Bezgovica - Firstov rep

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 a few kilometers we get to mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude of 993 m. After the mountain pass the road starts descending, and after 19 zigzags brings us to the settlement Zgornji Čačič, and a few 100 m ahead also to the turn-off of the road to the village Bezgovica. We park at an appropriate place by the crossroad.
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 a few kilometers we get to mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude of 993 m. After the mountain pass the road starts descending, and after 19 zigzags brings us to the settlement Zgornji Čačič, and a few 100 m ahead also to the turn-off of the road to the village Bezgovica. We park at an appropriate place by the crossroad.
C) From Osilnica or Sel pri Osilnici we continue in the direction of settlements Žurge, Padovo pri Osilnici, Zgornji Čačič and mountain pass Strma Reber. Before we get to the 1st or 19th zigzag, the road which leads towards the settlement Bezgovica branches off to the left. We park at an appropriate place by the crossroad.

Path description:
From the starting point, we continue in the direction of the village Bezgovica, which we quickly reach. When we reach the mentioned village, at the smaller crossroad we continue slightly right, and then with nice views on Sveta Gora and Gorski Kotar we get to the upper part of the village, where among houses we follow the blazes. Behind the last house, we notice hiking signposts, which point us uphill, on the path which passes into the forest, through which it gradually starts ascending steeper. After a short ascent the path from the 18th hairpin turn of the road on Strma Reber also joins from the right, and we continue straight on the steeper path, which higher in a diagonal ascent brings us to a steep small valley, through which we continue the ascent. Higher blazes from the rough small valley lead left on the path which passes to the edge of occasionally precipitous ridge. We continue the ascent on occasionally somewhat more overgrown path, which avoids precipices a little to the right, and occasionally some view opens up on surrounding hills. A few minutes higher we reach a wide cart track which we follow to the left until the spot where it splits into two parts.
We continue on the 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 the 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 than the marked path). Next follows a 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 a few minutes marked path branches off to the right.
We continue on the marked path (it is also possible to continue on the unmarked road, because the 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 we first start moderately ascending, carefully following the blazes, because otherwise the trackable path is relatively poorly beaten. When the path a little higher flattens, on the left side we bypass indistinct peak Luknja (1079 m), to which we can on easier pathless terrain ascend in a few minutes, otherwise we continue on the marked path, which as said bypasses the peak on the left side. Next follows a few shorter ascents and descents, then a somewhat longer descent, which ends when we reach the macadam road.
When we reach the road we continue right (left marked path to Cerk and the road by which we can return to the starting point) in the direction of Firstov rep. On the road, we ascend slightly to moderately, and we walk along it to its end or turning point.
On the left side of the turning point we notice signs for Firstov rep and for the first time also for Loška stena, which point us on a cart track which starts gradually descending. When after a 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 a few steps we get to the inscription box on Firstov rep.
Bezgovica - Bezgarska planina 1:00, Bezgarska planina - Firstov rep 1:15.
Description and pictures refer to the condition in the year 2015 (August).

On the way: Bezgovica (565m), Bezgarska planina (895m)

Trip can be extended to: Loška stena ( 25 min)