Soča - Vrh Ruš

Access to starting point:
From Trenta or Bovec we drive to the village of Soča, where we notice a church by the road. The start of the hiking trail is 200-300m from the church towards Trenta, where we notice direction signs and a small parking lot for 2-3 cars by the road.

Route description:
From the church in the village of Soča we continue along the main road in the direction of Trenta. After a little more than 200 meters we reach a small chapel, in front of which we notice red mountain direction signs that direct us left uphill towards Bavški Grintavec. The path immediately begins to ascend steeply through the forest and in the first part mostly crosses to the right. Higher up we reach a junction, where we continue left on the marked path. Just a few minutes later we step out of the forest onto partially overgrown meadows of the once extremely picturesque but today abandoned hamlet of Lemovje, which with its old houses and ruins today more resembles a mountain pasture.
Here the path from the hamlet of V Klancu (path past the Žot farm) joins from the right, but we continue slightly left and follow the signs for Bavški Grintavec. On this section we initially walk along the edge of the meadow, then approach an overgrown ravine where there is a small spring that often dries up on dry days. The path soon turns right and then again ascends steeply through the forest and partly across steep grassy slopes. Higher up the path turns slightly left and the steepness begins to ease. This is followed by crossing the steep, mostly southern slopes of the peak Kol (1924 m), which leads us to Planina nad Sočo, where a hunting hut stands.
A few meters above the hunting hut we leave the marked path and turn left in a northwesterly direction. The trail in this section is mostly not visible. Through a short stretch of forest we reach a hunting observation post, where we continue right uphill. For a short time we ascend along the grassy slope, then cross it to the left side and continue in a westerly direction. We continue through a stretch of forest where we can notice an otherwise poorly trodden path. We continue further in a westerly direction and when the forest ends and is replaced by dwarf pine we become more attentive, as at a poorly visible junction we stop crossing the slope towards the west and turn sharply right onto the also poorly trodden path.
Here we walk in a northeasterly direction mostly through dwarf pine. Further on the path becomes more obvious and on the way we cross two short steeper slopes and the path slowly turns north. Further on we follow the path or clearing through dwarf pine. Later we emerge from the dwarf pine onto a kind of plain with less dwarf pine where the scree ends.
Here we continue slightly right along the scree. Left leads a path towards Vrh Leh.
For some time we walk in a northeasterly direction along the right arm of the scree. We continue to follow the scree, which turns to the left side. Somewhat higher we continue left and reach the left arm of the scree. We ascend again along the scree, and higher up when the scree ends we continue along a grassy valley towards the ridge. We reach the ridge at a small saddle slightly right of Vrh Ruš where we also reach the marked path that leads along the ridge towards Bavški Grintavec.
At the saddle we do not continue on the marked path but left along the scenic ridge on which we quickly reach the nearby Vrh Ruš.

Along the route: Lemovje (856m), Planina nad Sočo (1400m)

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