Mědník is a small, steep hill on the Czech side of the Ore Mountains, or Krušné hory, the range that forms the border between Bohemia and Saxony. It rises above the village of Měděnec, whose name, like the hill's, comes from the Czech word for copper. For centuries, miners tunnelled into the hill for copper and iron ore, and the hill is now part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, inscribed by UNESCO in 2019 as a cross-border site.
At the top stands a small Baroque chapel of the Immaculate Conception, and from there the view stretches over the high plateau of the Ore Mountains and down into the valley of the Ohře. The old mine workings can be visited in season; the Mariánská mine adit offers guided tours. The surrounding landscape is the result of centuries of mining: spoil heaps, shafts and the remains of the settlements that grew up around them.
The Ore Mountains have a melancholy beauty. In the twentieth century, Sudeten German communities were expelled after the war, many villages emptied, and pollution from coal burning in the basin below killed forests on the ridges. Much has recovered, but the sense of a frontier landscape remains.
The riding is excellent. The road climbing from Klášterec nad Ohří up to Měděnec and on toward Kovářská and the border crossing at Vejprty winds through forest and over the high plateau, at around eight hundred metres and more, with good bends and views. On the plateau, the roads are open and fast, crossing meadows and spruce forest, while the climbs from the Ohře valley on the southern side are steep and twisting. Weather changes quickly up here: fog, rain and cold are common, and winter brings snow; this is a ski area.
Klášterec nad Ohří, about six kilometres away, is the nearest town of size, with fuel, food and a château with a porcelain museum. The plateau villages are small, so fill up below. Czech roads require a vignette on motorways, but not on these mountain roads. The local beer, as anywhere in Bohemia, is excellent and cheap; try it with goulash and dumplings after a day in the hills.