ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Monday morning, Delta County gathered on the Escanaba Municipal Beach to welcome one of their own home from an impressive journey.
24-year-old Peter Frank of Escanaba completed a 16-month canoe trip along the Great Loop, a roughly 6,000-mile route circumnavigating the eastern United States. He completed the voyage traveling clockwise, which was an extra challenge, as he was rowing against the current. His canoe only capsized once.
“I’m now officially the youngest person in history to have ever done the great loop out of any boat,” Frank told the crowd waiting for him when he arrived back in Escanaba, “and I did it in a canoe backwards.”
Frank’s return marks ten years since the day he was run over by a car as a teenager hiding in a pile of leaves. The incident left his spine shattered, and he had to re-learn how to walk. He says that recovery process was a major inspiration behind his Great Loop trip.
“Because of the Beacon House organization that housed my family, I was able to see my loved ones through the recovery,” Frank recalled. “I spent about a month in the hospital and had a month and a half in a wheelchair, six months in a walker, and a year and a half of physically intensive rehab… Even to this day, I suffer from chronic back pain, which is something that I’ve struggled through through the entirety of this voyage… I didn’t want to succumb to victimhood of my circumstances. There have been many days that I have pushed 12 to 14 hours straight without stopping, and you’d be out there in grueling agony. You just do it for the simple gratitude that you can.”
During the trip, Frank made his own clothes, which resemble the garments of a pirate. He says his mission was to be fully himself. He hopes that the young people who came out to welcome him back to Escanaba will carry that lesson with them.
“You can do things for yourself and you can be yourself,” he said. “In this sometimes very monotonous world, we lose touch with that because we always feel like we need to play a role or play a part in somebody else’s story, to work for somebody else’s gain, or to fight somebody else’s battles. The beautiful thing about what I had just done—what we had just done—is that I had fought my own battle, and I won.”
Frank says the end of his voyage brings the opportunity for new adventures, which he feels ready for. For more information on Peter Frank and his past and future endeavors, visit whereispeterfrank.com or follow Capt Peter Frank on Facebook.
