Velký Bítov: do not turn around at the cross
A 3.6 km loop from Struhadlo where a cross, antenna and picnic table crown the wrong bump, while the 713 m summit waits farther north beside old triangulation remains.
The first place that looks like the summit of Velký Bítov is not the summit. A tall cross, antenna and picnic table give the lower southern bump all the ceremony; the true 713 m high point sits farther north in quieter woodland beside old triangulation remains. The useful rule here is simple: do not turn around at the cross.
I parked in the centre of Struhadlo beside the village monument and bins. The first few minutes were ordinary village walking, except for one fence lined with an improbable collection of old mugs. It was a tiny detail, but on a day built around short forest hills those are often the things that keep one approach from blending into another.
Beyond the last houses, forest roads climbed steadily through logged ground, fenced regrowth and patches of older woodland. About fifteen minutes after leaving the car I reached the lower southern point. Anyone walking without checking the map could reasonably stop there: the cross, antenna and table make it look like a completed summit in a way the real top never does.
From the cross I continued north towards the mapped high point near 49.399784, 13.178474. The upper crest is broad rather than pointed, with leaf litter, woodland and areas of cutting and regrowth. There is no dramatic moment when the terrain announces the summit; the position of the crest and the old survey remains do most of the work.
At the high point, a rusty triangulation post rises from a collapsed stone pile. A summit register box was attached to a nearby tree, although I passed it without signing. My GPX recorded its highest point, 715.7 m, only a few metres away. I treated that as ordinary GPS variation rather than a challenge to the mapped 713 m elevation.
The summit itself is wooded, so the better views came from openings along the route. Cut areas revealed fields, scattered villages and low wooded ridges around the hill, enough to give the short walk some geographical context without pretending this was a panorama summit.
I completed the loop on broader forest and logging roads east of the summit ridge. They made for a quicker return than simply reversing the upper crest.
The full circuit was about 3.6 km with 135 m of recorded ascent and took 47 minutes. The distance was forgettable; the summit logic was not. Velký Bítov puts its most convincing landmark on the wrong bump, then leaves the real top to a rusty triangulation post in the woods farther north.