Lovoš to Milešovka

A two-day 36.4 km traverse of the České středohoří from Malé Žernoseky to Bílina, over Lovoš and Milešovka.

The walk starts at the Malé Žernoseky stop, an easy Friday-afternoon train ride from Prague.

Day one — Lovoš and the Oparno valley

The route gets straight to work: the climb of Lovoš begins almost from the platform. The summit hut serves beer at weekends, and the view from the top — the Labe below, Milešovka ahead — lays out the rest of the route. The descent drops into the Opárenské údolí, a rocky little valley with the Opárno castle ruin above it, and the day can end comfortably in Velemín: Motorest Velemín has always been reliable whenever I’ve eaten there.

We pushed on instead and climbed Milešovka in the last light, sleeping on the summit in sleeping bags — dawn from the highest hill of the středohoří is worth the heavy pack, but count on the name “thunder mountain” being earned and check the forecast before you copy this.

Day two — down to Kostomlaty and across the spoil heaps

The morning drops off Milešovka’s west side to Kostomlaty pod Milešovkou, watched over by its castle ruin; the village pub U Kamila is a good early stop. From there the route crosses quieter hills and then a landscape of a different kind — the recultivated Radovesice spoil heap country left by the Bílina coal mine, young woods and long straight tracks where a village once stood. We slept the second night out here. Bílina, with its chateau above the river, has the railway station for the ride back to Prague.