Tough Girl Podcast

Ellen is a 27-year-old pilot, flight instructor, and adventure traveler, with a background in writing, acting, and modeling. She grew up on a farm in rural Texas. In her short adult life, she’s been on five expeditions by bicycle, paddle, and oars, both domestic and international. Those journeys add up to a total of 18 months and roughly 10,000 miles - nearly all of which were human-powered and half of which were solo. In 2017, Ellen, then 22, completed a solo descent of the Missouri from Three Forks to St. Louis. Ellen had previously paddled a tributary of the Amazon and cycled from England to Greece. Ellen is the youngest person to solo paddle the Missouri River from Three Forks, Montana to St. Louis. In September 2022, Ellen Falterman paddled her 18-foot Grumman canoe to her family's Trinity River home in East Texas, completing a full descent of the Mississippi River and then some. Her motivation and mentor for these trips have always been her brother Patrick, who died suddenly in 2016. She dedicates all o