Vitosha, Peak Ushite 2024

Pictures from our hike today on Vitosha, on another very sunny, very hot day. We had planned a hike from Zlatnite mostove to Cherni vruh, but only 100 m into the hike I realized, that we had forgotten the sunscreen. The trail to Cherni vruh passes mostly through the bare alpine part of the mountain, and up in the open, under the scorching sun without sunscreen seemed a very bad idea. 

So, we quickly reorganized, turned and started in the opposite direction, to peak Ushite - a shorter and easier hike mostly through the forested part of the mountain. The peak itself is in the open and we did get quite a lot of sunshine, but much, much less, that we would have been exposed to, if we had followed our initial plan.

Another plus side of our revised plan, apart from the fact, that we climbed a new to us peak and that is always exciting, was the fact, that the tracks we chose were almost empty and the peak was also very unpopular, so we were able to enjoy some real mountain peace and quiet.

The raspberries were already ripe and we did eat quite a lot of these :)

The plateau and peak Kamen Del in the distance

Peak Kamen Del a bit up close. It is one of the most popular peaks on Vitosha and it was like a public gathering there - such a contrast to peak Ushite, where we were the only tourists almost the entire time we were there.

Hike info:

Date: 28 July 2024

Destination: peak Ushite (1906 m) along circular trail

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 11.6 km

Elevation gain: 516 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 4.5 hours

Average difficulty: 4 / 10

Peak Ushite - like almost all peaks on Vitosha (there must be a geological explanation somewhere), the peak itself is an enormous pile of rocks with no particular path to the top.

Cranberries - I don't think I've ever seen so many and so big in the wild. We did have quite a few, although I wouldn't call myself exactly a fan.

Finally closing in on the top

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Cargo pants

I: lingerie, Sabrina Slims II

We had our lunch on a rock, with a view to Kamen del, Kopitoto and Sofia

The sight to the east - the plateau and Maluk Rezen, Golyam Rezen and Cherni Vruh in the distance

Moonlight LDT Dress

There is a tendency each summer for me, to sew identical clothes, which I feel lacking in my wardrobe in a particular point of time. Some years it was Rhapsodies, last year it was yoke tunics, this year its wide short viscose dresses. The latter is no wonder, given the unusual high temperatures we've been having for a second month already.

So, after I finished my last LDT short dress, which I absolutely love to wear, I remembered a piece of fabric I was left with after finishing my mother's nightgown. It is super soft, super tender to the skin viscose knit fabric, which felt perfect for a casual lounge dress.

I used again the LDT, short dress length, the smallest size, which, given how huge American sizing is, is enormous on me. However that was exactly what I was looking for in these hot days. I fidgeted a bit with the shoulders and the arm openings, as the original tank top upper part of the dress is too cut out for my taste. The alternative design, however, intended for sleeves, is too wide - in the end I cut something in between with 6.5 wide shoulders. Next time I might even go to 6 cm wide, or alternatively, use again the tank top version, but with armhole bands.

Pattern: Laundry Day Tee

Size: XS

Fabric: viscose knit

Time to make: 3 days

Do I have now enough short viscose dresses for this summer? IDK, I might need just one more :)

Bright Red Tunic

Last year I made three LDT tunics to be worn with leggings and I still love them and wear them a lot. However, summer this year is so hot, that I found that I prefer a longer tunic to be worn like a short dress without any shorts or leggings. I took out my old LDT dress, now much faded and worn out and came to the conclusion, that I would like something similar out of cotton/viscose knit, but without the sleeves.

I was planning a trip to the fabric shop, but I remembered, that I had a fairly large remnant of cotton-viscose fabric from the T-shirt I made for my husband last summer. As l liked the idea of color combos, with which I experimented in these tunics, I found some matching colorful remnant from this blouse  and I am totally in love with the way these two work together.

I chose the tank top version of the Laundry Day Tee, with the added 3 cm wide armhole bands. It seemed to me, that the wider bands kind of brought the two fabrics better together, but I might be wrong. I'm planning a second short dress out of fabric remnants and I'm going to experiment with narrow finishing bands, so we'll see.

Pattern: Laundry Day Tee

Size: XS

Fabric: bright red cotton-viscose knit and cotton knit

Time to make: 5 days

As my piece of fabric was wide but short, I had to cut the back at the same length as the front. I didn't have enough flowery fabric for the back yoke, so I cut it out of the main fabric. I think it works perfectly like that, with the flower accent at the front and the solid back.

I spent the whole day today working from home in this short dress and I can tell you - it's a winner for the hot days :)

Rilska Skakavitza 2024

The valley of Rilska Skakavitza river is one of those places in Rila, that we love to visit at least once a year. The trail is not very difficult, its length is average and the scenery is always breathtaking. And as always with nature - it is different every time. This time it was empty - absolutely shockingly empty- there was no one at the waterfalls in the middle of summer but us! Probably because it was a work day and these are also days of extreme heat in Bulgaria and people were maybe cautious to go out, but the fact is, that there were very few people along the way and none at the waterfalls. On the other hand, there were no raspberries - it is still a bit early for them in the high mountains, so we'll have to wait a bit for the wild berry gorging during our summer hikes.

