The Great Loop

The Great Loop map

The Great Loop is a circumnavigation of the eastern US & Canada using intra-coastal waterways, canals, lakes and rivers.

Loopers can choose various routes where the blue lines diverge on the map. We plan to head south from home (west coast Florida) passing the Florida Keys, then head north along the eastern seacoast. In NYC we’ll head north on the Hudson River and continue north through Lake Champlain to pick up the Rideau Canal in Canada. We’ll ring the eastern coast of lake Ontario and enter the Erie Canal in Oswego in order to stop at Fairport NY (our hometown). Then we’ll backtrack across lake Ontario to pick up the Trent-Severn Canal toward the north passage. We haven’t picked which side of Lake Michigan we’ll head south on yet.  We’ll follow the series of rivers south from Chicago and head east to pick up the Tenn-Tom Waterway which brings us out to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile AL. A short hop across the Gulf and we’re almost back home.

We plan to take 3 years, hauling Choices to land wherever we are when winter sets in, renting a car and driving home for the winter. Then we’ll return to Choices in the spring and continue our voyage. That’s the plan – but plans are meant to be changed.