Talk about long introductions: Jim and Jeri Kyner’s first meeting with the Yellowstone River took 19 days and covered 545 miles.

The retired schoolteachers from Red Lodge made their first kayak trip down the river starting June 1 near Gardiner and ending on the 19th at Cartwright, N.D., just after the river joins up with the Missouri. For the adventure, the Kyners accompanied rafters Linda Jones, a retired Billings Skyview teacher, and Linda Wright, a Laurel High School math teacher.

“It’s a beautiful river,” said Jim, 67. “I’m glad we did it.”

Along the way, the crew endured rain, and then more rain, high water, ticks, leeches, mosquitoes and no-see-ums and a lot of muddy muck. But they ate like kings, consuming pork chops, chicken, kabobs, stir fry, couscous, fresh pineapple and melon. They saw parts of the river that looked much the same as it did 200 years ago, and were immersed in a world of river rhythms far removed from modern life.

“Everyone came back tired but so healthy,” said Linda Jones, who celebrated her 60th birthday during the trip. “We had no idea what was happening in the world. Our only concerns were: Is it going to rain, was the wind going to blow and if so, upstream or downstream? And all of those are things we could have no effect on. So when we went to bed, we’d go to sleep. It felt like such a wholesome experience.”

An idea is born

The idea for the trip had been bubbling for a few years, according to Wright, 50. Then last fall, they zeroed in on June as a good time to make the commitment. Seven other rafters joined them on the first day. and one rafter, Kim Redding, continued on to Laurel with the foursome before going back to work. It was Redding’s first week off in 20 years.

There’s one good thing about making a float trip with a group of teachers. They are extremely organized.

Prior to the trip, Wright and Jones made a scouting trip of the Yellowstone between Billings and Glendive. Because there’s not much river travel from Billings on, information is skimpy on which route to take down or around the succession of irrigation diversion dams.

So the duo stopped at each diversion dam, took photos, made notes of which side looked best and even which highway exit they took to get there. Then they had the cheat sheets laminated.

“The dams and bridges presented the biggest problems for us,” Jones said. “For most of these dams, there were no markers upstream.”

“We’re very safety conscious,” Wright said. “We’re not just going off blind.”

Livingston roadblock

Despite their conscientious efforts, the boaters got in a bit of a bind near Livingston. Instead of quitting early on a cold, rainy day — even after huddling in an outhouse to get out of the wind and singing to keep their dampened spirits up — the group pushed on.

“In retrospect, we should’ve stayed there,” Jones said.

Unfortunately, they took the wrong channel into Livingston (river left) and as darkness neared, they decided to pull over just above the Interstate 90 bridge. That ended up being a good move.

“By that time people were so cold,” Jones said. “Everyone was soaked.”

And looking downstream, they could see some problems with the upcoming 9th Street Bridge.

Tying up their boats in the bushes, the group caught a ride to a nearby hotel for the night. In the morning, they realized their predicament. The bridge, which crosses to an island, was impassible because of the high water and a log that stretched across three pillars of the structure. (Later on, the bridge would partially collapse, stranding some island residents.)

“That bridge should not be allowed on the river,” Jones said. “Or, there should be signs upstream.”

To get the raft around the bridge, the boaters decided to take out just above the bridge at a boat ramp. But the eddy near the ramp, a section of slower water, was small and would be difficult to hit. So along the bank, the Kyners and Redding lined up with throw ropes to

rescue Wright and Jones should the raft miss the eddy.

“We felt that was a life-and-death eddy,” Jones said.

With Jones at the oars and Wright perched in the bow, they guided the raft toward the ramp.

“We missed the upper end of the eddy,” Wright said, but she and Jones managed to grab some willows to prevent the heavy raft from going farther downstream.

Luckily, a Livingston man volunteered to trailer the raft around the island. It was one of several acts of kindness along the route that the group experienced, from people giving them rides to hauling their trash and fetching ice. There were also a few creepy people, which Wright and Jones referred to as “lone males” who asked too many questions. They even got mooned floating past Riverfront Park.

Wilderness next door

Because of the high water, the boaters were making 30 miles a day fairly easily. Along the way, they saw an elk and deer swiming the river, and tons of waterfowl, especially white pelicans.

“That river wouldn’t have all of the water birds it does if it wasn’t in pretty good shape,” Kyner said.

The Kyners even spotted two bull snakes, one about 4 feet long, swimming across the lower Yellowstone.

“One thought my wife’s kayak was a good resting place,” he said. “It makes you think, is that a poisonous snake or not?”

Other than the wildlife, the boaters had the river mostly to themselves for most of the trip.

“It was a very rare thing to see someone on the river,” Jones said.

Along the way, the river also makes a transition from being a mountain stream to a broader, working prairie river. Kyner said he couldn’t believe all of the irrigation water that is pulled from the river. And in some spots, river runoff from feedlots left the river foamy and smelling of cow manure.

Overall, though, the trip left the boaters with good feelings, although a bit itchy and scratchy from bug bites and poison ivy.

“It was really a great experience,” Jones said. “It felt like an adventure because in so many places, there was no one around, and it felt like not many people had done it before.”

Despite the close quarters and difficult situations, there were few if any disputes.

“Any camping trip will bring out the worst in people,” Kyner said. “But we’re all mature enough to realize you can’t just let things fester.”

The three-week journey was the longest float trip for any in the group.

Wright compared it to a wilderness journey, except they could stop anywhere along the way and walk out to civilization.

“We have this great outdoor resource, and it’s right here,” she said. “A lot of people have said, ‘Ah, I’ve always wanted to do that trip.’ ”

And after the excursion, in talking to their friends and recounting the trials and tribulations, Jones said, “The normal reaction is, ‘Boy, I’m glad we didn’t do it.’ But all four of us are talking about going again.”

Contact Brett French at french@billingsgazette.com or at 657-1387.