Bučan - Hajnžev Praprotnik / Zeller Prapotnik

Access to the starting point:
From the motorway Ljubljana - Jesenice, take the exit Ljubelj (Tržič) and then continue in the direction of Klagenfurt / Klagenfurt. After the Ljubelj tunnel, the road starts to descend, and we follow it on the Austrian side until the first left turn, where the old Ljubelj road branches off to the right. Park at a suitable place at the junction, or higher up on the Austrian side of the Ljubelj border crossing.

Path description:
From the starting point, take the Old Ljubljana Road, which is closed to public traffic with a traffic sign. The road first climbs moderately over two serpentines and then continues along a stream to the ruins of the former church of St Lenart, next to which stands a slightly larger sign. Here the road turns left and gradually moves away from the valley. The road then opens up to beautiful views of Selenitza and other surrounding peaks. The road continues past a small crossroads, where we take a sharp right along the "main" road, and then cross steep slopes at a moderate incline (danger of falling rocks, or in winter avalanche and slipping). Higher up the road makes a few more serpentines, and then leads us to a marked crossroads.
From the crossroads, continue left towards the marked path to Loibler Baba / Loibler Baba (straight ahead Koča na Ljubelju for about 10 minutes) and continue on the less well marked road. The marked trail soon turns right off the road and climbs steeply at first. The path soon levels out and turns left. There is a cross-climb to the left, on a path that is usually quite slippery. After a few minutes of cross-climbing, the path leads to the border ridge, where it climbs gently to moderately at first, and then climbs quite steeply for a while higher up. During the steep climb, looking back, we get a nice view towards Stolo, Vertatscha, Palco. . . , and the steep path leads us to a metal ladder, where we climb steeply using fixed safety gear. Above the ladder, there are a few more ropes, then the path is laid and the difficult part via the Brown Ovens is behind us. A little further on, we cross a grazing fence, and then the path leads us along the grassy slopes of Grunt. With beautiful views of Lokovnikov Grintovec, Loibler Baba (Ljubeljska Baba), Veliki vrh in the ridge of Košuta and other surrounding mountains, we soon arrive at a marked crossroads, where we continue slightly left in the direction of Hajnžega grapen and Koschutahaus (straight Loibler Baba, right mountain pasture Korošica.
From the crossroads the path first descends slightly, then turns right and crosses the slopes of Loibler Baba to the left. Initially descending a little further, the path then begins to climb cross-country behind an interesting cliff. After a few minutes of cross-climbing, with fine views of the surrounding mountains, you quickly reach Dovjakovo sedlo, where you once again cross a pasture fence. At the pasture fence, the path to Lokovnikov Grintovec branches off to the left, and slightly to the left we find the continuation of the marked path, which descends crosswise to the other side of Lokovnik's Grintovec. After a few minutes of cross-country descent, the path leads us to an unmarked ridge, along which we continue our descent to an unmarked saddle between Lokovnik's Grintovec and Hajnž's Praprotnik.
At this saddle, an unmarked trail turns right downhill towards Hajnžev Grápno, and we continue left over a pasture fence, then descend gently to the north-east. At this point the path disappears completely, and we continue along the gently sloping world to cairn, after which a fainter path appears on the slope (if we continue down to the left here we reach Lokovnikovo mountain pasture, but if we keep to the right, along the ridge, we are stopped by dwarf pines).
It is very good to stick to the worse path, as it takes you over the steep part without any major problems. Above the steep slope, the path passes between dwarf pines, but occasionally it still climbs steeply. Higher up, the ridge Hajnžev Praprotnik is reached, and the path continues for some time through the sometimes quite overgrown dwarf pines. Despite the occasional heavi overgrowth, the path through dwarf pines is quite easy to follow.
At the ridge, the trail flattens out, and there are a few more short ascents and descents to the main summit. Before reaching the summit, the dwarf pines ends, and we first climb steeply up to the ridge, which we then follow in a few 10 steps to reach the summit.
Starting point - Dovjakovo sedlo 2:25, Dovjakovo sedlo - Hajnžev Praprotnik 55 minutes.

On the way: Dovjakovo sedlo / Dovjaksattel (1728m)

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