Running · Pressegger See, Hermagor, Austria · recorded with NomadTracks

The Slow Trail around the Pressegger See: a 5.7 km reed-belt loop

Not every recording is a summit day. This one is a flat, easy loop of about 5.7 kilometers — a little over half an hour at an unhurried run, with plenty of photo stops — around the Pressegger See near Hermagor, in the Gail valley of Carinthia in southern Austria.

It follows the marked “Slow Trail” the whole way round: from the Strandbad at the north shore, out through the reed belt and lakeside meadows, past the hamlet of Paßriach and back. The lake lies in a broad green valley between the Gailtal Alps and the Carnic Alps, and the trail rarely leaves the water's edge.

Distance5.7 km
Elevation gain43 m
ActivityRunning
Duration35 min

About this data: this track and its photos were personally shared with us as samples by a NomadTracks user. NomadTracks never uploads, collects or shares your tracks or photos — your recordings stay on your devices and in your own cloud.

Route map of The Slow Trail around the Pressegger See: a 5.7 km reed-belt loop drawn from the recorded GPS points on an OpenStreetMap basemap
The actual recorded GPS track — start marked green, finish orange. Numbered pins mark where the photos below were taken.

Download GPX Coordinates, elevation and relative times — recording dates are normalized out, photos not included.

Elevation profile of the track
Elevation profile over the full distance. Switch the map above to interactive mode, then slide across the chart — a marker follows the route.
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Austria's warmest swimming lake

The Pressegger See is shallow and spring-fed, and remarkably warm: in summer the water climbs to around 28 °C, which makes it one of the warmest bathing lakes in Austria — locals call it the “bathtub of the Gailtal”. It is also of drinking-water quality. The loop touches the bathing meadows and lido at the north end, where that warm, clear water is the whole point; the rest of the shoreline stays wild.

The second-largest reed belt in Austria

Most of the shore is not beach but reed. The Pressegger See is embedded in the second-largest reed area in Austria, with stands up to three meters high, and it is a protected wetland: water lilies and mare's-tail on the surface, great crested grebes and rare dragonflies in the reeds. The Slow Trail threads paths and boardwalks through this belt, which is why so much of the run passes green walls of reed rather than open water.

A “Slow Trail” you can run

The Slow Trails are a Carinthian series of short, deliberately unhurried nature walks, each with interpretive stations that invite you to slow down — like the “Tanke neue Kräfte” panel in the photos. The Pressegger See loop is about 5.8 km, and taken gently it's a flat half-hour circuit. The recorded track came in at 5.7 km, matching the official trail length almost exactly.

Why record a flat lakeside loop

The elevation profile barely moves — a range of about 30 meters across the whole loop — and that is exactly why it's worth showing: not every worthwhile track is a climb. The recording keeps the precise distance, the real pace, and every photo dropped onto the map where it was taken, so the shape of an easy circuit around the reeds is preserved. The GPX downloads with coordinates and relative times for anyone who wants to run or walk the same loop.

About the place: Pressegger See, Hermagor, Austria

The Pressegger See lies near Hermagor in the Gail valley of Carinthia, in southern Austria, embedded in the second-largest reed belt in the country and framed by the Gailtal Alps to the north and the Carnic Alps to the south. Shallow and spring-fed, it warms to around 28 °C in summer — one of the warmest bathing lakes in Austria, and of drinking-water quality — while its shoreline is a protected wetland of three-meter reeds, water lilies, great crested grebes and rare dragonflies. The marked Slow Trail, about 5.8 km, loops from the Strandbad Hermagor around the lake through the reeds.

An elevated view over the Pressegger See — the green, spring-fed lake ringed by its reed belt, with the wooded Gailtaler Alpen rising across the Gail valley
1 · An elevated view over the Pressegger See — the green, spring-fed lake ringed by its reed belt, with the wooded Gailtaler Alpen rising across the Gail valley
The reed belt around the Pressegger See is the second-largest in Austria, with stands of reed up to three meters tall
2 · The reed belt around the Pressegger See is the second-largest in Austria, with stands of reed up to three meters tall
A “Slow Trail” station in the reeds, its panel mapping the loop from the Strandbad Hermagor around the lake
3 · A “Slow Trail” station in the reeds, its panel mapping the loop from the Strandbad Hermagor around the lake
The still, drinking-water-clear water of the Pressegger See seen through the trees from the trail
4 · The still, drinking-water-clear water of the Pressegger See seen through the trees from the trail
The flat lakeside path through the meadows on the south shore near Paßriach
5 · The flat lakeside path through the meadows on the south shore near Paßriach
A lakeside bathing meadow beside the lake — in summer the Pressegger See warms to about 28 °C, one of the warmest swimming lakes in Austria
6 · A lakeside bathing meadow beside the lake — in summer the Pressegger See warms to about 28 °C, one of the warmest swimming lakes in Austria

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