The Tatlow Creek, Mud, Sweat and Beers.
The Tatlow Creek is a classic creek boat run in Squamish's Ashlu Valley. In the last few years it has become a cult classic appearing in several blogs and video releases. First pioneered by local enthusiast Jonaven Moore, the run has slowly gathered more and more interest as information has filtered down to the masses.
As levels in the area started to drop, Kev England, Corey Boux, Julian Anfossi, Shane Kroeger and I managed to get into the Tatlow Creek to catch the last run of the summer.
Tatlow Creek is located right at the top of the Ashlu Valley above the 'Mine Run' section. From here you can either drive half of the hike or hike from the take out. You will require a half decent 4x4 to drive up this trail.
Our team decided, as we are all dedicated athletes (whatever!), we would hike from the bottom of the hill in the blazing hot sunshine with all of our kit. All I can say is this hike was sheer pleasure :-). It took us about 30 minutes to the end of the road, then another 45 minutes to get to, and locate, the descent track. We used a dried up stream bed parallel to the creek on the other side of the valley to climb down. The descent was fairly decent and took about 45 minutes.
Once on the run we found a kayakers' playground. The run drops and drops and drops and then goes some more. The whole trip took somewhere in the region of 3-4 hours on the water at a cruisy pace. There are 1-2 portages on the run depending on how you feel, as a whole though everything is super clean and choke free.
Tatlow Creek is an absolutely amazing run: another testament to the beauty and quality of the fated Ashlu Valley. Thank you to Jonaven Moore for putting in the hours to find this super classic run.
Thanks to Kev England of Hydroscapes Safety Equipment for the images in this article.
All images copyright Bread and Butter 2006
