Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
The Pickerings completed the Great Loop aboard their Carver 43 power boat, Gemini.
America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association
Posted
America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association
Apache Junction residents Don and Dusty Pickering recently received their “BaccaLOOPerate” degree from America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association.
The degree is given in recognition of completing one of the world’s most unique adventures, America’s Great Loop. Boaters doing the Great Loop are on a 6,000-mile journey that circumnavigates the eastern part of the U.S. and Canada, cruising up the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, through the New York State Canals, into the Great Lakes, down the inland river system, across the Gulf of Mexico, and around the southern tip of Florida, according to a release.
The Pickerings completed the Great Loop aboard their Carver 43 power boat, Gemini. In addition to facing the challenges inherent to long-distance cruising, the couple enjoyed unparalleled views of the U.S. and Canada from the distinct vantage point of the water’s edge.
They had this to say about their adventure, according to the release: “The Great Loop was an adventure not to be missed. Fellow Loopers created such a community on the waterways and we definitely created long-lasting friendships. Love our Loopers. We went from Arizona lake boaters to boating in rivers, canals, the Great Lakes, the Canadian North Channel and the ocean. We learned so much with the help from those who have Looped before and the AGLCA. We simply had a blast.”
Approximately 150 boats complete the Great Loop each year, making it a feat more unique than swimming the English Channel or climbing Mount Everest, the release states.
Throughout this trip of a lifetime, the Pickerings relied on America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association to provide them with information and assistance vital to the successful completion of their journey.
For information on America’s Great Loop, contact America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association LLC, 10587 Highway 78, Summerville, SC 29483; by phone at 1- 877-478-5667; at www.GreatLoop.org; or by email at info@greatloop.org.
