Preval Vrh Ravni - Otavnik

Access to starting point:
A) First, we drive to the center of Cerkno (to here from the road Idrija - Most na Soči, or from Gorenja vas and Žiri over mountain pass Kladje, or from Zali Log through Davča...), and then we continue driving in the direction of Zakojca. Only few meters behind that, when we went in the direction of Zakojca, the road towards the village Zakriž branches off to the left, through which leads steep shortcut, and we continue on the road which continues along the stream Zapoška. Higher, the road leads through villages Trebenče, Gorje, and then after crossing of slopes, on the upper side we bypass village Zakriž, where joins already mentioned shortcut. A little further, the road turns even more to the right, and after few kilometers of crossing we get to the beginning of the village Jesenica, where we notice the first signs for saddle Vrh Ravni, Kojca and Porezen, which point us to the right. After approximately 100 meters road turns sharply right, and approximately 200 meters ahead we turn left in the direction of Porezen, saddle Vrh Ravni, Zakojca... When we get to a saddle Vrh Ravni we park on an appropriate place by the crossroad of numerous paths.
B) From Most na Soči or Bača pri Modreju we drive towards Idrija, and after the settlement Reka, right before we cross the stream Jesenica we continue sharply left, and at the next crossroad sharply right in the direction of Orehovška grapa. After few kilometers of relatively steep road we get to the village Orehek, little above the village we join diagonal road below Kojca, which we follow to the right. At the end of the village Jesenica we turn sharply left in the direction of saddle Vrh Ravni, Kojca and Porezen. After approximately 100 meters road turns sharply right, and approximately 200 meters ahead we turn left in the direction of Porezen, saddle Vrh Ravni, Zakojca... When we get to a saddle Vrh Ravni we park on an appropriate place by the crossroad of numerous paths.
C) From Bača pri Modreju we drive towards Podbrdo, and then in the settlement Grahovo ob Bači we turn in the direction of Zakojca and Bukovo. Further for quite some time, we drive on winding and ascending road, and then at the marked crossroad we continue left in the direction of Zakojca (right Cerkno, Bukovo, Jesenica...). From Zakojca we follow the signs for saddle Vrh Ravni, where then on an appropriate place we also park.
D) First, we drive to Podbrdo, and then we continue driving towards Tolmin. In the settlement Hudajužna we leave the main road, and then we continue driving on a steep road towards Zakojca. When we higher reach the main road we follow it to the left (right Bukovo), and then we quickly get to the village Zakojca. From Zakojca we follow the signs for saddle Vrh Ravni, where then on an appropriate place we also park.

Path description:
From the saddle Vrh Ravni we continue in the direction of Porezen and mountain pasture Otavnik and we continue on an ascending macadam road which further leads on slopes of the peak Na krogu (1050 meters). Higher, the road passes on the northern slopes of Ritovščica (1156 meters), where at smaller quarry changes into a wide cart track. Next follows a diagonal ascent through the forest, which leads us above the riverbed Otavnik, and then we step out of the forest, where in front of us we notice a hunting cottage, to which we ascend in two hairpin turns.
From the hunting cottage, we continue on a cart track which ascends on the south ridge of Otavnik. Mentioned, partly covered with a forest ridge we soon leave because the path turns slightly to the left, where it is then ascending diagonally through more and more panoramic pasture. After few minutes of a diagonal ascent, we get to the upper part of the mountain pasture Otavnik, where on the left we notice a hunting observatory, and straight on the other side of the ridge a shepherd hut.
On the mountain pasture, at the signposts we continue right on pathless terrain, on which in approximately 5 minutes we ascend to the summit of Otavnik.
Description and pictures refer to a condition in the year 2015 (December).

On the way: Lovska koča LD Otavnik (1090m), Planina Otavnik (1268m)