Podkorita - Gladki vrh (Ratitovec)

Access to starting point:
From highway Ljubljana - Jesenice we go to the exit Lesce, and then we continue driving towards Bled and Bohinjska Bistrica. When we get to municipality Bohinj, we slowly need to pay attention to the left turn-off. Just before the main road crosses a bridge through river Sava Bohinjka, we continue slightly left on a macadam road which continues parallel with the river. From the main road, we drive on a macadam road for 2100 meters and then we park on an appropriate place by the road.

Path description:
From the starting point, we continue on a macadam road, and it already in the very beginning leads through two successive streams and a smaller wooden cottage, which we notice on the left side. Only a little further, or immediately after the smaller bridge, we get to a smaller crossroad, where short road towards the nearby bee house branches off to the left. We continue towards bee house (straight waterfall Grmečica and Nomenj, right road ends on the nearby meadows) and behind it straight in a lane of bushes, where at first we notice bad footpath which only a few meters higher becomes more distinct. The path ahead leads us through shorter gravel terrain, where it turns right and passes on an old cart track. Further, we are ascending on a cart track, and on two less noticeable crossings we follow to the right. Cart track then crosses a little to the right and brings us into a smaller valley, where it almost entirely vanishes. Few strides we continue through a small valley or some sort of wide ditch, and then the footpath leads left on slopes, where the cart track again becomes more distinct. Only a little higher we cross the forest road, and footpath above it at first ascends through a lane of bushes, and then passes into the forest, through which it starts ascending steeper. Higher again follows few almost unnoticeable crossings, and we follow "main" path, which higher brings us on more rocky and partly with high grass covered cart track. Here we continue left and then after few meters, when we get to a smaller valley right on a gently sloping cart track, on which we ascend to the nearby macadam road. We follow the road to the right, and after few 10 meters on a smaller right turn, slightly left on a cart track, on which we ascend to the bottom part of the mountain pasture Bitenjska planina. When we step out of the forest we continue slightly left, and after a shorter ascent, we already notice first cottages on the mountain pasture, to which we walk over more and more panoramic meadow.
Above the mountain pasture we step on an asphalt road which we follow to the right (left Železniki), and we walk there to the nearby crossroad, by which we notice the first signs for Ratitovec.
We continue left on the road in the direction of Ratitovec, and at first still asphalt road quickly leads into a dense forest. Approximately 10 minutes we walk on the mentioned road, and then blazes point us slightly to the left on a marked footpath which continues on a grassy cart track, and that by the stream Bitenjski graben. Higher, we return on the road which we reach right at the smaller crossroad. We continue on the upper right road, on which we quickly get to the mountain pasture Ribčeva planina.
From Ribčeva planina we continue on the road, and a little higher it brings us to a crossroad, where we continue right. From the crossroad, we walk on the road for approximately 2 minutes, and then signs for a footpath on Ratitovec point us to the left on a marked cart track which higher changes into a little steeper mountain path, and which soon crosses a forest road and behind it flattens. On the other side of the road, we continue on a cart track, and then we quickly leave it because blazes point us to right on a forest path, which is at first moderately ascending, and then it gradually descends to the near forest road which we follow to the left. We continue the ascent on the road, and there in few minutes we walk to its end, where there is a larger parking lot and a turning point.
From the parking lot, we continue on a wide cart track which starts relatively steeply ascending through the forest. After approximately 10 minutes of walking cart track flattens, after that only a little further brings us to cottages on the mountain pasture Pečana.
Few strides above the mentioned cottages we come out of the forest on grassy slopes, and we continue on the right side of the mountain pasture only few meters and then at the crossing we continue right in the direction of the mountain hut Krekova koča (straight Kosmati vrh). The path ahead starts moderately ascending through thinner spruce forest. Higher, we finally step out of the forest on an ample pastures of Ratitovec, where we leave the cart track and we continue the ascent on a little poorly visible, but marked footpath which after few minutes of additional walking brings us on the upper slope of Ratitovec, where from the right side joins the path from Soriška planina. We continue left and an increasingly panoramic path which leads us past the winter bivouac we follow all the way to the mountain hut Krekova koča na Ratitovcu, which we reach after a little less than 5 minutes of additional walking.
From the mountain hut, we continue left on a little steeper path in the direction of Gladki vrh. This increasingly panoramic path, we then follow all the way to Gladki vrh, and we reach it after 5 minutes of additional walking.

On the way: Bitenjska planina (901m), Ribčeva planina (1115m), Planina Pečana (1472m), Krekova koča na Ratitovcu mountain hut (1642m)