Distance: 3.0 km (6.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, hard - Hard terrain
Altitude: 641m to 915m. Gain: 100m. Loss: 374m . Gradient: 9 deg (Moderate-hard)
Skills: Occasional scrambles (3/7) - Streams (2/6)

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

Hard (difficulty: 5/5)
Thick scrub-bash / continuous river boulders, waterfalls, or gorges

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

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

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

The Gorge Burn is scrubby, windfall-choked and covered in boulder debris. Progress is slow. You have been warned.

From Lake Eva follow either bank of the creek down into the scrubby basin below on good deer trails. Pick up a faint deer trail climbing to the saddle west of pt852 and dropping through the steep country to its east. This trail is faint and scrubby and slow.

The creek bed may briefly be followed from downstream of pt852 until the next debris dam is reached, beyond which you are back on bouldery scrubby valley sides scrambling downriver. There are few if any deer trails and progress is slow. A large open area or rock debris covers half of the valley for the last few hundred meters to the head of Lake Boomerang and provides briefly easier travel.

At the head of the lake, climb the scree/rubble gully on the true left of the lakehead to around 710m - just below the continuous line of bluffs. Sidle downvalley through steep windfall-clogged beech at this altitude. Deer trails will appear and lead you to climb slightly over bluffs which appear beneath you through fairly open scrub. Back in the bush continue a tangled sidle at this altitude until you reach the first of two slips which drop sheer into the lake. These should be easily crossed at your current height of around 710m where they both have gentle basins. Drop steeply through beech forest immediately after the second slip - the descent is steep but there are no bluffs to negotiate if you get the route right. At 20-30m above the lake the face becomes gentler. Sidle these gentle slopes down-valley at this height, remaining below bluffs and resisting the temptation to drop to the lake until you can see good flat valley floor beside the lake near its outflow. Drop to the lake outlet and cross it to open grassy clearings on the true right.

These grassy flats provide one of only two realistic camp spots in the lower valley - the other being at the head of Lake Cecil.

Lake Eva to Lake Boomerang outflow: 3km, 3-6 hrs

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

No description