Jon Krakauer
走入荒野
乔恩。克拉库尔
云天译
CHAPTER TWO
THE STAMPEDE TRAIL
第二章
斯坦佩德小径
Jack London is King
Alexander Supertramp
May 1992
graffito carved into a piece of wood discovered
at the site of chris mccandless's death
杰克.伦敦是王
超级流浪汉亚历山大
1992年5月
涂鸦刻在一块木头上，在克里斯。麦坎得利斯出事处发现
Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been
stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean toward each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land.
冰冻的河岸两侧，深暗的云杉林沉郁而立。不久前的一场大风刮去了覆盖在树上的白霜。昏暗的光里，树木仿佛彼此依靠，黑沉沉的，透着不详之兆。广袤的沉寂主宰着这片土地。
The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness—a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.
jack london,white fang
大地一片荒芜，毫无生机，木然不动，这般孤寂寒冽，"悲哀”二字也不足以表述其氛围。空气中有一丝隐隐的笑，而这笑声比悲哀更恐怖--- 那是斯芬克斯式的忧郁笑声，寒若冰霜，透着决然的冷酷，那是孤傲的终极智慧在讥笑生命的徒劳无功，那是荒蛮之至冰冷无情的北方旷野。
---- 杰克。伦敦的《白牙》
On the northern margin of the Alaska Range, just before the hulking ramparts of Mt.
McKinley and its satellites surrender to the low Kantishna plain, a series of lesser ridges, known as the Outer Range, sprawls across the flats like a rumpled blanket on an unmade bed. Between the flinty crests of the two outermost escarpments of the Outer Range runs an east-west trough, maybe five miles across, carpeted in a boggy amalgam of muskeg, alder thickets, and veins of scrawny spruce. Meandering through the tangled, rolling bottomland is the Stampede Trail, the route Chris McCandless followed into the wilderness.
阿拉斯加山脉的北缘，就在麦金利山与周边的峰峦叠嶂，即将和低处的坎提什纳平原交汇处，一群低矮的山脊，即”边缘丘陵“, 在平原上蔓延，仿佛凌乱床上铺着的皱巴巴的毯子。边缘丘陵最外侧坐落着两道峭壁，耸立的石峰间，是一条东西走向的沟谷，横向约五英里宽。谷中覆盖着一片沼泽地，上面长着苔藓、桤木灌丛，和枝条纵横的纤瘦云杉等各类植被。忽高忽低的洼地上，一条蜿蜒小道穿过缠绕的藤蔓，那便是克里斯。麦坎得利斯走入荒野的斯坦佩德小径。
The trail was blazed in the 1930s by a legendary Alaska miner named Earl Pilgrim; it led to antimony claims he'd staked on Stampede Creek, above the Clearwater Fork of the Toklat River. In 1961, a Fairbanks company, Yutan Construction, won a contract from the new state of Alaska (statehood having been granted just two years earlier) to upgrade the trail, building it into a road on which trucks could haul ore from the mine year-round. To house construction workers while the road was going in, Yutan purchased three junked buses, outfitted each with bunks and a simple barrel stove, and skidded them into the wilderness behind a D-9 Caterpillar.
这条小路是1930年代时，一个名叫厄尔。皮尔格立姆的传奇矿工开辟的，通向他在斯坦佩得溪发掘的锑矿。斯坦佩得溪位于托克拉特河的支流清溪上游。1961年，一家叫“育坦建筑”的费尔班克斯公司，从新成立的阿拉斯加州（在这之前两年阿州才入美国联邦）赢得了一份合同，负责将这条小路升级，建成后使大卡车能够从锑矿常年运输矿物。为了给筑路工人提供住宿，育坦购买了三俩废旧巴士，给每辆车配备了床铺和简陋的圆桶火炉，用一辆D-9卡特彼勒把巴士拖进了荒野。
The project was halted in 1963: some fifty miles of road were eventually built, but no bridges were ever erected over the many rivers it transected, and the route was shortly rendered impassable by thawing permafrost and seasonal floods. Yutan hauled two of the buses back to the highway. The third bus was left about halfway out the trail to serve as backcountry shelter for hunters and trappers. In the three decades since construction ended, much of the roadbed has been obliterated by washouts, brush, and beaver ponds, but the bus is still there.
