Mežica - Jesenik (Jesenikov vrh) (via saddle Vrh šteng)

Access to starting point:
From Črna na Koroškem or from Ravne na Koroškem, or through the border crossing Holmec or Mežica, we drive to the center of Mežica, where we park on the parking lot next to Trg svobode.

Path description:
From the starting point, we go on a one-way road which on the left side bypasses the parish church of St. Jakob. Along the road on which we walk, we quickly notice the first blazes; at the crossroads we follow the signs for Peca or the trail blazes. After crossing the stream Šumec, we leave the road and over a smaller wooden bridge we continue slightly right into the forest. Next follows a short ascent through the forest, and then we reach the macadam road, on which we ascend to the end of the left serpentine. After the serpentine we ascend through a belt of forest, and then we ascend for some time along the edge of the forest. On the part where we are ascending along the edge of the forest, the blazes are rare, or they are absent for some time, and when the path returns into the forest, the blazes return as well.
Higher, we reach a smaller hamlet, where the path leads past a trough with water, but we ascend along the road to the route of the former ski slope. Here the blazes direct us left onto the ski slope, along which we then ascend with nice views. Higher, the path temporarily takes us into the forest, and then it returns to the ski slope, which we finally leave a little further on.
We continue right on a cart track which passes into the forest, and further we ascend diagonally towards the right. For some time we ascend on such a path, and then we reach the saddle Vrh šteng, where there is a marked junction and appropriate space for a short rest.
From Vrh Šteng, where we leave the marked path towards Peca, we continue left onto a worse road (not sharply left onto a cart track and not left onto a wider road, along which there are signs for Koča na Pikovem), from which we go a little further left onto an older, partly already grass-overgrown cart track. Along the cart track we steeply ascend to the western ridge of Jesenik, along which we then ascend on a worse footpath, over which fallen trees lie in several places (consequences of the windstorm from December 2017). We follow this footpath, which is occasionally quite steep, all the way to the top.
Description and pictures refer to the condition in the year 2018 (April and May).

On the way: Vrh šteng (1030m)