Following the tracks of a bygone railway and the Rakott road

Itinerary

• From the Mátraháza parking lot, we start descending on the Z◼ marked trail.
• We cross the Nagy-Hidas stream, then turn left at the intersection marked Z+.
• In the Nagy valley, we turn left onto the Z▲ trail.
• Upon reaching the junction with the S◼ trail, we turn east on it.
• Below the sledding slope, the already known Z◼ trail also joins our path, on which we turn right to return to the parking lot.

Detailed description of the hike

Descent from the Mátraháza parking lot

The Z◼ and S◼ trails enter the beech forest surrounding the settlement from the northwest corner of the Mátraháza parking lot. The latter turns left after about 150 m, but we continue straight down on the Z◼ trail. We cross an old road, and soon arrive at the Nagy-Hidas-bérc saddle at the memorial of Jenő Wachter, a university student who crashed in the High Tatras in 1907 and whose monument is now in ruins, erected by the tourists of the Emergé (Hungarian Resin Factory) in 1934. Resin was the contemporary term for rubber renewal.

From here, we continue descending along the narrowing sharp ridge in the shade of the beech woods of Nagy-Hidas-bérc, before reaching its end where the trail makes a sudden hairpin turn to the right and leads steeply down to the bank of the Nagy-Hidas stream. Be cautious if the ground becomes slippery due to the weather! We cross the creek, then through a dense young forest to the intersection at Hatökör ura, where we turn left on the Z+ trail.

Soon we cross the Csórrét reservoir, the forestry road leading to Galyatető and Mátraszentimre, and then the Nagy-Hidas stream and Nagy creek. We begin descending in the sometimes gorge-like Nagy valley. This was once traversed by the economic railway line called the Nyírjesi line, initially a 600 mm gauge horse-drawn railway established in 1906, then replaced by a 760 mm gauge from 1925 onward. On the wider gauge, steam locomotives operated from Gyöngyössolymos through Lajosháza northeast along the Nagy valley. The tracks were dismantled in the 1970s.

After a short section hiding under young hornbeam and hazel bushes, a romantic segment with creek crossings follows, along mossy scree slopes on the valley side. About 1 km from the Görgői road, the Z▲ trail diverges to the left alongside the watercourse.

Return to Mátraháza

We start climbing on the stone-built Rakott Road on the Erős side. Thanks to the moss-covered retaining wall and fallen trees, this section has a calm and abandoned atmosphere. From higher up, through the scree slopes, there is a nice view to the west (especially outside the vegetation season). After the stone seas, we meet the S◼ trail in an S-shaped bend; we turn east on it and go around Görgő-bikk. The steep, ascending route dotted with andesite stones loses its steepness at the place called Tölgyfa-lapos.

At the junction with the S● trail, we go straight ahead. After another crossing of the Görgői road, we turn left and soon proceed through an oak forest with grassy ground and no acorns. When the forest changes to beech, just before a clearcut, we turn right onto a small path. Soon we reach the covered spring of Bükkfa-kút. Leaving the beech forest, we pass through dense young hornbeam regrowth, then about half a km later the trail sharply turns left. Here on dried then regrown beech trees, there is a trail marking covered by fresh shoots—easy to continue! We enter a mixed beech forest climbing towards the ridge of Nagy-Tölgyes-bérc, from where under the sledding slope we reach the junction of the Z◼ and S◼ trails. From here, we turn right toward the Mátraháza parking lot and soon return to our starting point.