这项工程在1963年中止。最终建成的路约50来英里长，但是被河流截断处均未架桥，并且，由于冻土融化和季节性洪水，这条路很快就无法通行。育坦于是把两辆巴士拖回了高速公路。第三辆巴士就留在斯坦佩得小径走到大约一半的地方，以供人们到荒野打猎捕兽时歇脚。在施工结束三十年之后，大部分路面都已被洪水、灌木丛和海狸塘毁坏，但这辆巴士仍在原地。
A vintage International Harvester from the 1940s, the derelict vehicle is located
twenty-five miles west of Healy as the raven flies, rusting incongruously in the fireweed beside the Stampede Trail, just beyond the boundary of Denali National Park. The engine is gone. Several windows are cracked or missing altogether, and broken whiskey bottles litter the floor. The green-and-white paint is badly oxidized. Weathered lettering indicates that the old machine was once part of the Fairbanks City Transit System: bus 142. These days it isn't unusual for six or seven months to pass without the bus seeing a human visitor, but in early September 1992, six people in three separate parties happened to visit the remote vehicle on the same afternoon.
这是辆1940年代国际收割机公司出产的老式车，久已废弃，停在希利镇西边25英里处斯坦佩得小径边上，正好在德纳利国家公园界线之外。那里杂草丛生，乌鸦盘旋，锈迹斑斑的车子显得格外碍眼。车子的发动机已经没了。那些窗子要么有裂缝，要么整个是空的，碎酒瓶子满地都是。绿色和白色的油漆严重氧化。车身上被风雨侵蚀的字显示，这辆车是曾属于费尔班克斯市运输系统的142号巴士。这年头，六七个月不见一个人影打车旁经过，已不足为奇。但在1992年9月初的一个下午，竟碰巧有三拨共六人，都来到这辆偏远的巴士旁。
In 1980, Denali National Park was expanded to include the Kantishna Hills and the
northernmost cordillera of the Outer Range, but a parcel of low terrain within the new park acreage was omitted: a long arm of land known as the Wolf Townships, which encompasses the first half of the Stampede Trail. Because this seven-by-twenty-mile tract is surrounded on three sides by the protected acreage of the national park, it harbors more than its share of wolf, bear, caribou, moose, and other game, a local secret that's jealously guarded by those hunters and trappers who are aware of the anomaly. As soon as moose season opens in the fall, a handful of hunters typically pays a visit to the old bus, which sits beside the Sushana River at the westernmost end of the nonpark tract, within two miles of the park boundary.
1980年，德纳利国家公园增扩，把坎提什纳山和边缘丘陵最北边的山脉划入了国家公园，但缺漏掉了新公园版图内的一块低洼地：那是一个叫沃尔夫镇区的长条形地带，包括斯坦佩得小径的前半段。这块20英里长7英里宽的地界，三面被国家公园保护区环绕，因此得天独厚，养育的狼、熊、北美驯鹿、麋鹿和其他动物远远多于别处。这种异常状况是当地的秘密，那些知道底细的捕猎人对此守口如瓶。秋天狩鹿季节一开放，一小伙猎人通常会造访这辆旧公车，这里距国家公园边界仅两英里，在非公园地带最西端的苏珊娜河旁。
Ken Thompson, the owner of an Anchorage auto-body shop, Gordon Samel, his
employee, and their friend Ferdie Swanson, a construction worker, set out for the bus on September 6, 1992, stalking moose. It isn't an easy place to reach. About ten miles past the end of the improved road the Stampede Trail crosses the Teklanika River, a fast, icy stream whose waters are opaque with glacial till. The trail comes down to the riverbank just upstream from a narrow gorge, through which the Teklanika surges in a boil of white water. The prospect of fording this /affe-colored torrent discourages most people from traveling any farther.
1992年9月6日那天，安克雷奇一家修车铺的老板肯。汤普森，他的雇员戈登。赛摩尔，还有他们的建筑工朋友弗尔迪。斯文森，一行三人到巴士一带寻找麋鹿的踪迹。去那里并不容易。沿斯坦佩得小径，过了那段修过的路，再朝前十英里路左右，湍急冰冷的泰克拉尼卡河横穿而过，因水中漂浮的冰川碎块，河水并不清澈。小径与河流交汇处，正是河流上游的开端。刚穿过狭窄峡谷的泰克拉尼卡河，喷涌着白色浪花。面对汹涌澎湃的激流，涉水而过的希望非常渺茫，大多数人都在此驻足不前。
Thompson, Samel, and Swanson, however, are contumacious Alaskans with a
special fondness for driving motor vehicles where motor vehicles aren’t really
designed to be driven. Upon arriving at the Teklanika, they scouted the banks
until they located a wide, braided section with relatively shallow channels, and then they steered headlong into the flood.
