Ljubelj - Ferlacher Horn / Grlovec (over saddle Oselca)

Access to the starting point:
Leave the Gorenjska Motorway at the Podtabor junction, then continue to Tržič and Klagenfurt. When you reach Ljubelj, turn right before the tunnel into a large asphalt parking lot, where you park.

Path description:
From the starting point, head in the direction of Koča na Ljubelju. After a short climb, you will reach a macadam road, along which you will continue your ascent. The ascent follows a fairly steep road, which leads us over a few torrents and past a chapel and a pleasant little well with a bench. Higher up, the road makes a few more serpentines, and at the last left serpentine we get a nice view of Loibler Baba and Veliki vrh, and then we arrive at the Ljubelju Cottage.
From the hut, walk along the road to the state border, cross it, and then descend on the Austrian side to a marked crossroads a few minutes away. From the crossroads, turn right towards the marked trail to Loibler Baba / Loibler Baba and continue along the worse road. The marked trail soon turns right up the road, and we follow the deteriorating road to its end. The road ends at a nearby torrent, and we find the continuation of the unmarked path on the other side. We then cross a worse path, first over the stream and then through the forest. A little further on, we reach an older clearing which offers a fine view, and at the northern end of the clearing we reach a wider cart track, which we follow in a north-westerly direction down to the nearby dirt road (this can also be reached by road if we continue straight ahead at the first marked crossroads, and then right at the next two crossroads. The road route is approximately 15 minutes longer).
Follow the road to the right, then cross the road and descend to the left. Go around the nearby hunting lodge on the left and then cross the stream. There is some walking along the road, which gradually begins to climb, and we often get beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. Higher up, at a height of about 1300 m, a road branches off to the right, leading to a saddle to the north of the Brown Peć, and we continue straight ahead along a wider road. The road soon forks again, and we continue along the lower road on the left (slightly to the right, the Strgavica Pass at 1350 m and a possible ascent to Žerjavov Praprotnik).
From the junction onwards, the road begins to descend more visibly, crossing the southern to south-western slopes of Žerjavovo Praprotnik. As we approach the Ljubljana road, which we can see below us, the more visible descent ends and the road moves more to the western to north-western slopes of the aforementioned peak. A little further on, the road splits once more, and we continue along the upper right-hand road, which climbs for a while, then gradually levels off. The road, from which we have been enjoying beautiful views from the start, then leads us to another junction, where we continue along the leftmost road, which descends slightly and leads us past a ramp. A little further on from the ramp, a forest road joins us first from the right, and a few steps further on the road splits.
Once again, take the left-hand road, which is joined only a few steps further on by a marked path from the Franc / Franzbauer homestead, where, on the right, at the Oselca saddle, you will see a chapel and a bench next to it for resting.
Continue on the 638 trail, which continues along the road (the 639 trail just crosses the road and leads to the Urh homestead / Urch). The road continues to climb crosswise along the slopes of the Koško Grintovec / Zeller Grintoutz (1368 m), and at the right-hand bend we are joined by the marked trail from Dajčpetr / Ghf. Deutscher Peter on the left.
At this crossroads, we first see the signs for Ferlacher Horn, and we walk along the road for a short distance before turning slightly left at a small stream onto a footpath that continues along the stream. Higher up, the path bends and leads us past a hunting observation post, which is slightly to the right of the path, back to the forest road, which we reach at a small crossroads. Cross the road slightly to the right, then continue for a few minutes parallel to the road above. Once back on the road, follow it to an old clearing where new spruce trees are already growing, and from there follow the marked path which continues parallel to the road, which this time is below us. When we arrive in the lane of the forest, the path from the Franc homestead joins us from the right, and then we cross another clearing, which opens up a beautiful view towards the northern walls of Košuta. On the other side of the clearing the path enters the forest and then gradually begins to climb steeply along the western ridge Velika gora. From the ridge, we continue to have several nice views to the north, where we can see Borovlje / Ferlach and the surrounding mountains. The trail continues along ridge Velika gora, where it climbs steeply a few times and occasionally flattens out completely. The path, which occasionally passes over precipices (the path is mainly not exposed, as it passes a few steps to the right of the precipice), then leads us to the upper slope of Grlovec, where we also emerge from the forest. When we step out of the forest, we see a large cross in front of us, which is only a few minutes away from a moderate climb with beautiful views.

The description refers to the situation in April 2017, while the images are from December 2016 and April 2017.

On the way: Koča na Ljubelju mountain hut (1370m), Oselca / Eselsattel (1175m), Velika gora (1512m)

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