ubytování a restaurace Liberec

   Liberec-Machnin (train station, green marked tourist trail) – Srni sedlo (crossroads) 3 km – Rozsocha 1 km – sedlo pod Cernou horou 4 km – sedlo Na Vyprezi (crossroads, yellow marked tourist trail) 6 km – Kamenna vrata6,5 km – U Cerveneho kamene (crossroads, red marked tourist trail) 7,5 km – rozcesti pod vrcholem Jestedu (forest turn to the top) 9 km – vrchol Jestedu 9,5 km

   A very popular trip for Liberec locals, but because of its highish elevation (cca 700 metres) also quite a difficult one. It combines in itself the rich and moist floodplains of the river Nisa near Machnin and the highest windy parts of the Jested Mountain Range. Not suitable for cycling.

From the train station in Machnin we follow the marked trail along a road which connects this Liberec suburb with Krystofovo Udoli and walk through a little grove towards big tenement blocks built in the late 19th and the early 20th Centuries for workers from the textile factory nearby. The factory was founded in the Nisa valley under Hamrstejn in 1826 as one of the first textile factories in the Liberec region. Former co– owners Siegmund and Neuhäuser later transferred the entire production to Adolf Schwab. He had a very romantic family chateau built for himself by the Liberec building company Gustav Sachers in 1882. This chateau was protected by a massive wall imitating the medieval fortification of the nearby located Hamrstejn (gates, shooting collonade, etc.). The green marked trail leaves the road at the half–timbered house of this closed to the public opened place and turns into the forest. It then rises steeply through mixed forest up to the railway line. Behind the railway line we enter the most precious nature reserve in the entire Jestedi – The Karlovske buciny National Nature Reserve. We walk through this reserve along the yellow marked trail (see trip no. 7) and up into Srni sedlo (Roe Saddle) with its various trails and paths in all directions. The green marked trail climbs up from here, partially through a hollow way, to the top of Rozsocha (767 m) formerly known also as Trisaznik (Dreiklafterberg) (Three six footer) after the old measure – six feet.

The Nisa below Hamrstejn

   From Rozsocha the trail runs down and without much elevation crosses the top of Kaliste (745 m), which also used to have another Czech name – Souplace being a distortion of its original German Sauplatsche (Swine Hollow). On the southern slope of Kaliste there are prominent metadiabas Ptaci kameny (Bird stones).

   Slowly we come closer to the saddle under Cerna hora (Black Mountain), and will soon cross a quiet forest path into Krystofovo Udoli. This crossroads on a clearing in the middle of a deep pine forest with a timber table invites a little stop before a steep climb to the top of Cerna hora (Black Mountain) (811 m). Cerna hora is the most outstanding peak in this part of the mountain range. The two peaks of one hill look like a saddle when seen from Liberec. Near its northern peak there is a massive quartzite rock field with a few outstanding rocks (it is located outside the green marked trail and it is easily accesible through a forest path from the saddle under Cerna hora to the saddle Na Vyprezi). Almost at the top there is a sandstone guard stone from the 18th Century. The top offers partial views of Liberec and also of the opposite side towards the west. We should also mention that only a few hundred metres away on the west slope is the source of the river Rokytka and it flows further down through Krystofovo Udoli.

The cairn on Cerna hora

   We walk down following the forest path and in a short while come out from the forest onto the saddle Na Vyprezi (769 m n. m.). The name Vyprez comes from the times when wagoners used to unharness their additional horses here, which they hired down in Podjestedi for an easier walk up the steep hill. The older name Tetrevi sedlo (Auerhahnsattel) (Wood grouse Saddle), less used these days, reminds us of wood grouses uttering the mating call (on the slope of Cerna hora there is a place with a similar name – Wood grouse Call). The main road connecting the Liberec region with Podjestedi (region under Jested) was built here between 1863 – 1867. Before that a net of old roads connected the same area. A little cottage – Wippelbaude once stood at Vyprez, but there are only remnants of a cellar there now, forming a part of the new refreshment stand. A big stone obelisk is also worth mentioning – this interesting monument with a carved sign of a mountain range with four peaks resembling Hrebenovka (Range trail) or Kammweg was originally a historical tourist crossroads stone from the beginning of the 20th Century.

An overgrown sign post at Na Vyprezi

   One of the two new instructional trails starts here at Vyprez. These trails were established in Jestedi (the Jested region) by the Jizera – Jested Mountain Club. The instructional trail of the Jested Terrace is 13 km long, follows the contour line around the peak of Jested and has 12 stops with tourist information about natural and historical monuments of the National Nature Reserve Jested and the region around it.

   Our trail is paralel wih the first part of this yellow marked trail; we walk through thick growths of spruce behind the carpark and in a short while arrive at one of the most beautiful rock formations in Jestedi – Kamenna vrata (Stone Gate) (see below). We continue through the rather unknown west slope of Jested with its many nice views of Podjestedi, Ralska pahorkatina and Luzicke hory.

   We will soon be able to see the massive rocks of Cerveny kamen (The Red Stone) (841 m), named after the bright red layers of iron oxides covering the white quartzite stone blocks. Cerveny kamen is the most prominent quartzite formation of the south–west slope of Jested and is visible from the entire Podjestedi area. Quartzite blocks contain pieces of clear milky white quartz, which also fills some fissures.

   Here we meet the red marked trail which we will follow up the hill past Mohyla letcu (Pilots‘ gravestone) (see trip no. 5) to the crossroads under the peak of Jested. We will climb to the top of Jested (1 012 m) following a path through dwarf pine.

   Kamenna vrata (Stone Gate)
   Stone Doors are visible from far away and thanks to its unusual shapeit belongs to some of the most beautiful rock formations in the area around the peak of Jested. Its stone wall with a big stone gate is approximately 16 m long and in its highest point up to 8 m high. Such a bizzare rock formation would have always played with people’s fantasy. The gamekeeper Höbel from Horni Paseky showed it in the 19th Century to the writer Karolina Svetla. She was so amazed by the Stone Gate that she set one of the smuggler scenes in her libretto to the famous opera "Hubicka" in it. There are also numerous tales about devils set in the landscape around Kamenna vrata. In the forest only a few hundred metres to the south–west we can find another massive rock formation officially known as Dulni skaly (Mining rocks), but more often traditionally called Kukstejn (from German Guckstein, meaning Lookout rocks). On the least accessible side in one of the rocks a short but very mysterious gallery is hidden – Kuksloch, where the ghost of Jested is said to have lived. He was sort of an analogy of Krakonos. The tales say that during windy nights mountain dwarfs walk around in the rocks between Kukstejn and Kamenna vrata and guard treasure boxes filled with gold and silver burried and hidden in secret undiscovered galleries. Other tales say that witches meet here and at those times a wild chase – a pack of dogs following a wild huntsman – flies around above the entire mountain range in search of a deer with the golden cross between its antlers.

The stone gate