可汤普森，赛摩尔和斯文森这三个倔强的阿拉斯加人，偏偏喜欢把车开到不该开的地方。一到泰克拉尼卡河，他们就在岸边探路，最终发现了一处比较浅又够宽的网状河道，然后就发动车子，冲入河里。
“I went first,” Thompson says. “The river was probably seventy-five feet
across and real swift. My rig is a jacked-up eighty-two Dodge four by four with
thirty-eight-inch rubber on it, and the water was right up to the hood. At one
point I didn’t think I’d get across. Gordon has a eight-thousand-pound winch on
the front of his rig; I had him follow right behind so he could pull me out if I went
out of sight.”
“我打头，”汤普森说，“河面宽约75英尺，水流非常急。我开的是车身抬高的82年四轮驱动道奇，轮胎是38英寸的，就这样水已漫到车盖。有那么一瞬，我以为我过不去了。戈登的车前方装有8千磅的大绞盘，我让他跟在我后边，我的车要是被淹了，他可以把它拉出来。”
Thompson made it to the far bank without incident, followed by Samel and Swanson in their trucks. In the beds of two of the pickups were light-weight all-terrain vehicles: a three-wheeler and a four-wheeler. They parked the big rigs on a gravel bar, unloaded the ATVs, and continued toward the bus in the smaller, more maneuverable machines.
汤普森安全抵达对岸，后面分别跟着赛摩尔和斯文森的卡车。当中的两辆卡车上载着轻型全地形车：一辆三轮驱动，一辆四轮驱动。他们把大卡车停在碎石滩上，卸下两辆全地形车，然后驾着轻便易开的全地形车向巴士所在地驶去。
A few hundred yards beyond the river the trail disappeared into a series of chest-deep beaver ponds. Undeterred, the three Alaskans dynamited the offending stick dams and drained the ponds. Then they motored onward, up a rocky creek bed and through dense alder thickets. It was late afternoon by the time they finally arrived at the bus. When they got there, according to Thompson, they found “a guy and a girl from Anchorage standing fifty feet away, looking kinda spooked.”
过河几百码之后，小径就消失于一连串齐胸深的海狸塘里。这拦不住三个阿拉斯加人。他们炸开海狸用树枝围成的烦人塘坝，把水排干。然后继续驾车赶路，翻过岩石遍布的河床，穿过繁盛茂密的桤木林。等他们开到巴士那里时，已是傍晚了。据汤姆森说，他们到达时，发现“ 一对从安克雷奇来的年轻男女，站在50英尺外，满面惊恐。”
Neither of them had been in the bus, but they’d been close enough to notice “a real bad smell from inside.” A makeshift signal flag—a red knitted leg warmer of the sort worn by dancers— was knotted to the end of an alder branch by the vehicle’s rear exit. The door was ajar, and taped to it was a disquieting note. Handwritten in neat block letters on a page torn from a novel by Nikolay Gogol, it read:
这两人谁都没踏进巴士一步，但站在那里就已经闻得到“车里发出的巨臭”。一条跳舞人穿的红色针织暖腿套，绑在一截桤木枝末端，用做紧急求救标志，系在巴士后门出口。半掩的车门上贴了张令人不安的纸条。那是从尼古拉·果戈理的小说上撕下来的一页纸，上面用工整的大写英文字体写道：
S.O.S. I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE I AM ALL ALONE, THIS IS NO JOKE. IN THE NAME OF GOD, PLEASE REMAIN TO SAVE ME. I AM OUT COLLECTING BERRIES CLOSE BY AND SHALL RETURN THIS EVENING. THANK YOU, CHRIS MCCANDLESS. AUGUST?
紧急呼救！我需要你的帮助。我受伤了，快要死了，我虚弱得无法走出这片林子。我只身一人，这不是玩笑。看在上帝的份上，请留在这儿救我一命。我在附近採浆果，今晚会返回。谢谢你。克里斯。麦坎德利斯。八月？
The Anchorage couple had been too upset by the implication of the note and the overpowering odor of decay to examine the bus’s interior, so Samel steeled himself to take a look. A peek through a window revealed a Remington rifle, a plastic box of shells, eight or nine paperback books, some torn jeans, cooking utensils, and an expensive backpack. In the very rear of the vehicle, on a jerry-built bunk, was a blue sleeping bag that appeared to have something or someone inside it, although, says Samel, “it was hard to be absolutely sure.”
字条隐含的意思以及令人难以忍受的腐臭，都让这对来自安克雷奇的年轻人感到不适，因此也就没到车里面查看。赛摩尔于是决定自己进去瞧瞧。透过车窗，只见里面有一支雷明顿步枪，一塑料盒子弹，八九本平装书，几条破牛仔裤，几样烹饪用具, 还有一个昂贵的背包。车子尾部摆着一张拼拼凑凑搭成的床，床上的蓝色睡袋里似乎有什么东西或什么人，但是赛摩尔说，“很难完全断定到底是什么。“
“I stood on a stump,” Samel continues, “reached through a back window, and gave the bag a shake. There was definitely something in it, but whatever it was didn’t weigh much. It wasn’t until I walked around to the other side and saw a head sticking out that I knew for certain what it was.” Chris McCandless had been dead for two and a half weeks.
