August 1, 1953
The oldest official hiking track in Europe made its debut in Slovenia, which was a part of Yugoslavia at the time and would become an independent country in 1991. The Slovenian Mountain Hiking Trail — originally called Slovenian Mountain Transversal No. 1 — made its debut with a total of 80 “control points” along the way to help guide those walking on that long-distance route.
An especially strong advocate for creating the trail was Professor Ivan Šumljak, an authority on mountain hiking in that corner of the world. In 1950, he submitted a detailed proposal to the Slovenian Alpine Association recommending that a number of the region’s various footpaths be connected into a single blazed trail.
Measuring more than 372 miles (599 kilometers) in length, the Slovenian Mountain Hiking Trail stretches from the city of Maribor in the northeastern part of the country to the southwestern Adriatic coast at the settlement of Ankaran. Between those two points, the trail cuts through such areas as Pohorje, the Julian Alps, the Kamnick-Savinja Alps, and the Karawanks.
The first guided tour of the trail took place in 1958. To date, approximately 9,500 hikers have completed the hike.
For more information on the Slovenian Mountain Hiking Trail, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenian_Mountain_Hiking_Trail.
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