Grad Pišece - Veliki vrh (Orlica) (mimo Velike bukve)

Access to starting point:
a) Drive to Krško, where we first follow the signs for Brežice, then for Zdole, and after Zdole follow the signs for Bizeljsko. We continue through Sromlje while following the road to Pišece, from there follow the signs for Grad Pišece. Park at one of the parking lots near the castle.
b) From Brežice follow the signs for Bizeljsko, then on the flat section where the road runs through the forest, turn left onto the side road towards Globoko. In the village of Globoko, go right towards Pišece, and also continue following the signs for Pišece. When we arrive in Pišece, follow the signs for Grad Pišece. Park at one of the parking lots near the castle.
c) From the direction of Bistrica ob Sotli, drive towards Brežice, at the end of the Bizeljsko settlement turn right towards Pišece. When we arrive in Pišece, follow the signs for Grad Pišece. Park at one of the parking lots near the castle.

Route description:
North of the castle, at one of the parking lots, we notice signs for the Path of Sovereignty and an older board of the forest educational trail. The signs direct us to a path that immediately turns into the forest and continues along a poor cart track. This initially ascends, then levels out and crosses the slopes to the right for a while. In the last part of the crossing, the path gently descends; when we reach the nearby stream, we join a cart track coming from the direction of Ribnik or the starting point Marof pri Pišecah.
We continue left towards the north along the cart track, which gradually turns into a hiking path. This levels out for a short time, then ascends somewhat steeply. Beyond the ramsons patch, it turns right, moves away from the valley bottom and leads us along its head. The path then quickly turns back to the left and ascends to a forest road, which we reach near the bivouac of the Pišece Hunting Society.
Before the bivouac, we go left, then red alpine direction signs for Kerinov spomenik and Pečice direct us right onto the alpine path (straight ahead Path of Sovereignty), which begins to ascend through the forest. After 15 minutes of ascent, we arrive near the summit of Intermedija, where we go right and in a few steps reach the highest point of the summit, from which we get some views through the treetops.
From the summit, we continue along the marked path, which begins to descend towards the southwest, lower down we return to the road and follow it to the right. A few minutes further, we go slightly right from the road and continue the path to the right of the road, later cross it and continue along the marked path that runs to the left of the road. We return to the road at a marked junction of several roads and the marked path, where we go right (left Kerinov spomenik 1-2 minutes), then immediately left in the direction of Veliki vrh (continue along the road to Grad Podsreda, it is also possible to reach the castle via Veliki vrh).
The path ahead ascends steeply for a few minutes along the slopes of Šuljcev breg, the markings along the path disappear, but along the path we can notice some signs of the Path of Sovereignty (on this section, some maps show a path over Šuljcev breg, but there is no trodden path over the pasture there, nor markings).
The transitional path leading further towards Veliki vrh runs along the forested southern slopes of Šuljcev breg and crosses the slopes to the left for a while, below the pasture saddle between the two summits we again notice a sign for the Path of Sovereignty, which does not indicate the direction of continuation. Here we go right along the cart track that ascends along the pasture, at the junction where we join the path coming from the nearby farm, we go left, where we then ascend transversely to the left along a gentle forest path.
When we reach the marked junction west of Veliki vrh, we go right and in a few dozen steps ascend to the highest summit of the Orlica ridge, where there is a monument to the Slovenian tolar.

Starting point - Bivouac LD Pišece 0:50, Bivouac LD Pišece - Intermedija 0:15, Intermedija - Kerinov spomenik 0:25, Kerinov spomenik - Veliki vrh 0:25.

Description and photos refer to the state in March 2026.

Along the route: Brod (404m), Bivak Lovske družine Pišece (594m), Intermedija (662m), Kerinov spomenik (614m)

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