Peter Frank is spending the next year canoeing what’s called the Great Loop around the eastern United States and part of Canada. The 9,700km circuit, normally done by motorized craft, takes in the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic coast, among other water bodies.
The Great Loop, including options.
The 23-year-old began in June and is going solo and in a clockwise direction — the opposite to almost everyone else. This forces him to paddle upstream for over a quarter of the journey.
He is following in the footsteps of the man who made his canoe in the 1970s — Verlen Kruger. Kruger did two of the longest canoe journeys ever — the 29,341km Two Continent Canoe Expedition from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn and the 45,130km Ultimate Canoe Challenge through interior and exterior North America.
Why clockwise?
Frank is attempting to replicate the Great Loop part of Kruger’s route. Frank believes that Kruger and partner Steve Landick are the only canoeists to have paddled it clockwise. He wants to see if it can still be done.
Frank expects the journey to take him another six months. Starting on Lake Michigan, he paddled through the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal, and along the Hudson River. After 2,380km, he reached the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and is now in Chesapeake Bay.
From here, he will head to the Intracoastal Waterway and along the country’s East Coast to Florida, the Mississippi River, and back north.
He paddles six to 10 hours a day and carries his tent and supplies in his canoe, which looks a bit like a kayak but is propelled by a single-bladed paddle. For food, along with dehydrated meat and potatoes, he picks up fresh food whenever he can.
While he camps most of the time, occasionally someone will offer him a bed and warm shower.
The route so far. Image: Peter Frank
Past adventures
This is not his first solo long-distance challenge. In 2021, after three years of planning, he unicycled 3,800km from Wisconsin to Arizona. In 2022, he spent five months paddling the Mississippi River. Then he biked through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, then circumnavigated Florida by canoe.
From a young age, Frank knew he did not want a traditional life. At the age of 14, he was hiding in a leaf pile, about to jump out and scare one of his friends, when a car ran over him. It shattered his spine and left him nearly paralyzed. His unicycle expedition raised funds for the organization that aided his recovery. That launched him into this world of adventure.
You can follow his journey here.
