Penijõe-Aegviidu-Kauksi hiking route 

In 2018, the centenary year of the Republic of Estonia, the third RMK hiking route Penijõe–Aegviidu–Kauksi was opened. The three existing routes now form a network of hiking trails, where hikers can choose the beginning and the end of their journey and, for example, hike from Oandu to Penijõe as all the branches of the hiking route meet at Aegviidu.

The 613-km RMK Penijõe–Aegviidu–Kauksi hiking route, which runs on its way through six counties, starts at Penijõe manor in Matsalu National Park and goes through the open flood meadows of the Kasari river towards Rapla County, where it meanders between bogs, large forests, ancient forts and fields towards Harju County, Paunküla hills and finally to Aegviidu, the capital of hiking.

The longer part of the new route, however, is to the east of Aegviidu. In Lääne-Viru County, the route runs along narrow and high eskers over the Neeruti hills, through abandoned military bases to Tudu wetland area at the border of Ida-Viru County.

In Ida-Viru County, the view on the route changes considerably: there are the industrial landscapes of Kiviõli and Püssi with the semicoke and ash hills, the former open quarry of Aidu and the mining park and museum of Kohtla-Nõmme. Also the tall semi-coke plateaus of Kohtla-Järve can be seen from the route.

On the northern coast, the hiking route goes on and under the high coastal klint and visits Estonia’s highest coastal escarpment at Ontika and highest waterfall at Valaste, offering scenic views on the sea and the forest at the foot of the klint, as far as Sillamäe.

The trail eventually turns to the south and goes through the former battlefields of the Battle of Tannenberg Line and the neglected mining settlements, past the Kurtna lakes, through the forests of Agusalu and Alutaguse to the end point at Kauksi on the northern shore of Lake Peipus.
The trail is signposted and marked with white-yellow-white paint marks.

Additional materials

• Hiking route in Goolge Maps
• Table of distances (.xlsx)