Koča na Šumiku - Source of Polskava

Access to starting point:
A) From the Ljubljana - Maribor highway, we take the Slovenska Bistrica - south exit, then follow the signs for Šmartno na Pohorju, from there we drive to the settlement Smrečno. We continue driving on forest roads on Pohorje, where we drive along Bistrica. Higher up, we join the road that leads past the Ruška koča na Pohorju mountain hut. Here we go left towards Osankarica, at the next junction slightly right in the direction of the Šumik estate (slightly left Osankarica). When we arrive at the mentioned estate, we park on the macadam parking lot in front of the estate.
B) We leave the Štajerska highway at the Slivnica and Rogoza exit, then follow the signs for Pohorje and Areh. The route continues through Spodnje and Zgornje Hoče, Slivniško Pohorje, after the settlements we follow the signs for Areh. From Areh we follow the signs for Cojzerica, Šumik and Osankarica. After a few kilometers, we go slightly right in the direction of the Šumik estate (slightly left Osankarica). When we arrive at the mentioned estate, we park on the macadam parking lot in front of the estate.
C) We drive to Ruše, then follow the road towards Fala. After crossing Lobnica, we go left in the direction of Smolnik and Šumik, then follow the signs for the Šumik estate, where we park on the parking lot in front of the Gozdarska koča na Šumiku forestry cottage.

Path description:
From the starting point, we head onto the marked path towards Osankarica and Koča na Klopnem vrhu (along the road there is a somewhat shorter unmarked path), where through a strip of forest we ascend back onto the road. When we reach the road, we continue straight ahead (right Ruše), at the nearby road fork we choose the slightly left road (slightly right Klopni vrh), along which we quickly arrive at a marked junction.
From the junction, we continue left downhill (straight Koča na Pesku and Tiho jezero, right Klopni vrh) and descend on a moderately steep path back onto the road, where we join the somewhat shorter path that follows the road. We merely cross the road, a bit lower we also cross Lobnica, after which we return to the road. Along the road we continue left and pass the junction of the path towards Ruše - Holcarska pot along Lobnica, which leads past both Šumik waterfalls and past the junction of the path towards Črno jezero and Sv. Treh kraljev.
At both junctions we follow the direction of Ruška koča na Arehu, the path soon leaves the road, a little higher we cross the road towards Osankarica. There follows a traversing ascent on the northern slopes of Bajgotov vrh (1161 m), then the path levels out, and at the junctions we follow the blazes. The path ahead leads along a poorer macadam road, after a short descent we cross an even wider macadam road. There follows a bit more walking through the forest, then we reach another road, where the path from Sv. Treh kraljev joins from the right. We continue along the road to the nearby NOB monument, from where we continue on the marked path, which a few minutes higher joins a cart track, where we follow the blazes. Higher we cross a poor forest road, a little further we arrive at a marked junction, where the path to Žigartov vrh branches off to the left, and we continue straight. The path ahead descends somewhat and brings us to a poor road, along which we continue the crossing. There follows the crossing of Žigartov vrh, where a short path to the spring of Polskava branches off to the right.
Here we leave the poor road that continues towards Ruška koča na Arehu and continue right downhill. There follows a little more than 5 minutes of descent through the forest and we arrive at the spring of Polskava.