NJ,
ha... brings back a memory I'd like to forget.
Quick update on Cataract Canyon. Paddleboats and kayaks are prohibited. Large Oar rigs are allowed (however most companies use one oar rig as a supply boat with a couple of guides on it... you can put a lot of supplies on one oar rig...no customers). The customers go through the rapids on a "j-rig." It is a half-ton metal framed (with three to five huge tubes strapped together) powered boat. The customers sit at the front with two guides in the back. The customers straddle the tubes {while they sit in each other’s laps, so there is a long line of people smashed together for safety} with ropes to hang on to (there is webbing on the sides and front to help catch anybody should they fall over). During very high water the section is closed. During high water it is the largest rapids in North America (there are larger in south America... however the in the U.S. (including Alaska) and Canada this is as big as it gets). There can be over four story free standing waves, with some waterfalls that are unrunnable. the water can run over 100,000 CFS (cubic feet per second); for perspective the New river during in high water runs roughly 4,000-5,000 CFS.
On one of the trips down Cataract our motor blew in the middle of a stretch of rapids (it is rapid on top of rapid, etc.). we were going backwards (j-rigs are set up to go one way, if you get turned around the raft can easily flip) without power. We had to change the motors, through thirty or so foot free standing waves, while we headed to the side of the canyon where boulders would have smashed us to pieces (keep in mind there was a death earlier that year on that portion of the river).
We managed to switch the motors (not light by any stretch), get the new one started (that also took a while, I don't think it had been fired up in a long time... it simply didn't want to start), and traversed the rapids. We didn't loose anybody (a miracle in itself) or flip the raft. I can tell you that was the only time in my life where I really thought I might not see the sun rise the next day. Later that night (these trips are a few days long) at the camp site, the other guides (we had a couple boats with us that trip) told us how they were crapping their pants watching us (gee thanks guys).
That portion of the river doesn't have a place for scouts (there are places to pull off where we can scout the water flow for that given time, however you cannot get close enough to the river to really help anybody should trouble come). If a boat tips over, you have to let it go through the entire stretch of rapids before you can attempt to "right" it. If a person is hurt, they have to be life flighted with helicopters, no way in or out unless you're on a boat or helicopter.
For those that are adrenaline junkies, I highly recommend the trip.
