Distance: 6.1 km (3.0 DOC hours) - Marked route - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 523m to 584m. Gain: 74m. Loss: 132m . Gradient: 2 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)

Marked route (6/9)
Uncut route, with markers normally within sight

Primary, mapped (1/5)
Formal route, on maps, principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Gentle (difficulty: 2/5)
Gentle slopes

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Low scrub in open or bush / river rocks

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

Streams (difficulty: 2/6)
Small streams, danger only in extreme weather

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

From Gabriel Hut a broad cattle-abused track runs west through a sequence of clearings to Lake Sumner, where it ends. You are then left to follow the lakeshore anticlockwise / west. The faces above are scrubby and this could be hard going if the lake is high, but when I visited in average winter flows there were 5 vertical meters of gravel lakeshore exposed.

About half way to Swell Bay a bluff blocks lakeshore travel. Some point before this a marked track climbs from the lakeshore and sidles the face 20-30m, above. The start is hard to spot, but if you miss the start you can scramble up to it when you find your progress blocked. The sidle track climbs and falls, crosses steep faces and is a pain in places, ending at the start of Swell Bay - well marked.at this end.

Follow the lake shore a further 1.5km to the mouth of the Evangeline. The Evangeline is easy to cross in normal flows but can be impassable after rain. Viable campspots exist in Swell Bay and near the river mouth 0- but sandflies make them a misery - even in midwinter.

1.5-3 hrs

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From the Evangeline mouth, follow the lakeshore east for 1.5km to Swell Bay. A marked track starts as the flats end, climbing 20-30m up the face north of the lake and sidling there with the usual climbs and falls. The track deposits you back on the lakeshore 1.5km later - and you are left to walk along the gravel lakebed the remainder of the way to the end of the lake. The faces above are scrubby and this could be hard going if the lake is high, but when I visited in average winter flows there were 5 vertical meters of gravel lakeshore exposed.

The start of track to Gabriel Hut is well marked with a large triangle about half way round the bottom end of the lake. The broad cut, marked track runs through a series of scrubby clearings to reach Gabriel Hut 1.5km later.

1.5-3 hrs