I read Into the wild when I was at McCandless' age and I totally understood him. With hindside though I think he did a lot of really stupid things. No maps, no winter coat, killing a moose without the means to preserve the flesh and believing you're better then the rest of the world. But then I think of myself on my first hike north of Vancouver on the Howe Sound Crest trail. It was June but it was misty and there remained so much snow that I quickly got lost in a white out. I carried too much in my backpack and lost my canteen as I accidently pushed it over a cliff while resting. Only by retracing my steps in the snow did I find a way out but I was wet, cold, covered in mud and felt totally miserable.
Glad you found your way back. It's amazing how quickly a trek in to nature can turn in to a fight for survival when you are traveling alone, are unprepared and the weather turns. Those footprints in the snow could have saved your life... who knows? When I was sixteen years old I was grounded to my room and my best friend and neighbor's parents were out of town and he was having a party. After my parents fell asleep, I snuck out the basement door and walked over to his house. Around 3am I snuck back in. The next day my parents told me I was grounded for another week. "why?" I asked. "Because you snuck out", they said. "But I swear that I didn't" I said. My dad shook his head and led me to the window that overlooked our backyard. There in the snow were my incriminating foot prints. -I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and I am certain I wasn't as excited to find my own footprints in the snow as you were.