Bristol Bay Retreats and Tana Grenda
By Lindsay Persico
Visions like these are not unusual for Tana. She is a woman of vision. As a young girl, she stepped out from her small town in northern Idaho into the vast wilds of Alaska. As a pilot, she was free to traverse the open spaces above the tundra and build her dream life in a state that few call home. It is a wild place, untamed and teeming with opportunity, just like her. She carries this wild spirit so well, balancing it with the grounded and tender heart of a mother and wife. She does more than any one person can generally do as she chases wolves, caribou, moose and six children all while successfully building her business, Bristol Bay Retreats, focused on giving people experiences that will change their lives for the better.
There is something special in people like Tana. Life will scar your soul. You cannot escape it. But, people like Tana take those scars and use them to create a map. They give this map freely to others simply to try and help chart a course, for those who come behind them, that is a little easier and a little freer from pain. One cannot help but be mesmerized watching Tana. Her infectious smile and laugh, the authentic understanding of pain behind her eyes, her incredible generosity and zest for life are all evident at a glance.
She is magnetic and people are drawn to her and her lifestyle. She heard this call and opened her world to women. She created a space in Alaska for women to come and to experience her world. The women who have come on these adventures have left forever changed. Your eyes cannot deny the illusion we live under in day-to-day life when you stand in the open vast tundra, wind blowing at your back, strands of hair pawing at your cheeks and your eyes wandering the miles of untouched land before you.
As you watch the brown bears digging the soft mossy ground into heaps like piles of snow you know that what we generally worry about really doesn’t matter. Tana gives this experience to those who are adventurous enough to make it to her doorstep and when they go back home, they take this new perspective on life with them and you cannot live life the same again. This passion for reaching women and changing their lives is the tie that binds Tana and Tara together. These two are the perfect pair to take their vision of long shadows of women stretched across the land and make it real.