I can see where you're coming from kathy, but do consider his youth. He may have done all of those things, but what guts it took to leave a cushy life and head out on his own. Not much different than what Thoreau did.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. ”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_ThoreauMcCandless saw and did things that most people never do in their lifetime. Although he died young (and needlessly), he live a lifetime of experiences in those few months. It's not the destination, but the journey. Man oh man did he have a journey!!