Hotavlje - Ermanovec (via Slajka)

Access to starting point:
A) From Železniki, Kranj or Medvode we drive to Škofja Loka, and from there we continue driving in the direction of Gorenja vas in the valley Poljanska dolina and Žiri. After Gorenja vas, in the settlement Hotavlje, at the crossroad behind inn Gostilna Lipan we leave the main road towards Žiri and we continue driving right in the direction of the ski slope Cerkno and village Leskovica. Immediately after the crossroad, we park on an appropriate place by the road.
B) From Horjul or Polhov Gradec we drive to Lučine, from there we descend into Gorenja vas. In Gorenja vas we continue left towards Žiri, after that in Hotavlje at the crossroad behind inn Gostilna Lipan we continue right in the direction of the ski slope Cerkno and village Leskovica. Immediately after the crossroad, we park on an appropriate place by the road.
C) From Vrhnika, Logatec or Spodnja Idrija we drive to Žiri, and from there we continue driving towards Gorenja vas and Škofja Loka, and we drive on the main road only to the settlement Hotavlje, where we turn left in the direction of the ski slope Cerkno and village Leskovica. Immediately after the crossroad, we park on an appropriate place by the road.
D) First, we drive to Cerkno, and from there we continue driving through saddle Kladje (Podlanišče) towards Sovodenj. From Sovodenj we continue driving by the stream Hobovščica, and then in a little larger crossroad we continue left in the direction of Gorenja vas (right Žiri). On the main road towards Škofja Loka we drive to the settlement Hotavlje, where we turn left in the direction of the ski slope Cerkno and village Leskovica. Immediately after the crossroad, we park on an appropriate place by the road.

Path description:
From the starting point, where nearby there is a vending machine of farm Pr Šupc we continue on the road towards the village Leskovica and in the direction of hiking paths on Blegoš, Ermanovec and Slajka. Few minutes we walk by the edge of the road, partly also on a sidewalk, and then signs for Ermanovec and Slajka point us to the left (straight Blegoš), where over the bridge we cross Kopačnica, and immediately after the bridge at the church of St. Lovrenc we continue right and we gradually start ascending. At first, we are ascending past few more houses, and then signs point us sharply left, where few 10 strides we continue on a cart track, and on the meadow cart track changes into a footpath, and it turns a little to the right and leads past another house. Higher, we cross few worse cart tracks, and blazes through a lane of a little overgrown path take us to an asphalt road which we only cross. On the other side of the road, we at first ascend steeper, and then we continue on a narrower footpath which continues through a small valley, where runs also the route of a power line. From the valley we soon diagonally ascend towards the right, where we reach the ridge (here from the right joins one more footpath), and here the footpath turns to the left. A little further, we cross another cart track, and when we leave the forest we quickly ascend to an asphalt road which we follow to the right. Asphalt road then leads us past the bench, where the path branches off to the right towards Vrh Slajke, and the road which semicircular turns to the left we follow to the nearby farm, from which to the mountain hut Dom na Slajki separates us only a minute of walking.
From the hut, we return to the near farm, where we bypass the main buildings on the upper side and we continue on the macadam road which on the nearby meadow changes into a cart track. Next follows a walk through a lane of a forest and then we get to grassy slopes of Špik or Vranškov griča (on maps we can find both names), which we with nice views cross. When we reach a bad macadam road we descend there (right private land), and when the road flattens we join a wider macadam road which we reach above the farm Hom.
We continue in the direction of Ermanovec and then we for quite some time walk on the macadam road which later becomes asphalted. Next follows some descent with nice views, after that from a smaller crossroad we continue slightly right (slightly left we can descend to the church of St. Pavel in Stara Oselica), and from the next crossroad we go slightly left (slightly right farm Rotovž).
Next follows an easy ascent and the path brings us to the spot, where the marked path splits.
We continue on the left path, which leaves the road (right mountain hut on Ermanovec, the path which bypasses the peak of Ermanovec) and continues on a cart track. We at first walk by the edge of the meadow, and the path is slowly turning slightly towards the left. At the crossings, we follow the blazes, and the path soon passes into the forest and ascends on a small saddle, where from the left the path from Trebija joins.
We continue right in the direction of Ermanovec (slightly right mountain hut on Ermanovec) and we are ascending on and by an indistinct ridge. During the ascent occasionally a view opens up a little, otherwise a partly forest path in few minutes of additional walking brings us to the summit of Ermanovec, from where a nice view opens up also on Julian Alps.
Hotavlje - Dom na Slajki 1:15, Dom na Slajki - Ermanovec 1:25.
Description and pictures refer to a condition in January 2020.

On the way: Dom na Slajki mountain hut (789m)

Trip can be extended to: Koča na Ermanovcu , Štor