Canoeist is paddling the 6,000-mile Great Loop out of gratitude for life
Peter Frank has paddled far in his Sawyer Loon decked canoe — from Escanaba, Michigan to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Peter Frank has paddled from Michigan's Upper Peninsula in June to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland this month in his 1982 Sawyer Loon decked canoe, but he’s still got a long way to go.
The 23-year-old is about a quarter of the way on his planned journey of roughly 6,000 miles (9,656 kilometers) to complete the Great Loop route. This continuous watercourse includes part of the Atlantic and Gulf intracoastal waterways, the Great Lakes, part of Canadian Heritage Canals and inland U.S. rivers.
For Frank, the voyage is largely a way to express his gratitude for still being alive and having the ability to take on the physical challenge, almost a decade after a car accident left him with 14 broken bones and nearly paralyzed. He had been hiding in a pile of leaves to surprise a friend when a carful of teens drove through the pile without knowing he was there.
“It’s my form of showing the appreciation for being alive and being able to walk and do the things that I can do," he says during a break in Annapolis, Maryland, earlier this month, a day before setting out again.
