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FORD LTD TAKES TO THE RAPIDS Ted Hatch My father, Bus Hatch, was one of the original river runners in the Colorado River and its tributaries. I now operate Hatch River Expeditions Grand Canyon, which is based in VernaL We run the Canyon on the Colorado River. One of the most inter- esting things I ever did was haul a car down the river through the lower portion of Grand Canyon to Lake Mead. No one had ever tried anything like that, and we didn't really get into it in a normal way. I had worked all summer long out of Page, Arizona, running boats down in the Grand Canyon. I hadn't been home for weeks. I was really tired and ready to come back. Then Pelican Film Company called my wife, Pat, and wanted to know if we would work on a film for them. They were doing a commercial for the new 1973 Ford cars. I was so tired, I didn't even want to talk to them, but I thought I owed them the courtesy of a return call. I decided to give them a really high bid so they wouldn't take it. When I got up the next morning, I was still tired and didn't want to talk about filming. I decided to double the bid. I called Cal McKean and Richard Gagnon, in New York, and talked to them about taking the car down the canyon. As we talked, I became confident we could do the job, but knew it would take quite a bit of preparation and work. To my surprise they said, "Yeah, we want to do it and we'll pay you the money you've bid. We'll fly out from New York and meet you:' I came back to Vernal and got more equipment, then met the fellows and flew to Idaho. At the time, they weren't completely sure about running the Grand Canyon. We looked at the main Salmon River, but the producers and directors didn't want to do that area. It was too pretty and not formidable enough; the rap- ids weren't as big as we wanted to test. We flew back to Grand and went into Diamond Creek, which is down near Peach 13