Kohászok útja (Kohász blue trail), 2nd section: Istenmezeje – Járdánháza

Itinerary

• Throughout the route, follow the K trail marker.

Detailed description of the route

Istenmezeje – Ökör-hegy: in the wilderness of the Vajdavár region

Istenmezeje inherited its well-sounding name from a former landowning family, although the legend is more spectacular: it is said that the population fleeing from the Turks, hiding in the valley of the Tarna, named their new settlement in gratitude. It is worth starting the route with a short detour to visit the rock called Noah's Vineyard towering beside the road, offering a beautiful view of Istenmezeje, and the sandstone block itself is also an exciting sight. The soft-curved wall has lumps ("shoes") protruding, which are harder than their surroundings because they contain more lime binder. At the base of the cliff, there is a gated artificial cavity that was part of a 19th-century wooden church.

The stamp can be found at the entrance of the town hall, a short detour from the starting point. Next to the village, we enter Hungary's least frequented wilderness, the little-known Vajdavár hills. There are no settlements beyond the mountain range, only forestry and guest houses along the way. The former sea tidal belt's sandstone forms a unique landscape: the surface divided by millions of small valleys, ditches, bends, and winding ridges is a real labyrinth with unusually vivid terrain. However, the large-scale clear-cuts and the regrowth following them significantly spoil the nature experience.

The forestry road with sandy-clayey soil, after rains, is "welcoming"; it leads to a clearing, a bright glade. The stream has deeply cut into the soft bedrock, so we can only hear its sound among the trees. The unusual terrain shape is explained by the relationship between water and sandstone: runoff easily shapes this soft, granular rock, "drawing" large ditches and depressions, and the easily slippery clay is perfect surface for landslides. After a wide basin, we climb upwards and encounter the acacia that largely covers the mountain range. This non-native tree species was "invited" by the struggle of inhabitants and the clay-sandy layers: it was planted from the late 19th century to bind fast-forming erosion and protect the easily washed-away soil. The acacia spreads aggressively, impoverishing the undergrowth and is extremely difficult to suppress.

The ridge has mixed forest, with a narrow view from a clearing, from which the Medves plateau and the Low Tatras emerge. We descend into the dark, wild forest, beech woods, to the Gemeruta Valley, whose name indicates its former function: a road leading to Gömör county. We arrive at a clearing in one of the longest valleys of the mountain range, the Hosszú Valley.

From here, a pleasant walk awaits on the forest asphalt road. Soon we reach the beautifully renovated, well-kept garden Szalajkaház, which today serves as accommodation but its name preserves the memory of ash distillation; accordingly, it was a shelter for forest workers from the early 19th century. Nearby stood Degréte village, likely a hunting settlement in the 13th-14th century. The valley floor is locally bordered by one of the most decorative associations of the mountain range, a hornbeam-alder grove. Its formation largely owes to the surface cover complex: at the shallow-sloped valley bottoms, down to the water-retentive clay layers, sandy sediment washed in by rain and blocks of driftwood have formed stagnant water swamps.

From former hunting farm locations, mostly ruins remain, and some buildings are used by the forestry. After the Dávid farm, we cross an elongated meadow, then climb serpentinely from a shallow valley head to the ridge. On the other side, we descend to the next valley, where the forestry's "signature" can be observed in the highly mosaic forest structure. Along the road stands the well-maintained Vállós farm, with a stamp on its fence; opposite it is the Csurgó-kút, a drinkable, reliable, and abundant spring. The wooden columned porch, hipped gable forest house reminds of the former peasant world and is under monument protection. In the Palóc dialect, "válló" refers to an animal watering place – it is no surprise that animals of the area are driven here due to the spring.

We turn into the Nagy Valley but follow it only briefly. On the map, on the left at the edge of the Pataj Forest Reserve, there is a ruined spring that should not be relied upon. It is worth watching the K trail mark because at a point it bends left through the trees and approaches the highest block of the mountain range, Ökör-hegy. So far, the hilly terrain genuinely "tightens" into mountainous: the extremely steep climb is made more difficult by fallen beech trunks. Higher up, on a wide transport road, almost level and then slightly rising, through mixed forest, we reach the peak of the Vajdavár region, Ökör-hegy, where a stamp hide box hangs on a wooden post along the route.

Ökör-hegy – Járdánháza: a thousand faces of the Gyepes valley

A short detour to the 541-meter summit is worth it because the clearing on the other side offers splendid views to the Mátra ridge and the Bükk plateau, as well as the low ridges of the mountain range. It is also an excellent place for camping, and it is advisable to break the mountain crossing here. On the other side, we initially walk on a wide road, then on a narrow, charming path after larger bends, descending into a valley head. The undisturbed beech forest image disappears on the valley floor, and we step onto asphalt again, but the Gyepes valley is no less interesting than the section behind us.

The area served the intensive logging for the production of coal needed for local ironworks in the first half of the 20th century, thus a narrow-gauge railway once ran the valley, clattering all the way to today's Remete hunting lodge. Opposite a small building surrounded by clear-cuts, a spring emerges, with resinous alder and tall ash appearing along the stream lower down. The visibly diverse wildlife of the valley is notably colorful and rich in specialities: black stork, honey buzzard, and peregrine falcon breed here, and the valley is home to one of the country's last imperial eagle populations. Wolves and lynx frequently pass through the valley, and brown bears have been observed here in the 2020s.

The asphalt continues to Járdánháza, with two places worth exploring en route. One is the Keserű-völgyi guest house operating as accommodation, built in 1942 as a hunting lodge; next to it, a pond shimmers in former trout breeding attempt pools. The next important point is Dobronyatanya, where we find a stamp in a rain shelter. The barrier here symbolizes the mountain range's untouched tourism: in the 2000s, hikers were so rare here, and the hiking infrastructure so neglected, that the forestry station recorded the name and contact details of visitors entering the mountains. On the other side of the road stands the Ivánkai hotel and a decaying hunting lodge built in 1910, beside which Count Károlyi planted apple trees to lure wildlife nearby. From here, the valley widens, and we walk energetically on the asphalt into Járdánháza.