Distance: 4.2 km (3.5 DOC hours) - Unmaintained track - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 635m to 1124m. Gain: 60m. Loss: 517m . Gradient: 8 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Streams (2/6)

Unmaintained track (5/9)
Former track, overgrown - markers / ground trail still followable

Primary, unmapped (2/5)
Route not on maps, but is 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

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

From Lochnagar hut a lightly marked track consisting of metal poles and the odd botanical sign heads across the crumpled terrain of the Lochnagar landslide. The track is indistinct and overgrown but reasonable travel is made until you approach the north face of a large boulder labeled with a faded paint sign "Goatel". On its eastern side a small hole between the boulder and another rock leads down to the biv under the boulder.

Push through scrub and then follow a trail down valley that passes by a "view of the Lochnagar subterranean outlet" to quote the sign there, and clear the scrub to cross farm land lower down. A 4WD track is visible on the true left of Lake Creek. Follow the hill down to where the trail hits Lake Creek. Theres a type of cableway here to pull yourself across the creek other wise its an easy ford. Follow the 4WD track down Lake Creek to reach the farm land of the Shotover River valley.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

Head up the old farm track child climbs the northern side of Lake Creek and sidles it upsteam for 1km before returning to the creek. An old cage may help the crossing, but it;s wheels were siezed when I visited (2017) so fording the creek was preferable (knee deep, late summer low flows).

There is no visible track on the southern bank, but head generally upstream climbing spurs onto terraces on the southern bank in grassy open country. The track becomes clear once the scrub is reached - a platformed old farm track cutting into the scrub. This is the lower of the two tracks shown on topomaps.

Follow the track as it sidles flat, the river rising to meet it. The track becomes rougher (uncut for some time in 2018) as it climbs the southern side of the rockfall dam towards the lake. Scrub is thick and encroaching on the track until you reach the large overhanging rock known as the Goatel. Exit the goatel through the hole in its ceiling towards the rear to find yourself on flatter tops of the rockfall dam, in sparse low scrub. The track is poled from here with white canes, cutting towards the northern side of the valley and climbing through a basin before dropping to Lochnagar Hut near the lake outlet.