Labot / Lavamünd - Huhnerkogel/Košenjak

Access to starting point:
First, we drive to Dravograd, and then we continue driving towards Austria. Further, we drive over the border crossing Vič, and we follow the main road to the beginning of the settlement Labot / Lavamünd. Here on the left side of the road, we notice a parking lot, where we can park.

Route description:
From the parking lot, we first carefully cross the main road, and then we continue on the sidewalk of the road which leads towards Gradec / Graz and Ivnik / Eibiswald. To the first turn, in the middle of which there is also a smaller crossroad, we follow the road, and then signs for the footpath point us to an overgrown footpath which continues between the two roads. The path, which at first steeply ascends, quickly flattens, and then crosses slopes towards the right and only a little further returns to the road. We continue on the main road only a short time, and then signs for St. Lovrenc / St. Lorenzen and Košenjak / Hühnerkogel point us to the right on a narrower road which continues through fields. The gentle road after a few minutes brings us to a smaller hamlet, after which we turn left on a gradually narrower cart track. The marked path, which gradually starts moderately ascending, temporarily passes to the right side of the stream Multererbach, and then, when it returns to the left side, it becomes a little steeper.
Higher, the path leads us past a relatively new wooden cottage, and only a little higher we step on an asphalt road, which we only cross and continue the ascent on the macadam road which ascends to the sign named Hornigkreuz. Here the road temporarily passes to a gentle grassy ridge, and we follow it only a short time, since then signs for St. Lovrenc and Košenjak point us to a steep footpath. After a few minutes of steep ascent through a conifer forest we return to the road, and we follow it in the already known direction. A little further we arrive at a lonely hamlet of two houses, behind which the road changes into a cart track, which at first slightly descends. After a short descent we arrive at a smaller junction, where we continue on the left upper cart track, which becomes more and more overgrown. The path ahead crosses steep slopes overgrown with raspberry bushes, and on a quite overgrown path we start descending towards the bed of the stream Multererbach. When we cross the mentioned stream, the cart track widens and after some 10 m it also stops descending. A gentle ascent follows across the increasingly panoramic slope, and the path only a little higher brings us to an asphalt road, which we follow to the village Lorenzenberg.
In the middle of the village, a road branches off to the right to the church of St. Lovrenc, and we continue straight and follow the road to the nearby left turn. In the middle of the turn, we notice hiking signposts, which direct us slightly to the right on an ascending cart track, along which we ascend at the edge of the hay meadow. A little higher, the blazes direct us slightly to the left, to a somewhat steeper footpath, along which we ascend to the nearby road.
We continue past a sign (cross) and for quite some time continue on the asphalt road. Higher we arrive at a smaller hamlet, where by the path we notice a nicely maintained larger chapel. Above the chapel the asphalt ends, and we continue the ascent on the macadam road. Higher the path leads us past a few more individual houses, and then the blazes direct us to a somewhat steeper footpath. The path ahead ascends along a smaller "ditch", then passes onto an old clearing, where we cross a poor forest road. The path ahead returns to the forest, through which it starts moderately ascending. After a while we join a wide cart track and just a few meters further a macadam road, which we follow to the marked junction.
We continue on the narrower macadam road in the direction of Košenjak and the mountain hut Roßhütte, to the latter we have only 3 minutes of walking.
From the mountain hut, where the road ends and by which there is a control stamp, we continue in the direction of Košenjak / Hühnerkogel, on the path which leads us through a short meadow into the forest. A moderate ascent through the forest follows, then the path brings us to a gentle grassy slope, from which a nice view opens up on Golica / Koralpe. The path then returns to the forest and brings us to the state border, where we join a better-trodden path which comes from the Slovenian direction. Here we continue to the right and along the edge of the forest in 2 minutes of further walking we ascend to the summit of Košenjak.

Along the route: Hornigkreuz (688m), St. Lorenzen (Lorenzenberg) (924m), Roßhütte (1438m)

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