The Psychological Challenge. Part I

It is stating the obvious to say that a big part of any long distance paddle is the mental challenge: the ability to keep going when you are tired, cold/hot/bored.

A strong factor in completing the Mississppi river was that it had a defined start and a defined finish. This trip will be completely different as it is a completely arbitrary portion of a water trail known as the Great Loop which encompasses all the states east of the Missisippi.

Why New York to Chicago? Why not New York to Buffalo or New York to Detroit? Will this factor mean that when the going gets tough it will be easier to rationalise throwing in the towel.

On the river I tried two approaches to make the trip seem less formidable. The first approach was to break the trip up into 11 stages to give more manageable targets to achieve every week or so. The other was to consider the venture just as a series of day paddles -- albeit consecutive days -- and to just take it a day at a time. 

On this trip I have divided the journey into 6 parts:

1/ Hudson River to the Erie Canal

2/ Erie Canal to Lake Erie

3/ Lake Erie

4/ Detroit River,Lake St Clair, St Clair River

5/Lake Huron

6/ Lake Michigan

Once again I hope to be sponsored for each segment I complete - to raise funds for Alzheimers and Parkinson's disease research.