Despite the hot day, the air at 2000 m was actually quite pleasant, and we could even have our picnic in the open without burning alive :)

Rilska Skakavitza lodge - we had a quick power snack here and refilled our water bottles, before we continued to the waterfall.

Hike info:

Destination: Rilska Skakavitza Waterfalls

Mountain: Rila

Total length: 13 km

Elevation gain: 585 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 5 and a half hours

Average difficulty: 4 / 10 

Rilska Skakavitza river

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxer shorts, Burda cargo pants, Burda blouse

I: lingerie, Love Notions LDT tunic

At this altitude the valleys are still luscious green and abundant with flowers

As usual, we climbed up the trail to approx. one third of the height of the waterfalls

As is our tradition, we had our prolonged picnic on the rocks right in the middle of the river, surrounded by its cool spray and rumble. There's nothing more refreshing like cooling your tired feet in the ice cold waters of a mountain creek.

An unexpected and a bit disturbing encounter - a viper on the path. Husband carefully removed it aside in the grass with the help of the hiking sticks and we continued without any accidents. However, I should mention, that to my astonishment, it was not at all scared of us and didn't try to run away, but rather seemed a bit annoyed and aggressive.

Burda Cargo Pants

I finally finished husband's new cargo pants, which I had been planning since last year - and I am not happy at all. This is only my third Make Nine in 2024, it seems I won't be making all the patterns I chose at the beginning of the year, again.

The pattern is #129 from an old Burda magazine - 04 / 2010. A curious detail - I bought the pattern a long while ago from the Burda.ru site together with the women's jeans pattern from the same issue and this year I made both of these patterns. BTW, the whole issue seems to be full of great patterns and if I come upon it at a reasonable price, I might consider buying it.

The main issues I have with the new pants are the pockets and the size - both remediable and not issues of the pattern itself but my execution. Although I took my husband's measures carefully, the pants came out really big. I think the reason is that I cut the pieces with very big seam allowances and I probably chose the wrong size from the start. I plan to make him a shorter city version and I'll try the smaller size - if it doesn't fit well, then I'll know the problem is not only in me.

On his first hike with his new pants husband wore them with a belt, as he usually does anyway and he said that the bigger size wasn't such a big problem for him, but a fitting size would still be preferable, obviously.

The other problem are the pockets - they seemed so big, but turned out too shallow for cargo pants, so a new iteration of the pattern would require rethinking of the pocket size, especially the front pockets and the side pockets.

 

Pattern: Burda 129 04 / 2010

Size: 50, lengthened

Fabric: cotton, very densely weaved

Time to make: in the course of a month in between other projects

Cherni Vruh, Skoparnika and Kara Chair July 2024

Last year we started a sort of a collection - the twelve official peaks on Vitosha above the 2000 m. They are known as Vitosha's dozen and up until last July we had only climbed (numerous times) Cherni vruh. In 2023 we went up Maluk Rezen, Selimitza and Samara. This year we decided to continue with our dozen's collection, adding two more peaks - Skoparnika and Karachair (aka Bezimenen).

We started from Aleko hut along the winding trail, so called king's way.

The day was a bit cloudy and with a light chill in the air, just perfect for climbing. The trail to Cherni vruh passes by three of the dozen peaks, but two of them - Luvcheto and Goliam Rezen are said to be in restricted zones, although I've read many descriptions of hikes to these peaks and we'll probably research further and climb them one day.

Peak Luvcheto (2052)

We passed by Maluk Rezen (2182 m), which we climbed last year and Goliam Rezen (2277 m), which is in a prohibited area and climbed Cherni vruh.

Here we had a cup of hot sweet herbal tea in the cafeteria and continued our hike to the two new peaks of the dozen - Skoparnika and Kara Chair

Hike info:

Date: 05 July 2024

Destination: Cherni vruh, Skoparnika, Kara Chair

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 17 km

Elevation gain: 500 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 5 and a half hours

Average difficulty: 4.5 / 10

Cherni vruh, seen from the east

Skoparnika - there was a barely visible trail, but the direction was pretty clear - up.

The top of the peak is very stony

An artistic composition on the peak, representing the four directions

On Skoparnika (2226 м)

The next of the peaks is not far - Kara Chair is easily accessible from Skoparnika along the ridge

A view to the south, where lie the other four of the dozen. Next year we might plan something about them

On Kara Chair (2208m)

After Karachair we took the trail down, towards Kupena lodge. The trail was not properly marked on the map and we lost it at some point and continued down directly through the grasses and stones.

We had our picnic here, on the grass, among the beautiful pink flowers

Once near Kupena Lodge, we took the trail back to Aleko

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers

I: lingerie, Sabrina Slims I, Burda raglan blouse