The Ageless Wanderer

I heard about retired Engineering Salesman Robert Youens about a week ago. Also known as the “Ageless Wanderer,” the 71-year-old Austin man describes himself as “just a guy who enjoys the outdoors and wandering around” on his Instagram account. 

That bio might be the most understated description a man could ever write about himself in less than 140 characters. 

Robert is attempting to break the World Record for fastest solo travel of the Great Loop, a 6,000-mile journey around the eastern half of the US and parts of Canada.

He’s not doing this in a big yacht with a big crew. He’s in a Jon Boat. He’s making a 6,000-mile trip in a 16-foot, single motor, aluminum boat that most people would use to float around fishing in a pond. 

The Great Loop record is 19 days, 19 hours. Robert put his boat in the water at 7:00 am on July 12th. This is day 13. 

If you’ve never piloted a boat, you might think “meh, whatever.” But let me tell you this attempt is a crazy, bold, and dangerous adventure. I once piloted my 35-foot boat through 4-foot waves in the Chesapeake Bay and thought I was going to die. Robert sailed through 7 to 9-foot waves off the coast of Florida in a Jon boat and said it “was a whole lotta fun.” I am an idiot who didn’t look at the NOAA weather forecast. Robert is a LEGEND, who NOAA calls to warn about dangerous weather.

Some folks I know at Robert’s age are more interested in naps than adventures, so the man is definitely defying expectations every day. By the time you read this, Robert Youens will be traveling 20-30 mph somewhere on a river in Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, or Mississippi towards the finish line, near Pensacola, Florida. 

Follow “The Ageless Wanderer” here for a live Garmin GPS feed tracking his progress. (According to news reports, there are between 100,000 and 500,000 viewers of this feed at any given moment.)

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