OUTDOORS
M O N TREAL , Q C
N E W YO RK , N Y
D E T R O I T, M I
CHICAGO, IL
S T. L O U I S , M O
PO RTS M O U TH , VA
B E A U F O R T, N C
MEMPHIS, TN
C H ARLESTO N , SC
MOBILE, AL
S T. A U G U S T I N E , F L
N EW O RLEAN S, LA
The Long Way Round By Steve Hanf
For dedicated mariners, the Great Loop can be the adventure of a lifetime. 56
HOLIDAY 2019
MIAMI, FL
K E Y W E S T, F L
T
he average landlubber would likely consider them loopy. But for plenty of boaters actively taking part in the Great Loop, there’s nothing crazy at all about taking a several-thousand-mile journey that spans the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the rivers and canals of the Northeast and Canada, the Great Lakes, the mighty Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. BLAME IT ON LEWIS AND CLARK, perhaps, but America’s fascination with traveling the country by land and sea is centuries in the making. And for modern-day explorers, there’s a special challenge for that: The Great Loop. Kim Russo has served as director of the America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association (AGLCA) for 10 years – the organization celebrated its 20th anniversary in August – and she spearheads a group that contains upwards of 8,000 people. The association has a website loaded with info for those curious about the adventure, hosts various informational meetings (including one in Norfolk each year) and keeps tabs on all the folks making their way around the Great Loop – which is a continuous system of waterways that encircles a vast portion of the eastern U.S. and a section of Canada. The full journey averages some 6,000 miles and takes six to 12 months to complete. Part of the payoff? Anyone who has completed the loop in its entirety can officially call themselves a “Looper.” “They’re a really fun group of people to work with, and there are a lot of characters,” Kim says. “A good bit of them are more in the dreamer or planning category, and they haven’t taken off on a trip yet. At any given time, our database says there are 400 or so people in progress and about 150 or so who complete the Great Loop in any specific year.” Kim hasn’t done the Great Loop herself, but she has enjoyed shorter trips on parts of the route thanks to generous members who have taken her out. She also enjoys living vicariously through the stories the Loopers tell. “One gentleman had ancestors who came over on the boat that carried the torch for the Statue of Liberty, and he got to see the statue from the New York Harbor,” Kim says. “I hear those kinds of stories quite frequently. It’s the people who really make the trip for most of us.” BILL AND AMY DENISON OF HERTFORD have been boating since 2006 and have enjoyed some long-range cruising, but they had no intention of doing the Great Loop. Then, as often happens on cold, damp December days, they had a crazy idea to beat the winter doldrums. “Let’s order up some cruising guides,” Bill recalls thinking. “It takes a lot of planning to go on a year-long cruise. Eating, medical appointments, banking, mail – the list goes on and on.” They explained their adventure to their grown children and friends and even set up an Instagram account so they could share their travels. Most folks who do the Great Loop all at once head north in the summer so they can make their way south by winter, and that’s just what the Denisons did. They headed out June 15, 2018, and returned home March 27, 2019. They weren’t in any hurry. Some Loopers go a hundred miles a day just to cover ground, but the Denisons often only made hops of 30 or so miles so they could anchor and explore little towns. Using websites such as ActiveCaptain and the huge Waterway Guide books, they found great places to eat, stores to visit, museums to enjoy and other hidden gems along the way. “There’s a camaraderie with people who are doing the loop,” Bill says with a smile. “We’re kind of like a roving band of gypsies.” The Denisons loved boating through the Hudson Valley – they lived in New York for years – as well as traversing the old locks on the Erie Canal. All told, they passed through about 100 locks over the course of their journey. “The trip is so varied. Each part of it had some attraction. Amy and I would agree that being in the Great Lakes for a little over a month was probably the most spectacular,” Bill says. “Lake Huron in Michigan was absolutely as clear as the water in the Bahamas. You could see 20 feet down. That was pretty special.”
