Rebrca / Rechberg - Eisenkappler Hutte (via Bukovnik and over Počula)

Access to starting point:
A) Over the Ljubelj border crossing we drive into Austria, then in the settlement Podljubelj / Unterloibl we turn right towards the Hofer store. When we arrive in Borovlje / Ferlach, at the crossroads slightly after the railway track we turn left (to the right of the crossroads is the Eurospar store), at the next crossroads after some 100 metres we turn right towards Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel. Towards Železna Kapla we drive to the settlement Jeriše / Jerischach, behind the settlement at the crossroads we turn right towards the settlement Podkraj / Unterort (left Goriče Goritschach). At the smaller crossroads in the middle of Podkraj we continue left, then we start to ascend to a smaller saddle, beside which there is a crossroads and a chapel. We park at a suitable place by the chapel.
B) Over the Jezerski vrh border crossing we drive into Austria, then behind Železna Kapla we continue slightly left onto the road towards the village Rebrca / Rechberg. Along the road we then quickly ascend to the mentioned village, at the crossroads in the middle of the village we continue left. The road we continue on leads us towards the settlement Podkraj / Unterort, then just before the road starts descending towards the mentioned place we arrive at the chapel, in front of which we park at a suitable place by the road.
C) We drive to Podjuna, then we follow the signs for Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel. Behind the settlement Miklavčevo / Miklauzhof we leave the road towards Železna Kapla and continue right towards Celovec / Klagenfurt and Borovlje / Ferlach. Further on we drive along the main road towards Borovlje, but we do not drive along it for long, as the signs for Podkraj / Unterort direct us left onto a somewhat narrower road. At the smaller crossroads in the middle of Podkraj we continue left, then we start to ascend to a smaller saddle, beside which there is a crossroads and a chapel. We park at a suitable place by the chapel.

Route description:
From the crossroads by the chapel we head onto the road towards the settlement Suha / Zauchen, i.e. house numbers 16,17,18, 50, 54, 63 and 69; at the crossroads there are also signs for Obir. The road first leads us through the forest, then brings us out of the forest, and we follow it practically to its end at the Bukovnik / Bukownik homestead. Behind the last house we continue over the pasture fence, then the cart track takes us into the forest. Through the forest we ascend along the cart track (the cart track has a few poorly marked shortcuts higher up), along it we walk to the saddle between Rokov vrh / Rochus Berg on the left and Stara gora / Altberg on the right.
From the saddle, where there is an older chapel, we continue right (left Rokov vrh, straight Setzhube) in the direction of Obir and Stara gora (signs for the mentioned mountains are very old).
The path, which until now has been relatively easy to follow, becomes quite overgrown further on and difficult to follow in places. The path is initially still gentle and leads us past the abandoned mine, then it starts to ascend and crosses the forest road several times. During the ascent, mostly old and partly already faded markings help us somewhat; otherwise orientation due to the overgrowth is quite difficult in several sections. Higher by the road we notice a yellow mountain signpost pointing back towards the village Rebrca. Just on this section the course of the marked path is somewhat changed compared to most Slovenian maps (on Bergfex.si the newer version of the path is shown).
We continue straight, as the marked path once ran (slightly right newer path, which bypasses Stockhube) and also from the nearby crossroads we go straight, where with nice views of Ojstrc and the surrounding mountains we arrive at Stockhube. Behind the older hut the path leads us past a cross, then we continue along the overgrown cart track, where traces of markings are visible (markings are nowadays erased). A little further we reach a wider macadam road, where the old marked path continued slightly right, we continue slightly left and start descending along the road. During the descent along the road the path leads us past another entrance into the former lead mine on Obir, then behind the left bend we join the marked path through Kunetov graben / Kunetgraben.
We continue slightly right and start ascending again. Along the road we ascend to a smaller saddle, then we continue right into the forest on the marked footpath in the direction of Obir. Further on we ascend along the overgrown cart track, higher through a longer stretch of raspberry bushes. When the raspberry bushes end, the path first takes us into the forest, a few metres higher also onto a macadam road, which we follow to the right for a very short time, then we ascend parallel to the road. The now no longer overgrown path then brings us to the edge of the pasture Zgornja Šefnarca, where we walk along the pasture fence, then we reach the next road. We merely cross the road and continue along the cart track in the direction of Kapelška koča / Eisenkappler Hütte. The cart track ascends transversely to the Počula saddle / Potschulasattel, where there is a marked junction and a few steps to the right also a larger chapel.
We continue along the marked path in the direction of Obir, where we first cross the forest road, higher when we step out of the forest also the pasture fence. Across the pasture the trail gets lost somewhat, but the direction of ascent remains approximately the same, along the path there are also some markings, so there are no major problems with orientation in this section. Here the path also flattens; when the path enters the forest, a cart track appears, along which we descend to the forest road near Kapelška koča. We cross the road and after some 10 steps of further walking descend to the mountain hut.
Description and pictures refer to the condition in 2017 (August).

Along the route: Setzhube (805m), Stockhube (1185m), Počula (1461m)

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