern end of Denali National Park.

The film is based on the Jon Krakauer book by the same name that tells the true story of Chris McCandless, a wealthy young Notheasterner who discarded his possessions, hitchhiked to Alaska and took off on foot with limited supplies into the wilderness near Denali National Park and Preserve. Spoiler Alert: It didn't really work out for him.

Since the book's release in 1996, hundreds of visitors have traveled to the area. The bureau expects those trips to increase and is wondering how to protect people from themselves. The Stampede Trail--poorly defined, bug infested and out of cell phone range--crosses the Teklanika River, which rages in summer and prevented McCandless from getting back to civilization.

In its upcoming 2008 visitors guide, the Healy/Denali Chamber of Commerce will include a warning about the potential dangers of the trail. Other steps to implement safety measures include a proposal to increase park ranger supervision. That's just the kind of sanitized trek McCandless would lament.

Related Stories:
· Into The Wild Tourism [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]
· Fairbanks Conventions and Visitors Bureau [Official Site]
· Movie Set Travel: Into the Wild [Jaunted]

[Photo: Worst Previews]