meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Outside Podcast

What Life in the Grand Canyon Tells Us About Life Everywhere Else, With Cindell Dale

Outside Podcast

Outside Podcast

Wilderness, Sports

4.32.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We love our outdoor archetypes, the folk heroes who reject the trappings of the 9 to 5 life and solely focus on the trail, the powder turn, or the frothing whitewater. River guides live a romantic sunburnt existence, ones in which bucket list adventures are their everyday. It’s not just their ability to read water and navigate huge standing waves day after day, but their spiritual connection to the power of the water and landscape they’re paddling through. Folks like professional Grand Canyon guide Cindell Dale. Cindell has been boating “the Big Ditch” since the early 1980s, piloting Ticaboo, her 16 foot dory–a high-sided, v-shaped wooden boat known for its balletic movement and apparent ability to transform a river trip into a religious experience. Cindell was mentored by the female guides who broke through river running’s glass ceiling, a legacy Cindell and her peers continue every summer on the Colorado River. And after countless trips through the heart of one of the world’s most spectacular natural wonders, boy oh boy, does she have stories of the power of paddling through the magical splendor of the Grand Canyon.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This episode of The Outside Podcast is brought to you by Danner.

0:08.8

Danner has been crafting rugged boots since 1932.

0:12.6

What started as an idea to create the best shoes for loggers in the Pacific Northwest

0:16.8

has morphed into nearly a century of the ultimate footwear creativity.

0:21.6

The folks at Danner know a thing or two about equipping your feet with comfortable and durable boots.

0:26.6

Whether you want to hike to that high altitude Alpine Lake, test your metal on a day's long backpacking trip,

0:32.6

split some wood for your pot belly stove, or simply walk to that tasty Mountain Town Cafe.

0:38.8

Danner boots are meant to take you somewhere special.

0:41.6

So when you choose the unlikely path, when you choose to cut fresh trails, remember to choose Danor.

0:47.8

Find your pair at Danner.com.

0:59.2

This is the outside podcast with Paddyo.

1:12.4

We can capture the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River just by sitting still sometimes.

1:19.7

And my favorite piece of water is when we float down river on a quiet moment. And you hear this little trickle of water hitting a rock.

1:23.0

And it's really loud, even though it's really little.

1:25.9

Because we're paying attention.

1:27.2

I always ponder its quietness. Like, gosh, it's really little, because we're paying attention. I always ponder its

1:28.7

quietness. Like, gosh, it does exist with or without us. The birds do the bird thing. The fish

1:33.6

do the fish thing. The wildness is just doing its thing down there. And we are just passing through.

1:39.4

Well, there's something very sacred and soulfully special to me that something like that, a scene like that, a quiet like

1:47.1

that exists before I show up to it and far after I leave it. If you don't go down into the bottom

1:54.9

of the Grand Canyon on a river trip, you don't even get the opportunity to experience that moment. You can be up on the

2:04.2

rim and get your 15 minute photo out there, but you don't really know the depth of her soul

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Outside Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Outside Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.