River Runner pioneer brothers, Don and Ted, sons of Robert “Bus” and Eva Hatch, were raised in the Uintah Basin. Together they helped their father run the first commercially operated whitewater rafting company in North America, Hatch River Expeditions. They literally learned how to run rivers at their father’s knee. An activity that for both was an adventure, a business and a life-long passion.

Ted took his first trip through the Grand Canyon when he was 15 years old, and he did it in his boat. Ted, in the 1970s even filmed a commercial for Ford, in which he rode a raft carrying a 1973 Ford LTD through the lower part of the Grand Canyon. Later in life Ted had an active role in the professional guides association and worked with the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management to ensure favorable regulations for commercial guides on western rivers.

Don and his father made the first descent of the Indus River in Pakistan while assisting with filming Cinerama’s “Search for Paradise” in 1956. For this achievement, Don was inducted into the prestigious Explorers Club. The year before, Don partnered with filmmaker, Charles Eggert, to film a voyage retracing Major John Wesley Powell’s descent of the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1869. A notable achievement because it was the last time the journey could be made without the dams altering the flow.