Grand Canyon rafting river mile 65.5 On board with Jake over Chuar Rapid

Day 10 of 24 Reading and running rapids rowing the 16' Cataraft fitted out with the camp kitchen.
Standing ovation for this young man, who stepped up and lead our 11 person private permit trip as de facto qualified boat operator (QBO) on our roster, after the actual owner of the Cataraft reluctantly opted out the day before scheduled put-in at Lee's Ferry due to an acute health condition and judicious decision to avoid becoming a possible liability. For us, this magical opportunity to take out from Pearce Ferry, the whole enchilada of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon in the month of October, was a National Park Service (NPS) private permit lottery win which has a waiting list exceeding a whopping 25 years!
With 11 oarsmen and 5 rafts, we certainly all had our seat time piloting the boats over big water and each and every rapid. As a a testament to young Jake being thrust into leadership, we steadfastly completed the journey without any flips nor rips and even enjoyed 2 separate layovers at camp.