Woman Dies in Alaska While Trying to Reach Into the Wild Bus

A woman hiking in the Alaskan wilderness died last Thursday while attempting to reach the “Magic Bus” from Into the Wild. She had been trying to cross a river to get to the bus when she was swept under water, according to reports.

The Guardian has identified the hiker as Veramika Maikamava, 24, from Belarus; she was hiking in the area just before midnight with her husband, Piotr Markielau, also 24. He told told state troopers he pulled her out of the water about 75 to 100 feet downriver from where she went under, but was unable to revive her, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

The so-called “Magic Bus,” an abandoned Fairbanks City Transit bus parked along the Stampede Trail near Denali National Park in Healy, Alaska, is where hitchhiker Christopher McCandless famously used as shelter for four months, before his body was found dead of starvation.

His story was chronicled in the Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild, and later in the 2007 film starring Emile Hirsch, and has been a pilgrimage spot for hikers, even though the bus is perilous to reach and Denali National Park rangers often have to step in to rescue them.