loading . . . 211/21Michigan adventurer Peter Frank canoes from Michigan to FloridaBy Neil Blake | [email protected]
Peter Frank left Michigan in a canoe last summer and paddled to Florida. Now, he’s headed back.
The 23-year-old adventurer left his home in Escanaba on June 27, 2024 in the Upper Peninsula and headed east along the shore of Lake Michigan. He paddled through Canada and cut through Lake Ontario before taking rivers to the Atlantic Ocean and down the east coast to Florida. Now he is starting the long journey northward and back home.
He is canoeing the Great Loop, a 6,000 mile journey. Most people do it counter clockwise, but Frank is following in the footsteps of another Michigan canoeist, Verlen Kruger, who completed a similar clockwise route with his son in the early 1980s.
Michigan adventurer canoeing to Florida and back
Michigan adventurer Peter Frank is doing the 6,000 mile Great Loop, canoeing to Florida and back. Frank, 23, started his journey the Upper Peninsula on June 27, 2024. (Provided by Peter Frank)Provided by Peter Frank
According to Frank, his trip will only be the second documented clockwise navigation of the Great Loop in a canoe. Few attempt it due to the timing of the seasons and the difficult paddling against the current that it requires.
Frank’s 17-foot canoe, a 1982 Sawyer Loon, was designed by Kruger himself. It’s a decked canoe that is outfitted with a small sail to take advantage of the wind.
The sheer scale of the trip makes it a daunting undertaking. It’s like paddling from Los Angeles to New York City (2,400 miles) and turning around and paddling back. Oh, and then adding another 1,000 miles on top of that.
Michigan adventurer canoeing to Florida and back
Michigan adventurer Peter Frank is doing the 6,000 mile Great Loop, canoeing to Florida and back. Frank, 23, started his journey the Upper Peninsula on June 27, 2024.Map provided by Zero Six Zero
Frank is committed to doing the route under his own power.
“The principle is that if it is endurable, then I must endure it,” he said. “I have to do every mile under my own means.”
And endure he has. When hurricanes pummeled Florida and the Carolinas last year, the depleted superstorms kicked up 30 mph winds when they reached Frank and stalled his progress.
“I think right now I’m sitting about three and a half to four months behind schedule simply because of weather events,” he said.
During one particularly bad stretch, he was only able to paddle 13 days out of a month due to wind and dangerous water conditions while in the Chesapeake Bay.
While Frank has no definitive end date, there is one thing that may prevent him from completing the loop.
“What I face is in six months from now, the lakes, the Great Lakes are going to start freezing,’ he said. “And it’s going to get to a point where it is impossible to put a canoe in the water because the lake is frozen.”
Currently, he’s paddling by alligators as he works his way along the Florida panhandle.
Michigan adventurer canoeing to Florida and back
Michigan adventurer Peter Frank is doing the 6,000 mile Great Loop, canoeing to Florida and back. Frank, 23, started his journey the Upper Peninsula on June 27, 2024. (Provided by Peter Frank)Provided by Peter Frank
Grateful for life
Through his long journey, Frank is grateful just to be alive.
When he was 14, he was playing in leaves alongside the road in front of his house. At the same time, someone else decided it would be fun to run over the leaves. Frank was hit and airlifted to a hospital in Marquette with a broken back and severe internal injuries.
He had to relearn how to walk and he spent six weeks in a wheelchair and another six months in a walker. He was in physical therapy for over a year.
“Despite the rods in my spine, despite the back pain, despite everything I had been through, I still can, you know?” Frank said.
The canoe expedition isn’t his first long distance adventure.
When he was 19, he rode a unicycle from 2,400 miles from Wisconsin to Arizona. That trip was a fundraiser for Beacon House, a nonprofit in the Upper Peninsula that offered his family a place to stay when he was fighting for his life in the hospital. He raised over $34,000 for the group.
Since that trip, he’s done a bicycling expedition and other canoe trips, but the Great Loop is his most lengthy endeavor to date.
Michigan adventurer canoeing to Florida and back
Michigan adventurer Peter Frank is doing the 6,000 mile Great Loop, canoeing to Florida and back. Frank, 23, started his journey the Upper Peninsula on June 27, 2024. (Provided by Peter Frank)Provided by Peter Frank
A little help from his friends
Frank has been helped on his journey by friends and strangers who have become friends. While he has spent most of the trip camping in a tent along the way, every two weeks or so he is offered a hot shower and a warm bed for a night or two to rest and recover before he continues on.
The time in the canoe has offered something that many people do not get: extended time alone to think.
“We already have everything mapped out. I’m following a GPS. I’m not exploring anything,” he said. “But what am I truly exploring? I would say I’m an explorer of the mind. I would say that going on a journey like this is a journey of self discovery.”
And what has he discovered during his time on the water and overcoming hardship? Contentment, for one.
“When you can have a mindset and choose to be content in most scenarios, that’s true freedom,” he said. “That is one of the building blocks to true happiness.”
You can follow Frank’s journey in real time on his website or social media channels.
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