The Seven Rila Lakes 2025

The second half of August this year is kind of cold and even rainy, with occasional thunderstorms in the mountains. I wanted very much to visit the Seven Rila Lakes this summer and when I checked the weather forecast for last week and noticed, that the only perfect day for a hike there was Thursday - the dice was cast - we had to free Thursday and drive to Rila. 

It was not an easy task, as on Wednesday, apart from a lot of work, we had our goodbye dinner with Gaby and her boyfriend and I wanted to dedicate our last day together to them, but we managed. Thursday, at 10:30 we were at the lower lift station of the Seven Rila Lakes. We, and everybody else and their granny, so we had to wait on a long queue for the lift, but around 11:40 we were finally at the Rila lakes hut - the start of the track.

Two years ago we came up with a route, that passes by the lakes and even a few other lakes, but mostly escapes the major tourist tracks. We decided to follow it this year too and I am so happy we did, as hiking with the crowd is definitely not my idea of a perfect hike day.

As promised, the day was warm and sunny, with some cooling wind. We kept a good pace and an hour and a half into the hike we were at the Panitza lake, where we had a small pause and a snack before the big climb to the Green ridge (Zeleni rub).

The two Panitza lakes from above

Finally on the Green ridge, with some of Urdini lakes at the background

On Zeleni peak, two of the Seven Rila lakes and the big Paniza lake down behind me

Razdela, the crossroad of some major trails in Rila

The Malyovitza ridge, with some of our favourite peaks, including Ushite, where we recently climbed

Pazar dere and the Kalin peaks, with Ivan Vazov hut 

From Razdela we took a trail along the Otovitza ridge, towards peak Otovitza. The Eyedrop (Salzata) lake

The obligatory photo with all of the seven lakes at a glance. This is the only place from the ground, where one can see all of the lakes at once

Hike info:

Destination: Mt. Otovitza (2696 m)

Mountain: Rila

Total length: 18 km

Elevation gain: 600 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 6 hours

Average difficulty: 6.5 / 10 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Burda cargo pants, Grey Burda hoodie

I: lingerie, Sabrina Slims, Burda henley blouse, hoodie

We had our late lunch on Otovitza peak and from there we started down the steep trail towards the Eye (Okoto) lake

A short photo pause at the Eye - the deepest (35 m) and my most favourite of the Seven lakes

The Kidney lake

From Bubreka (The Kidney lake) we took the lower trail by the rest of the lakes - the Twins, the Trefoil, the Fish lake and the Lower lake.

With some really delicious raspberry eating we managed the hike in just 6 hours, quite a nice athletic tempo, just in time for the lift back to the car and the long drive back to Sofia. Next year we plan a two day hike around the lakes, combined with the Skakavitza waterfalls, but we'll see if that happens :)

Bistritza Aleko 2025

I've been so berried in work and engagements lately, that I have time neither for my hobbies nor for blogging. Gaby was visiting us, then her boyfriend joined us and we had some wonderful time together. Meanwhile husband and I have been using every possibility to hike in the mountains, as summer is so short and before we know it, it will be over. I don't want to leave blanks in my diary blog, so here is a short recap of our previous hike.

Last Friday husband and I decided to do a repeat of a route we designed two years ago - from the village of Bistritza to Aleko hut along the Bistritza river and then back to Bistritza along the Yanchovska river. Both trails run through the Bistrishko banishte preserved area.

The trails are picturesque and fairly easy, despite the significant altitude gain.

The major impediment to our progress were actually not the rivers, the steepness or the insects, but the ripe raspberries :) They were really plentiful,extra big and super ripe and sweet. We ate, until we had stomach pains and then we decided to collect some, filling our lunch boxes with soft berries.

Hike info:

Date:  15 August 2025

Destination: Aleko Hut, round trail

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 16 km

Elevation gain: 740 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 5 and a half hours with raspberry picking and eating

Average difficulty: 5 / 10 

The day was a bit cloudy, with some chillness at Aleko hut.

We had our lunch at the hut - tortillas and the hit of the summer - cinnamon cookies.

On the way back we continued to fill the lunch boxes with raspberries, until we got fed up with eating and picking. The trail along Yanchovska river is probably a bit steeper, but very scenic and beautiful, I liked it a lot.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxer shorts, Burda blouse, Burda hoodie

I: lingerie, Love Notions LDT tunic, Love Notions joggings

As we got home, we decided to make raspberry jam with the berries we had gathered and for our efforts we got four and a half jars of very delicious jam - probably the best I've made so far our of raspberries. The quality of the fruit does matter and these were really superb berries. If we decide to hike there next year, we'll probably should eat less and gather more :)

Peak Ushite, Rila 2025

Last Saturday Gaby, husband and I did one of the best hike for this year, to peak Ushite in Rila. The trail is new to us and was very interesting, challenging and extremely rewarding.

The day was sunny and warm, absolutely perfect for a hike in Rila. We started from the parking lot at the Central Mountain Station towards hut Malyovitza.

The trail to the hut winds by the Malyovitza river.

Hut Malyovitza - we filled our bottles of water here and continued towards the first terrace - this part of the trail coincides with the trail to peak Malyovitza.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Burda T-shirt

I: lingerie, Burda raglan T-shirt, Burda shorts, Love Notions Sabrina Slims

From the first terrace our trail takes a detour through the steep Ovcharski chute.

Up the chute towards the ridge

Finally we are near the Malyovitza lakes

We passed by the first lake 

and stopped for a short break at the second of the three lakes.

The place was packed with ripe blueberries and we ate handfuls of them.

At the third lake - the three lakes are connected by a small river.

On the ridge towards peak Ushite

A view to the three lakes from above

Peak Ushite - a very peculiar looking rock formation

The objective is achieved -  on peak Ushite

The vast views towards the valley of Urdina river, peak Malyovitza above us and the sea of Rila peaks near and far was so breathtaking!

Here we saw three falcons and an eagle - I hadn't seen one in ages - they are really big and impressive!

Hike info:

Destination: Ushite peak round trail (2547 m)

Mountain: Rila

Total length: 16 km

Elevation gain: 850 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 7 hours

Average difficulty: 7 / 10

On the way back we took an alternative trail down the opposite slope of Ushite, through the grass, directly down to the first Malyovitza lake.

Walking down through the grass valley without any trail was surprisingly very pleasant

By the first Malyovitza lake

From the lakes we took the long and very steep Rabbit trail back to Malyovitza hut. A herd of wild deer ran past us and up the nearby slope, where they stopped to graze!

Unlike on other hikes, when going down is the easy part, the Rabbit trail was so steep, that going down it was quite an adventure

This hike was definitely one of the highlights of our hiking season this summer!