Last Frontier Adventure Club

12/29/2020

Hey adventurers! Photonak just dropped a cool music video teaser with Bus 142 footage taken last May before it got airlifted. Their lead singer and a fellow admin on this page, Jeremy James Egger, is a big Into the Wild fan. Pretty cool. They've got a link to their bandcamp in the video description if you want to check out their music. With their new album Tempered on bandcamp, they include lyrical band art for their song "On My Own" that features a pic of the bus when Carine was there with a bunch of us from Last Frontier Adventure Club in 2014.

09/24/2020

Bus 142 has a new home!

https://bit.ly/3hTJcqh

We are honored to announce today our fundraising partnership with the UA Museum of the North for the preservation and exhibition of Bus 142. The faster we can meet the financial needs of this project, the sooner the bus can have visitors again.

No donation is too small. As a community, we will rise to the challenge and prepare the bus a new home.

Click the link to read more or donate: https://bit.ly/3hTJcqh

08/02/2020

Have you been to Bus 142 on the Stampede Trail? Send your pic with the date of your visit and name(s) of the people in your group to [email protected] to be added to the community gallery!
Alternatively, go give Friends of Bus 142's page a like and message them with your submission.

Have you been to the bus when it was on the Stampede Trail? Have you created any bus themed artwork, or been inspired to go on an adventure of your own?

As we grow our website, we want to include all of you! We are looking for submissions such as:

Bus 142 and Into the Wild related artwork you have created.

Photos of you and your hiking buds at the bus.

Stories about your trip to see the bus OR other great hiking adventures inspired by Chris and Into the Wild.

Please message us with your submissions or email them directly to [email protected]

07/17/2020

Follow us to follow the bus!

I’ve joined up with some friends that are ready to help with the next phase in the journey of Bus 142. Many of them you already know through the Into the Wild projects, and some are new to this effort. We at Friends Of Bus 142 would love for you to join us. We are in direct communication with the officials in Alaska, and as soon as they notify us of their decisions moving forward, we will share the information with you. Thank you all for your kind and inspirational messages about my brother over the years. Through you, his story continues.

- Carine McCandless

06/19/2020

For all Bus 142 adventure seekers, big news - today the bus has been removed from state land. Today we just got informed by someone who has been in contact with the DNR regarding a potential bridge project over the Tek River. The bus was flown out by the Alaska National Guard via helicopter. A press release from Anchorage Daily News has recently been issued. It was decided to be moved for safety reasons; this action was not taken lightly. People continued to travel to the bus despite the dangers, so it was decided that it should be moved. It is being stored in a secure undisclosed location until a decision is made about where it should eventually go.

We have mixed emotions about this. LFAC has gotten lots of requests and questions about hikes out to the bus. Which honestly, there is now some relief knowing that this news will result in less of that - there are so many better hikes to do in the beautiful state of Alaska that don’t involve a dangerous river crossing. But we understand the obsession people have with Bus 142 given how much Chris McCandless’ story has inspired and moved so many people, including ourselves.

2020 has been full of a lot of emotional events for sure. This one is no exception for the outdoor adventure community.

Please spread the word about this for anyone you know who may have been planning a trip out to the bus. They need to know it is no longer at the end of Stampede Trail.

On a somewhat related side note, there is a band here in Alaska called Photonak that is releasing an Into The Wild inspired song called "On My Own" on their debut album, Tempered. It is scheduled for release later this year. It should be a good ode to all hikers seeking connection in the depths of the wilderness. Totally something to check out as this wild ride of 2020 continues on.

We know many people will be sad to hear that the bus is gone. Others will probably be glad it is. It has been a very controversial point of attraction due to rescues and deaths that have occurred from people mainly at the Teklanika River crossing. Perhaps this will deter enough people now to mark the end of that.

We hope everyone continues to stay safe out there during these crazy times in 2020.

Live long, stay adventurous.

10/28/2019

Big announcement related to fans of Into the Wild! The documentary that our LFAC member, Jeremy James Egger, was interviewed for related to the Magic Bus and the mystique of Alaska is being aired on television on the station ARTE in both France and Germany tomorrow (Tuesday October 29th). It will air in France at 4:30pm, and in Germany at 1:30pm. That is local time for each country. The video is available for viewing in Europe on ARTE's website in the link below. Unfortunately, none of us can view it here in the United States. But Jeremy will be getting access to a digital copy of the video after the program airs on TV for him to share with friends in the United States as he wishes through a youtube or facebook upload. Will update you again with a US accessible video link later this week!

Linda Lorin nous emmène à la découverte de notre patrimoine artistique, culturel et naturel. Dans ce numéro : L’Alaska sauvage d’"Into the Wild" de Jon Krakauer - Rothenburg, un idéal allemand - À Riga, une invention de taille.

05/21/2019

So a random but cool thing happened recently. A couple months ago, we were contacted through this Last Frontier Adventure Club page by a journalist from a TV station in France that puts together cultural documentaries that they air to French and German audiences. They wanted to interview a local Alaskan who is familiar with the story of Chris McCandless and get their perspective on his legacy and the following of people who continue to make pilgrimages out to the Magic Bus.

Originally Erik Halfacre got contacted, but since he no longer lives here in Alaska, Jeremy James Egger ended up getting a followup call. Fast forward to this past Saturday: Egger found himself on a helicopter going “Into the Wild” with a French camera crew. On top of that, as a musician, Egger was also asked to be filmed playing a cover of Eddie Vedder’s song, Society, and to also perform an original work. So Egger wrote a song called “On My Own” and was filmed playing his song while seated in front of the Magic Bus.

This Into the Wild based documentary will be aired to French and German audiences at some point in September. When the time comes, we’ll post a link to a version that North American audiences can hopefully watch. Though the audio in the interview might be dubbed over in either French or German.

Shout out to journalist Tâm Melacca and cameraman Robert Iseni for giving Egger this incredible opportunity and experience.

07/02/2017

Hey folks, sorry we've been pretty quiet the past few months. Lot's going on in the personal lives of founding members of this club. We'd like to do a hike on the 22nd and 23rd (Sat-Sun) of this month. We'll have a guest from Switzerland joining us, someone who invited me into their home to stay for a week and brought me on some awesome hikes near his home town during some of my European travels back in 2010. I'm returning the favor by doing an over night trip to show off some of the sights near my own home town. Feel free to post suggestions. Anything within 100 miles of Anchorage!

10/23/2016

https://youtu.be/DhaPXmGo-SM In case you didn't make it out there with us, here's our video from our Caine's Head hike this spring.

The Last Frontier Adventure Club heads to Seward to do the Caine's Head hike and visit Fort McGilvray.

10/16/2016

In this video we take a look at the Alpacka Packtach system for lashing a backpack on the front of your packraft, as well as a cheaper and more readily avail...

09/06/2016

09/06/2016

LFAC finds the wreckage of a B-29 Bomber plane on Bomber Glacier.