About America’s Great Loop
America’s Great Loop is one of the most demanding and least-attempted endurance routes in North America. It is a continuous 6,000-mile waterway that circumnavigates the eastern United States and part of Canada using rivers, lakes, canals, and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Fewer people complete the Great Loop each year than summit Mount Everest, making it not only a physical challenge, but a test of discipline, resilience, and sustained commitment over time.
Veterans Against Suicide selected the Great Loop as our flagship awareness mission because it reflects the long, unseen battles many veterans face after service. Like recovery itself, the journey allows no shortcuts and demands persistence through uncertainty, isolation, and hardship. This expedition exists to confront the reality that 17 veterans die by suicide each day and to keep this conversation loud and impossible to ignore, using the scale and visibility of the route to ensure this crisis cannot be overlooked.
Our Starting Point
Our route begins at the crossroads of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, a symbolic starting point that reflects our purpose of uniting communities across the country around a single urgent cause. From there, we follow the shortest-route version of the Great Loop through 18 U.S. states and Ontario, Canada, returning to Indiana after completing a full circumnavigation of the eastern waterways of North America.
Route Overview
Traveling in continuous sequence, the Loop passes through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and back to Indiana. The route spans the Great Lakes, the Mississippi and Tennessee River systems, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast, and historic canals that link the continent’s major waterways.
Why America's Great Loop Matters
The scale of the Great Loop underscores why it serves as a powerful platform for national awareness. The journey exceeds 6,000 miles, includes 75 locks, and features some of the most significant engineering works in North America, including a 90-foot single-chamber lock lift and the Welland Canal, which lowers vessels 325 feet through eight locks in just 24 miles. Most participants require nine to twelve months to complete the route, reinforcing that this is not a symbolic voyage, but a sustained undertaking that demands consistency, patience, and endurance.
More Than a Mission. A Platform for Change.
Our commitment to America's Great Loop extends beyond a single expedition. In 2027, we will complete the Loop again at a slower pace, dividing the route into 17 legs, each dedicated to an at-risk veteran. This structure transforms the journey into an ongoing platform for storytelling, connection, and visibility, ensuring that each leg represents an individual life rather than an abstract number.
Through this mission, we use the reach and rigor of the Great Loop to elevate the national conversation on veteran suicide, reinforcing that the loss of 17 veterans each day must be treated as a national emergency, not a statistic, and that sustained awareness is essential to creating lasting change.