Koglereck - Kleiner Speikkogel (Golica / Koralpe)

Access to starting point:
First, we drive to Dravograd, and then we continue driving towards Austria. Further, we drive over the border crossing Vič, and we follow the main road to the beginning of the settlement Labot / Lavamünd, where signs for Gradec / Graz and Ivnik / Eibiswald point us to the right on an ascending road. We then follow the nicely maintained and wide Alpine road to the Soboški Pass / Koglereck (also Soboth), where we turn left towards the settlement Ettendorf. Immediately after the crossroad, we will notice on the left side a larger macadam parking lot, where we leave the car.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we continue a few more meters on the road, and then signposts point us to the right into the forest. At first, we ascend on a wide path through the forest, which brings us to a smaller clearing, from where a view towards the summit Großer Speikkogel opens up. Next follows a shorter descent, which brings us to a crossroad of mountain roads. We continue straight on a narrow road through the forest. Later we join a wider macadam road, on which we then walk for quite some time. The quite gentle road is slightly ascending for most of the time, and occasionally also slightly descends. The road then brings us out of the forest and is followed by some more walking along the mountain pasture to a marked junction.
To the right leads the road to the hut Stiftshütte (5 min), and we continue on the road to the next junction, which is only a few dozen meters ahead. At the junction, we can continue right following the signs »Koralpe, Jauksattel« on the path which bypasses the peak Kleinalpl on the right side. The second option, which is slightly shorter, is to continue straight on the road past the gate and then past the hunting cottage Brandl. In the initial part the road will have two junctions and on both we continue right. The mountain road then turns to the left and then for a long time mostly in a gentle ascent crosses the slope on the west side of the peak Kleinalp towards the north. We follow the mountain road all the way to a marked junction on the saddle Jauksattel, where the path which bypasses the peak Kleinalp on the right eastern side also joins us.
At the marked junction we continue left following the signs Koralpe (path no. 650). For some time we still walk on the mountain road, and then we come again to a marked junction. Here we leave the macadam road and go onto grassy slopes following the signs Gr. Speikkogel. The grassy cart track at first leads us up the slope, then turns left and for a short time runs through the forest. By the path, we will notice interesting boulders, which are characteristic for this area. The cart track then crosses the fence and brings us onto ample pastures.
Here we continue on a footpath which starts to ascend more steeply up the slope. The path then crosses a mountain stream and soon after that also the high-voltage power line. In the continuation, the path ascends all the time on panoramic grassy slopes upwards and thereby crosses grazing fences several times. Later, the path turns to the left and a view opens up on the radars on the top, which helped us all the time with orientation. Soon a view opens up on the western side and the path brings us to a marked junction. We continue straight following the signs »Gr. Speikkogel 15 min« and start to ascend the grassy slope towards the ridge on the right side. We reach the ridge at the marked junction on the saddle between the two highest peaks of Golica.
Here we continue right on an unmarked path which leads towards the summit Kleiner Speikkogel (left Großer Speikkogel 4 minutes). Next follows a shorter ascent and we reach the secondary peak, from which a nice view opens up towards the nearby peak, to which we have a few minutes of gentle ascent with nice views.