Distance: 4.3 km (4.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, hard - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 531m to 1049m. Gain: 523m. Loss: 5m . Gradient: 7 deg (Moderate-hard)
Skills: Occasional scrambles (3/7) - Streams (2/6) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)

Unmarked route, hard (8/9)
Unmarked route, no clear geographic features to follow

Primary, unmapped (2/5)
Route not on maps, but is principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Moderate-hard (difficulty: 4/5)
Continuous moderate climbs

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

Occasional scrambles (difficulty: 3/7)
Tramp with some scrambles and exposure to falls

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

Snow/ice underfoot (difficulty: 2/7)
Snow/ice likely on track

Travel up the Evangeline starts ok walking up scrubby shingle river flats and channels, climbing steadily. However, the river gorges out after 2.5km and becomes impassable. A rough route scrambles round the gorge on the southern valleyside - climbing easily then sidling steep faces. The descent back to the river is very steep & crumbly. Parts of this route are vaguely marked.

Back in the now narrow valley floor travel becomes simpler again, following the riverbed or its banks on a steady climb upstream. The southern valleyside becomes gentle above the last forks 500m below the hut, and a vague trail cuts through beech forest on that side - marked variously through the ages and just about followable. Evangeline Biv sits beside a small side-creek 50m or so away from the main creek in thick scrub and will be missed unless you walk right by it. If you manage to locate the track, it leads to it - but under 1 foot of snow the track was not easily identifiable.

2-4hr

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From Evangeline Biv, follow the rough, vague track downriver to where it ends, and then the rough riverbed / narrow scrubby flats downstream on a steady downhill gradient. The river enters a gorge 1.5km below the hut and it is necessary to sidle the valleyside to avoid this section. I climbed the southern valleyside and followed a roughy marked route past the gorge. The initial climb out of the creek was loose and steep.

The remaining 1.5km to Lake Sumner is easy down the broad open gravel riverbed.

1.5-3 hrs