“我站到一个树桩上，” 赛摩尔继续说，“手从后窗伸进去，摇了摇睡袋。里面肯定有样东西，但不管是什么，份量都不重。直到我绕到车子另一侧，看到里面伸出的脑袋，我才确定睡袋里到底是什么。” 克里斯。麦坎德利斯那时已经死了两周半。
Samel, a man of strong opinions, decided the body should be evacuated right away. There wasn’t room on his or Thompson’s small machine to haul the dead person out, however, nor was there space on the Anchorage couple’s ATV. A short while later a sixth person appeared on the scene, a hunter from Healy named Butch Killian. Because Killian was driving an Argo—a large amphibious eight-wheeled ATV—Samel suggested that Killian evacuate the remains, but Killian declined, insisting it was a task more properly left to the Alaska State Troopers.
赛摩尔是极有主见的人，他主张应当立即把尸体搬走。但他和汤普森的小轻便车空间都不够大，无法拖运尸体，而且，那对安克雷奇年轻人的全地形车也没有足够空间。又过了一会儿，第六个人到场了，是希利镇来的猎人布奇。基里安。基里安驾驶的阿格尔是大型水陆两栖八轮全地形车，赛摩尔因此建议他运走尸体，但基里安回绝了，他坚持这个任务由阿拉斯加州警执行更恰当。
Killian, a coal miner who moonlights as an emergency medical technician for the Healy Volunteer Fire Department, had a two-way radio on the Argo. When he couldn’t raise anybody from where he was, he started driving back toward the highway; five miles down the trail, just before dark, he managed to make contact with the radio operator at the Healy power plant. “Dispatch,” he reported, “this is Butch. You better call the troopers. There’s a man back in the bus by the Sushana. Looks like he’s been dead for a while.”
基里安是煤矿工人，工余在希利镇义务消防队做急救医务人员，他的阿格尔车上有双向无线对讲机。由于他在事发现场无法联络上任何人，只好掉转车头朝高速公路方向驶去。沿小径开了五英里，就在天黑前，他终于设法联系上了希利镇发电厂的无线电接线员。“求援，”他报告，“这是布奇。你赶紧接通州警。苏珊娜河旁的那辆巴士里有个人，看样子已经死了一阵子了。”
At eight-thirty the next morning, a police helicopter touched down noisily beside the bus in a blizzard of dust and swirling aspen leaves. The troopers made a cursory examination of the vehicle and its environs for signs of foul play and then departed. When they flew away, they took McCandless s remains, a camera with five rolls of exposed film, the SOS note, and a diary—written across the last two pages of a field guide to edible plants— that recorded the young man’s final weeks in 113 terse, enigmatic entries.
第二天早晨八点半，一架警用直升机在巴士旁轰然着陆，扬起尘土和白杨叶的漩涡。警官车里车外大致检查了一番，看有无谋杀迹象，然后就离开了。他们飞走时，带上了麦坎德利斯的遗体，照相机连同五卷底片，SOS 求救纸条，和写在一本“可食植物野外指南”最后两页上 的日记，那简单而令人迷惑的113条日记，记录了这个年轻人最后几周的生命。
The body was taken to Anchorage, where an autopsy was performed at the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory. The remains were so badly decomposed that it was impossible to determine exactly when McCandless had died, but the coroner could find no sign of massive internal injuries or broken bones.
尸体被送到安克雷奇的犯罪科学检验室验查。由于尸体极度腐烂，已经不可能准确推算麦坎德利斯的死亡时间，验尸官并没有发现严重内伤或骨折迹象。
Virtually no subcutaneous fat remained on the body, and the muscles had withered significantly in the days or weeks prior to death. At the time of the autopsy, McCandless’s remains weighed sixty-seven pounds. Starvation was posited as the most probable cause of death.
事实上，尸体的皮下脂肪已完全消失，肌肉在死前数日或数周就已严重萎缩。验尸时，麦坎德利斯的遗体只有67磅重。饥饿是最可能的假定死因。
McCandless’s signature had been penned at the bottom of the SOS note, and the photos, when developed, included many self-portraits. But because he had been carrying no identification, the authorities didn’t know who he was, where he was from, or why he was there.
SOS 求救纸条的底端是麦坎德利斯的签名，冲出来的照片中有很多自拍照。但因为他没有携带身份证，警察方面无从知道他是谁，他从哪来，也不知道他为什么到那片林子里。
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