Oplotnica - Veliki vrh (on Pohorje)

Access to the starting point:
a) From the motorway Ljubljana - Maribor take the exit Slovenske Konjice, then follow the signs for Slovenske Konjice. From the roundabout after the OMV petrol station, take the first exit to the right towards Slovenska Bistrica, and from Slovenska Bistrica take the road to the left to Oplotnica and Osankarici. Turn towards Oplotnica and follow the road to the centre of the town, where you can park in one of the several car parks in the settlement.
b) From the motorway Maribor - Ljubljana, take the exit Slovenska Bistrica - South, then follow the signs for Slovenske Konjice. Shortly after Slovenska Bistrica, turn right towards Oplotnica, then drive to the centre of Oplotnica, where you can park in one of several car parks in the village.

Path description:
From the centre of the village, follow the path towards Osankarice, Černý jezero and Treh Kraljev, first walking along the pavement past the Mercator shop, the Pohorski Bataljon Oplotnica primary school to the Salama pizzeria, where you turn left and then immediately right, passing the pizzeria on your right.
The way forward begins to climb visibly on a narrower asphalt road, which leads us past occasional houses, and when we arrive in the Lačna Gora settlement, we also have a beautiful view of Oplotnica and the surrounding hills.
Higher up, at the cross, the signs for the Black Lake direct us to the right, where we pass the last house, after which we continue our ascent on the dirt road, soon turning left into the woods on a marked footpath. Climb steeply through the woods, cross the dirt road you have recently left, and then climb moderately to reach the Church of Sts.
At the church, return to the road and continue north. The road quickly turns into the cart track, which leads you first through the forest and then across a grassy viewpoint, where you descend a little.
When you reach the asphalt road in the village Kebelj, cross it crosswise to the right, then go left towards the Black Lake, passing the nearby house on your right. After a few minutes of a scenic climb over a grassy slope, when you reach the end of the asphalt road, there is a trail on your right, starting at the cemetery in the village of Kebelj.
Continue straight ahead on the marked cart track, which turns right before entering the forest and continues along the edge of the forest, and from the above-mentioned cart track, signs direct you to the left onto the narrower cart track, which continues through the forest. Follow the markings through the forest, and when the path turns slightly to the right, after a short crossing, another path from the village of Kebelj joins us from the right.
Go left here and you will quickly reach the ruins of Kebelj Castle.
Go around the ruins on the left and follow the signs to the nearby asphalt road, where you go straight up. Just a little further on, the asphalt road turns right, and the path to Osankarica (the Kebelj Transversal Route) branches off to the left. Leave the asphalt road just a little further on, where the signs for the Black Lake direct you to the left into the forest. There is a short climb through the forest, and then past numerous rubbish bins we reach a nearby homestead (there is also a warning for a vicious dog from the opposite direction). At the homestead, the road becomes asphalt and we quickly return to the slightly wider asphalt road, which we continue our climb on. After a few minutes, the signs direct us left onto the grassy cart track, which we climb along the edge of the forest, and higher up, we pass a house and rejoin the asphalt road, which leads us to the next marked crossroads.
Continue to the right in the direction of Treh Kraljev and Črni jezero (on the left Črno jezero - the path past Kos) and follow the road to the crossroads near the NOB monument.
From the crossroads, turn right towards the driveway, and at the sign for the cul-de-sac, turn left onto the marked footpath that continues through the forest. It takes about 20 minutes to climb through the forest, following the signs, and then you reach a road, which you follow for about 10 steps to the right, where you reach the Hotel Jakec, above which is the Church of St. Three Kings.
From the Church of the Three Kings, continue in the direction of the Black Lake and the Urška Trail, where you will quickly reach the edge of the nearby ski slope of the RTC Jakec - Trije kralji ski resort. The way forward initially takes you along the edge of the forest, just a few metres away from the ski slope, and higher up you cross the ski slope to the right (during ski slope opening hours, you cross the ski slope above the ski lift). On the other side of the ski slope, the path goes slightly to the right and leads under the reservoir.
A little beyond the lake, we reach the connecting ski slope, which we continue to climb (during ski slope opening hours, we walk along the leftmost edge of the ski slope), and when we reach the second ski slope a few minutes higher up, where the marked path to the Black Lake crosses the ski slope, we continue along the left edge, where there are also signs for the Urška Trail. A few minutes of steeper climbing follows and, with increasingly beautiful views, we reach a bench on the Big Top, from where we have a beautiful view of Pohorje and the valley.
From here you can continue another 10 m into the forest, where the highest point of the summit is located.
Oplotnica - St. Mohor 0:45, St. Mohor - Hare's Castle 0:40, Hare's Castle - St. Trije Kralji 1:20, St. Three Kings - Veliki vrh 0:30.
Description and pictures refer to the situation in January and April 2022.

On the way: Lačna Gora (516m), Sveti Mohor (Lačna Gora) (602m), Kebelj castle (Castle Zajec) (813m), Nadgrad (851m), Sveti Trije kralji (1181m)

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