Peak Golyam Kupen 2022

Long time no see :) 

We were busy with some repair works at home, then I hurt my back badly and spent more than two weeks mostly sitting in a reclining chair and trying to find the least hurting position :( I haven't sewn for more than a month now and I itch to go back to my creative hobbies. 

This Saturday I felt sufficiently recovered to go on a fairly easy hike in the higher altitude parts of Vitosha. We walked the trail from Aleko Hut to peak Golyam Kupen and back and even if we had planned it, we couldn't have chosen a more perfect timing for hiking in this part of the mountain - all of the late spring / early summer flowers were in bloom and the mountain was a garden.

:The slopes of the two "Slices" - peak Golyam Rezen and peak Malak Rezen with some patches of snow still melting

:Mountain lilium

Hike info:

Destination: peak Golyam Kupen (1930 m)

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 12.4 km

Elevation gain: 200 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 4 hours

Average difficulty: 4 / 10

 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Knipmode cargo pants

I: lingerie, Burda t-shirt, Sabrina Slims, hoodie in the backpack

 

:Aquilegia aurea (златиста кандилка), a Balkan endemism, protected species

 

:On peak Golyam Kupen (1930 m)

:We had our picnic right at the foot of the peak

Bistritza - Zeleznitza 2022

We've been so busy this last week with some home repairs and improvements, that I had no time for my hobbies and the blog. We even had to cut our Saturday hike to a short and close by destination - the popular Bitritza - Zeleznitza trail and back. 

There is a reason why we rarely hike this so popular trail - it is too crowded, too close to the city and the feeling of detachment from civilization, traffic and people is kind of lost, when there are so many hikers, bikes and even baby prams along the trail.

To compensate for the levelness of the trail and because of our shortage of spare time, we umped our hiking speed and in the end were quite exhausted, but satisfied with the exercise. The weather was lovely, not too hot, the scenery - still freshly green, so all in all - it was a nice hike. However, I doubt we'll choose Bitritza - Zeleznitza any time soon.

Hike info:

Destination: low altitude circuit trail Bistritza - Zeleznitza

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 12 km

Elevation gain: 80 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 3 hours

Average difficulty: 2 / 10 

 

:We had our lunch here, right by the Selska river.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Knipmode cargo pants

I: lingerie, Burda Henley t-shirt, Sabrina Slims, hoodie in the backpack