Five years ago, Matthew Burdine had graduated from the University of Mississippi with his MBA and was ready to take on Wall Street — or so he thought. As fate and a change of heart would have it, he went westward instead, to the Colorado Rockies.

Burdine is a white water river guide in the summers and a ski instructors in Vail in the winters, with the exception of this winter: he traded in his skis for a canoe and he’s making his way down the mighty Mississip. He’s making the trip solo, with the exception of his guitar, or as he like to call it, his sanity machine.

“I lost my mother and my grandmother to cancer, so that’s the main reason for this trip, A Million Strokes,” he said. “That led into this whole trip and documenting it by photos but not writing about it, so people can have their own river trip.”

Burdine said there’s already plenty of awareness about breast cancer, but he’s trying to raise funds, adding every $25 raised funds 30 minutes of research.

“When my mom was going through her stuff, she wrote a book, ‘Who Needs Hair: The Flip Side of Chemotherapy,’” and she her approach definitely taught me how to take on a challenge,” he said. “There are days I definitely put my head in my hands and ask what I’m doing out here, but with everything hard comes something great.”

Burdine’s journey will take him from source to mouth of the Mississippi River, from Lake Itasca, Minn. to the Gulf of Mexico. All in all, he estimates he had made it about 2,000 miles when he stopped in Vicksburg last week and said he had about 300 left to go.

“I just wanted to see what Huckleberry Finn would have seen and live barefoot and free,” the Greenville native said. “Mostly live barefoot and free; it just does something to you.”

It’s been the people Burdine has met, however, that have been his favorite part of the journey.

“Each town is so wildly different,” he said. “The people have been so great, just the random meetings and the spontaneous acts of kindness.”

Burdine said he’s drawn much inspiration from fellow paddlers along the river.

“You meet these guys and their eyes are like water and their voice sounds like water,” he said. “They’ve really inspired me.”

Being out on the open water has given Burdine a lot of new perspectives, including a new outlook on storms.

“I will never look at a cloudy day the same way again,” he said. “Every storm carries some magic.”

Two of Burdine’s college friends, Cowan Conway, originally of Vicksburg but now living in Jackson and Baker Heppenstall of Birmingham, Ala., met him in Vicksburg.

“I’ve been keeping up with him,” he said. “When a guy has paddled 2,000 miles down the Mississippi River, you just can’t not go see him when he comes through your hometown.”

Conway said it was amazing to see what Burdine looks like now.

“If you would have known him in college, you wouldn’t believe this,” he said. “He was always clean cut, had glasses, high and tight, clean shaven and button ups — but now look at him.”

Heppenstall said a lot of people talk about making trips like this, but Burdine is the type to actually pull the trigger and do it.

“I think a lot of people have been keeping up with him pretty closely,” he said. “I was in the area, about two hours away when I talked to him, so I figured I had to ride over to say hello.”

Money Burdine is raising funds for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, one of the top rated cancer foundations, with 93 cents of every dollar going directly toward cancer research.

“Research leads to revelations,” he said. “I like to think everyone has a special woman in their life, a mother, sister or daughter, and making a donation in their name is a great thing.”

Burdine said he also hopes his trip inspires others to get out and enjoy the great outdoors.

He estimates he’ll finish his trip later this month.

Learn more about Burdine’s journey or make a donation at amillionstrokes.com. Keep up to date on where Burdine is at by liking his Facebook page, facebook.com/amillionstrokes or Instagram at instagram.com/amillionstrokesforacure.

Find more info about the Breast Cancer Research Foundation here http://www.bcrfcure.org/impact