JUST BEFORE WE FOUND TINA'S HOUSE. ©CARRIE CRAWFORD
A set of stairs climbed up the left bank. They might as well have been bathed in golden rays of light with cherubs gently floating down from the clouds above. Angela crawled up the stairs to find the front door while we pulled kayaks up on the muddy bank. Not long after, she appeared at the bushes at the top of the hill to let us know we could come inside. So there we were, totally drenched, in a thunderstorm, crawling up a set of metal stairs to the chosen house on the river. We were greeted by a sweet golden retriever and Tina, who let us know that we weren’t the first stranded rafters to grace her home. This was a regular thing. She welcomed us in, wet shoes and all, and asked if she could take our picture to commemorate another Stranded Rafter Rescue. We all got to talking— “so how did you end up here? How do you know each other?” “How often do strangers crawl up those stairs to your house?” I told her about Montana Woman, she told me she’s a defense attorney (which hello, how cool is Tina? Tina is a gem, especially at this point in time). Angela told her about her heart healing sessions, which Tina 64
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serendipitously was fascinated by. We were a ragtag group of sopping wet kayakers, standing in Tina’s house, bonding over shared interests. After the storm passed, Tina drove us down to the House of Mystery to get my car and bring it to our new endpoint at Glacier Bible Camp, which was only a 5-minute float from her house. Once we got the cars situated and triple checked that the storm had passed (and stopped for a picture with the hero of the day, Tina), we headed back down to our kayaks. By then, the float was beautiful. All of the clouds turned shades of marigold and peach, it was warm and still, and there was absolutely no one else on the river. The bank at Glacier Bible Camp was not as wide or flat as we imagined and we did have to haul four kayaks up to the road at the end of the day, but I think it’s safe to say the risk was worth the reward. However, if it were up to me, I would not kayak in a lightning storm again. But think of the Tinas you would miss out on if you didn’t jump headfirst into a storm! There are a lot of storms out there, but there are also some really great Tinas.
