The North Pond Hermit: Another Christopher McCandless

"Christopher Knight's campsite, about a 50-minute walk
from where he was arrested, yielded clues about how
someone might spend years outdoors."

      This past weekend, I was in Rome, Maine -- the exact town the North Pond Hermit recently brought to the front pages. Christopher Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit, went undetected, living "a life of solitude and larceny" in the wilderness of Maine for 27 years. After his arrest last week, he said he had not made a purchase since the 1980s and had been stealing his necessities from campsites and cabins, i.e. propane tanks, clothes, food, supplies for a make-shift shelter. It is estimated that over the course of 27 years he has committed more than 1,000 burglaries. Not once did he burn a fire, out of fear that someone may detect him so the propane tanks came in handy.
       Knight became a myth and legend; people did not actually know if he was real for years. Reports were filed saying people had the feeling of being watched but nothing ever turned up. One account of a local resident, David Proulx, from Waterville, the next town, says he knew Knight's pattern -- when his cottage would be burglarized, "twice a year since 1990 -- close to 50 times."

      I'd leave him a note: 'Don't break in. Just tell me what you need, and I'll put it by the 
      side of the road,' Proulx said. The hermit never took him up on the offer.

      It became a bit of a joke to the residents of the surrounding towns of Rome, asking each other jokingly how many pairs of pants they had left. Knight was interested in reading current news and keeping updated with the outside world although he chose not to live in it. He did not have any contact with the outside world, not even his own family. His criminal record were clean and no missing-person report had been filed. District Attorney Maeghan Malony commented, "'It's ironic that someone who wanted to be completely anonymous is now the most famous citizen in Maine.'"
      This story seems to lead directly back to Into the Wild; the story of Christopher McCandless's journey to live in the wild away from all human contact. Funny how they were both named Christopher, and they both became widely famous when they wanted the exact opposite. Will it be possible for someone to go completely off the grid without others knowing in the future? In McCandless's case, hikers had stumbled upon his site in the Alaskan bush; in Knight's case, surveillance cameras were put up for his detection. Is there such a thing as 'off the grid' any more? Should there be?