Sveti Trije kralji - Source of Polskava

Access to starting point:
We drive to the center of Slovenska Bistrica, where from the traffic-light intersection we turn in the direction of the health home and continue driving along Partizanska cesta. Then follows driving through the town, where we continue straight; on the edge of the town, at the industrial zone, we head onto the road towards Tinje, Sveti Trije kralji and Črno jezero. Then follows an ascent on a somewhat narrower asphalt road, which starts to ascend and first leads us past Lovska koča pizzeria Gams; higher we go through the settlement Visole, a few kilometers higher we arrive at Zgornje Tinje, from where we follow the signs for the ski slope Jakec - Trije kralji. We park on the parking lot at the foot of the ski slope, or near the church of the Holy Three Kings.

Route description:
From the place where we parked, along the road described in the access to the starting point, we begin to descend transversely and after approximately 100 lost elevation meters we arrive at a crossroads from which we continue straight (right Veliko Tinje and Slovenska Bistrica). Just a few minutes further we arrive at the next crossroads, where we leave the asphalt road and continue left with the path in the direction of Majstrova hiša (straight Šmartno na Pohorju).
After a short ascent on a macadam road we arrive at the mentioned house, where the asphalt ends, and we bypass the house on the right side, where the signs for Areh direct us onto a cart track. The cart track leads us through the forest and quickly brings us to another macadam road, which we follow right downhill, from it we then go left onto a cart track that leads us through the forest. During the gentle walk through the forest a path joins from the right that leads past the partisan hospital Jesen, and we continue straight towards Areh. A little further we leave the forest and along a somewhat overgrown path past the hunting observatory we return to the forest, where we cross two smaller streams. After the streams we follow the blazes, then we reach a road, which we follow to the right. After a short easy descent we arrive at the next crossroads, where we go left, immediately after the crossroads right onto the marked path. The path further gradually enters the forest, where at the junctions we follow the blazes; when we reach the road we go left.
At the crossroads a few dozen steps away we go straight, a few dozen steps further we go right onto the footpath (the branch-off is not marked). This is followed by an ascent on a worse trail, where there are not many blazes, but the path soon levels out and brings us to a forest road, along which we continue to the nearby junction, where a marked path from Koča na Šumiku joins from the left.
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 worse 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 further descends somewhat and brings us to a worse road, along which we continue traversing. This is followed by traversing Žigartov vrh, where a short path to the source of Polskava branches off to the right.
Here we leave the worse road that leads further towards Ruška koča na Arehu and continue right downhill. This is followed by a little more than 5 minutes of descent through the forest and we arrive at the source of Polskava.
Description and pictures refer to the condition in June 2022.

Along the route: Majstrova hiša (1080m), Tinčeva bajta (1115m)

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