Strma Reber - Firstov rep

Access to starting point:
A) First, we drive to Ribnica, and then we continue driving towards Kočevje. After Dolenja vas, we continue right in the direction of Grčarice, Gotenica and Kočevska Reka. In Kočevska Reka, we continue right in the direction of Borovca pri Kočevski Reki, mountain pass Strma Reber and Osilnice. In Borovec, we once again continue right, and then past hamlet Ravne in a few kilometers we get to mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude of 993 m. From the mountain pass a short descent follows, and then we get to a larger parking lot, where on the left side we notice also the map of Kočevje mountain trail and mountain signposts for Firstov rep and Cerk. From the crossroad, where we leave the main road Ribnica - Kočevje, it is approximately 30 km of relatively nice asphalt road.
B) From Kočevje we drive towards the border crossing Petrina, and then at the end of the settlement Štalcerji we continue right towards Kočevska Reka. In Kočevska Reka we continue left in the direction of Borovec pri Kočevski Reki, mountain pass Strma Reber and Osilnice. In Borovec we continue right, and then past hamlet Ravne in a few kilometers we get to mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude of 993 m. From the mountain pass a short descent follows, and then we get to a larger parking lot, where on the left side we notice also the map of Kočevje mountain trail and mountain signposts for Firstov rep and Cerk. From the crossroad, where we leave the main road Kočevje - Petrina, it is approximately 18 km of asphalt road.
C) From Osilnica or Sel pri Osilnici we continue in the direction of settlements Žurge, Padovo pri Osilnici, Zgornji Čačič and mountain pass Strma Reber. Further, we drive on a first slightly winding, higher serpentine road, which after nineteen marked hairpin turns brings us to a crossroad, which is located only a few hundred meters before the mountain pass Strma Reber. At the crossroad there is a large macadam parking lot on both sides of the road, a "cottage" in which there is sand for spreading (sand for the purpose of road maintenance workers), and on it the map of Kočevje mountain trail. We park on the mentioned parking lot. From the center of Osilnica to the starting point is 8.5 km.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we continue towards the east, on the road in the direction of Cerk and Firstov rep. The path leads us on the forest road, from which already after a few minutes a marked path branches off to the right.
We continue on the marked path (it is also possible to continue on the unmarked road, as the marked path returns to the mentioned road after some time, and the path along the road is also somewhat shorter), which passes into a dense forest. Through the forest we first start moderately ascending, carefully following the blazes, because the otherwise followable path is relatively poorly trodden. When the path a little higher flattens, we bypass the indistinct peak Luknja (1079 m) on the left side, to which we can ascend in a few minutes on easier pathless terrain; otherwise we continue on the marked path, which as described bypasses the peak on the left side. Then follow a few shorter ascents and descents, followed by a somewhat longer descent, which ends when we reach the macadam road.
When we reach the road we continue right (left: marked path to Cerk and the road by which we can return to the starting point) in the direction of Firstov rep. On the road we ascend slightly to moderately, walking along it to its end or turning point.
On the left side of the turning point we notice signs for Firstov rep and for the first time also for Loška stena, which direct us onto a cart track that gradually starts descending. When the cart track ends after a few minutes, on the left we notice a salt lick for wildlife, but we continue straight down on the marked footpath, by which in a few steps we arrive at the logbook on Firstov rep.
Description and pictures refer to the condition in the year 2015 (August).

Trip can be extended to: Loška stena ( 25 min)