18th hairpin turn of road on Strma Reber - Firstov rep
Starting point: 18th hairpin turn of road on Strma Reber (652 m)
Starting point Lat/Lon: 45.5501°N 14.7107°E
Time of walking: 2 h
Difficulty: easy marked way
Difficulty of skiing: no data
Altitude difference: 350 m
Altitude difference (by path): 475 m
Map:
Access to starting point:
A) First, we drive to Ribnica, and then we continue driving towards Kočevje. After Dolenja vas we continue right in the direction of Grčarice, Gotenica and Kočevska Reka. In Kočevska Reka we continue right in the direction of Borovca pri Kočevski Reki, mountain pass Strma Reber and Osilnice. In Borovec we once again continue right, and then past hamlet Ravne in few kilometers we get to mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude 993 meters. After the mountain pass the road starts descending, and we follow it to 18th marked zig zag, where we park on an appropriate place by the hairpin turn.
B) From Kočevje we drive towards the border crossing Petrina, and then at the end of the settlement Štalcerji we continue right towards Kočevska Reka. In Kočevska Reka we continue left in the direction of Borovec pri Kočevski Reki, mountain pass Strma Reber and Osilnice. In Borovec we continue right, and then past hamlet Ravne in few kilometers we get to mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude 993 meters. After the mountain pass the road starts descending, and we follow it to 18th marked zig zag, where we park on an appropriate place by the hairpin turn.
C) From Osilnica or Sela pri Osilnici we continue in the direction settlements Žurge, Padovo pri Osilnici, Zgornji Čačič and mountain pass Strma Reber. Further, we drive on at first slightly winding, and higher a zig zag road which we follow to 2nd or 18th marked zig zag. We park on an appropriate place by the hairpin turn.
Path description:
From the starting point, we continue in the forest, on the path in the direction of Kočevje and Šajbnik. After few steps, we join the marked path from Osilnica, and we follow it to the right, where we start steeply ascending. Higher in a diagonal ascent we get to steep small valley, through which we continue the ascent. Further blazes from rough small valley lead left, on the path which passes to the edge of occasionally precipitous ridge. We continue the ascent on occasionally a little more overgrown path, which avoids precipices a little to the right, and occasionally some view opens up on surrounding hills. Few minutes higher we reach a wide cart track which we follow to the left, we walk there to the spot, where it splits into two parts.
We continue on a slightly left cart track (right cart track bypasses Bezgarska planina and leads towards the mountain pass Strma Reber), which quickly leads out of the forest on the bottom part of the mountain pasture Bezgarska planina. When we reach the mountain pasture through a meadow in a minute or two, we walk to bigger hunting observatory.
From the hunting observatory, where there is a marked crossing, we continue right in the direction of Cerk and Firstov rep (straight Taborska stena, Dragarji...), on the path which descends to a smaller garden in the middle of the mountain pasture. When the path passes into the forest, on crossing of cart tracks we continue straight (here from the right joins the cart track which a little before the mountain pasture from the marked path branches off straight and is about a minute shorter as marked path). Next follows few minutes of ascent through the forest and then we reach the main road Osilnica - Kočevska Reka, which we carefully cross.
On the other side of the road, we continue in the direction of Cerk and Firstov rep and we continue on the forest road. The path ahead leads us on the forest road, from which already after few minutes marked path branches off to the right.
We continue on a marked path (possible is also to continue on an unmarked road, because marked path after a time returns on the mentioned road, the path on the road is also a little shorter), which passes into a dense forest. Through the forest at first we start moderately ascending, and in doing so, we carefully follow the blazes, because the path is otherwise relatively easy to follow but poorly beaten. When the path a little higher flattens, on the left side we bypass indistinct peak Luknja (1079 meters), to which we can on easier pathless terrain ascend in few minutes, otherwise we continue on a marked path, which as said peak bypasses on the left side. Next follows few shorter ascents and descents, after that follows a little longer descent, which ends when we reach the macadam road.
When we reach the road, we continue right (left marked path on Cerk and the road on which we can return to the starting point) in the direction of Firstov rep. On the road, we are slightly to moderately ascending, and there we walk to its end or turning point.
On the left side of turning point we notice signs for Firstov rep and first time also for Loška stena, which point us on a cart track which starts gradually descending. When after few minutes the cart track ends, on the left we notice a salt lick for wild animals, and we continue straight downwards, on a marked footpath, on which in few steps we get to the inscription box on Firstov rep.
The starting point - Bezgarska planina 45 minutes, Bezgarska planina - Firstov rep 1:15.
Description and pictures refer to a condition in the year 2015 (August).
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