Great Loop

The Great Loop is a 6,000-mile boat cruise that circumnavigates the eastern United States and cuts across Ontario on the Trent-Severn Waterway. The trip can begin anywhere along the route and ends when the boat returns to its starting point.

If one started in Kingston for example, the route goes east to Trenton where the Trent-Severn Waterway begins. This waterway is 348 kilometres long. It has 42 lock stations, including two lift locks and a marine railway that portages boats around Severn Falls. It cuts through cottage country to the east and north of Toronto; linking Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay.

Georgian Bay is an eastern branch of Lake Huron. The coast guard maintains a small craft channel up the eastern shore through the 30,000 island and north to Killarney. Southern boaters who like to say, “Everyone runs aground. If they haven’t yet, they are lying.” will understand that Canadians are not lying when they say they haven’t run aground after they see this shore. A collision with an outcrop of Canadian Shield will end your boating season – sometimes for good.

Taking Landsdown Channel west from Killarney the route continues to Little Current which is the start of the North Channel. The North Channel extents northwest 160 miles to Joseph’s Island and the St Marys River. A short cruise through the top end of Lake Huron ends at the Straights of Mackinaw and the northern end of Lake Michigan.

Lake Michigan runs north-south for close to 500 miles presenting two options for routes. Boaters may choose the east shore which is in Michigan or the west side that is in Wisconsin. The east side is slightly more developed and has cute little towns that provide harbours of refuge every 50 miles or so. Whichever route one follows on Lake Michigan the end point is Chicago. 

From Chicago it is 1300 miles to Mobile Alabama on a series of inland rivers, lakes and canals. The waterways are set up for commercial shipping with the lock and dams being built and maintained by the Corp of Engineers. The first lock on the Chicago River reverses its eastward flow towards Lake Michigan. The river now flows southwest towards the CalSag canal which crosses a height of land to connect the Chicago River to the DesPlanes River and eventually the Illinois River. Boats travel west and south to the Upper Mississippi at Grafton, Illinois. 

Beginning in Grafton, the route is south passing St Louis on the way to a confluence with the Ohio River where the Lower Mississippi begins.  One turns upstream on the Ohio River for 60 miles or so to the month of the Tennessee River or a few miles further to the Cumberland River. Both routes lead to Kentucky Lake, a large manmade reservoir built in the 1940’s for flood control and hydro generation.

The route then heads south on Kentucky Lake for 184 miles to the start of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. This artificial canal flows south for 234 miles to join the Black Warrior River at Demopolis Alabama. The final section on the Tombigbee River leads to Mobile Alabama 216 miles away with only one “marina”. 

East from Mobile Bay along the gulf coast using the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. This is a tourist mecca during the summer season and a snowbird destination during the winter. One meets people from all over and hears tales of hurricanes at every stop. The beaches are beautiful white sand. The route turns south at Panama City, crosses the Gulf of Mexico from Carrabelle and follows the coast of Florida south to the Okeechobee Waterway or further south to the Keys, then turns north and goes up the eastern seaboard to New York City following the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway to Norfolk, Virginia.

From Norfolk, the route goes up Chesapeake Bay through the Chesapeake Delaware Canal then down Delaware Bay to Cape May before turning north once again and running up the New Jersey Coast to New York City at the mouth of the Hudson River.

The Hudson River leads 145 miles north from New York City to just Troy where the Erie Canal starts. Leaving tidal waters behind the canal runs west through New York state to Buffalo but the Great Loop route turns north on the Oswego Canal  160 miles from Albany. Only 24 miles on the Oswego Canal until it terminates at Lake Ontario. A cruise of 60 miles finish the trip by returning to Kingston, Ontario. 

It often takes a year or more to complete.