Laško (cemetery Laško) - Pri knapu pod Babo (harder path)

Access to starting point:
We drive into Laško, where we park in the parking lot by the Laško cemetery.

Path description:
From the parking lot by the cemetery we continue on the road which is situated between the flower shop and the railway, and a little further we also pass by the technical inspections and the Laško municipal services. After a few minutes, we reach a crossroad where we notice the first hiking signposts.
We head along the path towards Šmihel, Govško brdo, and in the direction of signs for the Srečno path and the Rečica circular trail. Initially, we ascend past a few more houses, then climb in zigzags through a forest for a few minutes. Higher up, the road levels out, we leave the forest, and soon reach a crossroad where a path from the left, passing the church of St. Krištof, joins us.
Here, we continue straight, and shortly after, we arrive at two consecutive crossroads.
From the first crossroad, where a road branches off to the right towards some houses, we continue straight; from the second, where a path branches off to the right towards the church of St. Mihael on Šmihel, we also continue straight. Further, we descend for a short time through the forest, then leave the forest and, with a gentle ascent, reach the settlement Kuretno, where we see the church of St. Katarina Aleksandrijska in front of us. Here at a smaller crossroad, we continue slightly to the right, and then we are already near the church, which is situated slightly to the left of the path.
We bypass the church on the right side and continue along the path on an asphalt road. Further, we walk for some time through the forest, and at a chapel, the asphalt ends; from the crossroad, we continue straight in the direction towards Govce. Next follows a slightly longer walk on a macadam road, where we pass by individual older houses, and the path continues with a few shorter ascents and descents. After a larger meadow, we ascend a bit more steeply and, along the periphery of the settlement Trnov Hrib, temporarily step onto an asphalt road. Here we keep to the right turn-offs or the marked path; the macadam road we continue on leads us into the forest, where we pass by a small lake. When we leave the forest, we also pass by a beehive and reach a crossroad by the mining museum.
From the crossing, we continue straight towards the saddle Zavrate (right hunting lodge on Govce and Govško brdo) and on the left side bypass the mining museum. The path ahead still leads on the macadam road, and at the nearby crossroad, we go straight in the direction of the path SREČNO (on the left road we can get to Sedraž). Only a little further, still on the same meadow, a path joins from the right, which leads past the previously mentioned hunting lodge and is a few minutes longer. Here we continue straight, and a few steps ahead we go slightly right and then continue on the marked macadam road. Next follows some descent, and then at the marked crossing we leave the road and go right on the path in the direction of log cabin Brunarica pri knapu pod Babo. The path ahead continues by crossing the slopes towards the left, where we cross a steeper, crumbly slope, where some caution is needed. Next follows some crossing towards the left, where we occasionally cross some shorter, steeper sections, but otherwise the path continues without significant ascents or descents. The path ahead leads us past a cross, and then we soon reach the cart track, on which we continue to a crossing by the saddle Zavrate. Here we go left (right Govško brdo) and in a few steps walk to the saddle Zavrate, where stands log cabin Brunarica pri knapu pod Babo.
Laško - Kuretno 0:40, Kuretno - mining museum 1:05, mining museum - Pri knapu 1:00.
Description and pictures refer to conditions in April 2023.

On the way: Sveta Katarina (Kuretno) (419m), Trnov Hrib (501m)