Annavale Track

Start at the Benmore Hut carpark and follow the DOC markers along the 4WD track for about 400m (about 50m after the track starts to veer away from the fence). Leave the track and head over to the fence on your right and the DOC marker. Follow this fence for about another 400m, it is a slightly rough bit of single track but easy to negotiate alongside the fence. Stay on this until you come back onto the 4WD track. At this point it is good to look around to ascertain where you angle over to the fence on the way back. It is easy to miss where you leave the track and accidentally continue along past where you are meant to exit to the fence line.

There's a small river crossing around 2.3km in, so prepare to get wet feet unless you are good at rock hopping, or the water is low. The 4WD track continues to a stile; cross this and immediately go across the 4WD track, following the DOC markers and a sign indicating the way. Here is the only other small bit of single track on the journey if you just venture to the summit and back. It lasts for less than a km whereupon you reach another DOC sign, this one indicating the times and distances for both Benmore Hut and Annavale Track (Sugarloaf Summit). Annavale Track is to the left (over another stile), to where the climb starts. A couple of kms in you come to a gate.

Continue along the 4WD track through the gate and continue heading up. Eventually you will come to another DOC sign indicating the Annavale Link track, which leads down to the Benmore Hut. This makes for a good circuit if you wish to take a slightly different route back to the car.

The track continues up until eventually the gradient lessens around the south side of the ridge leading out to your destination. From this point it is a short stroll to the summit of Sugarloaf, passing a couple of other high points first. Sugarloaf is clearly marked with a DOC sign. On a clear day the views are stunning in all directions.