remarkable tale

One of the songs on Ellis Paul's album "The Speed of Trees" is called "The Ballad of Chris McCandless". I was curious to learn who this person was, so I Googled around and found this article. It's a pretty amazing story: sad, brave, impressive, eccentric, and in an odd way inspiring. What motivated this chap I can't say would ever call to me in the same way, but I think I can understand and even sympathize with it in a way.