With My Toes in the Sand
Out There
Willow Belden
4.6 • 608 Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2018
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Throughout most of her life, whenever things weren't going well, Susan Conrad's tendency was to run. She ran from one problem to the next, one job to the next, one man to the next.
But seven years ago, she embarked on a trip that would change all that. She decided to kayak the Inside Passage, a 1,200-mile coastal route from Washington State to Alaska -- by herself.
On this episode, she shares her story. It's a story of a troubled past, and of a journey that changed the way she approaches life -- a journey that taught her patience, and showed her how to appreciate where she is -- right here, and right now.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Willow Belden and you're listening to Out There, the podcast that explores big questions through intimate stories in the outdoors. |
| 0:09.0 | Today's episode is about running. Not so much in the literal sense, although there's a bit of that too, but in the sense of fleeing or bolting, running from fears, from problems, from your own life. |
| 0:23.9 | The story comes to us from a woman named Susan Conrad. Several years ago, she kayaked all the way |
| 0:30.1 | from Washington State to Alaska. It's a route known as the Inside Passage. It's 1,200 miles long, |
| 0:39.2 | and she did it by herself. |
| 0:45.9 | Susan's story takes us through the glorious highs and the soul-crushing lows of her journey, |
| 0:51.8 | and it shows how a trip like this can help you tap into strength and courage you didn't know you had. |
| 0:57.0 | More importantly, her story is about an inward journey. |
| 1:00.1 | It's about coming to terms with your troubled past, |
| 1:03.7 | about leaving behind your tendency to run from your problems, |
| 1:08.0 | and about learning to be comfortable with where you are right now. |
| 1:11.6 | I'll let Susan take it from here. |
| 1:28.3 | It was May 5, 2010, Cinco de Mayo. While many people were digging out their sombreros and dusting off their margarita glasses, I was kneeling in the sand in my wetsuit, beside my kayak, squeezing and wedging dry bags into its three watertight |
| 1:34.5 | hatch compartments. For one summer, I had scaled my world down to an 18-foot sea |
| 1:41.1 | kayak and the 1,200-mile ribbon of water known as the Inside Passage. |
| 1:48.2 | The Inside Passage is an extraordinary coastal route with some of the most spectacular |
| 1:53.1 | fjords and complex coastlines in the world. |
| 1:56.8 | It's touted as one of the most scenic and challenging paddling trips in North America, |
| 2:01.6 | and its holy grailness had seduced me. |
| 2:10.3 | When I decided to paddle the inside passage, it had been 45 years since I'd been separated from my biological family. This was a good thing. |
| 2:20.5 | My father was the town drunk, and my teenage mother was beyond overwhelmed with all that life had |
| 2:25.9 | dealt her. I was three and a half years old when my three siblings and I were made wards of the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Willow Belden, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Willow Belden and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.