Pasarel - Lanina Mogila 2025

Our part of the world is being hit by a catastrophic atmospheric setup - a combination of a strong Mediterranean cyclone and an intense cold air outbreak from Russia. The result - heavy rain and floods and early snow in the areas above 600 m altitude. However yesterday was a temporary lull in the overall unstable synoptic situation and we had full use of it - we packed our backpacks and went to Pasarel Reservoir to hike again the Lozen mountain, but along its southern slopes.

Our trail started at Pasarel Reservoir.

On this hike I used one of my recent birthday presents for the first time - a hydration system, consisting of a 2l water bag and a drinking hose with a mouthpiece. I was surprised how much more water I drank during the hike and how easy and accessible drinking was every time I felt the need - and a couple of months ago I had never heard of hydration systems for hikers! I wholeheartedly recommend it now!

Lanina mogila - the final destination of our hike

The high peaks of Rila, freshly covered with snow

Hike info:

Date: 05 October 2025

Destination: peak Lanina Mogila (1188 m)

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 15 km

Elevation gain: 490 m

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

Average difficulty: 4 / 10

We climbed the southern slope of Lanina mogila gliganing style, as we usually do from the south, directly up, finding openings between the trees and bushes. There isn't a proper track to the peak from this side of the mountain, but enough people try to climb it this way, so there were clear traces and enough openings for it to be fairly easy and doable.

Half of Vitosha is now covered with deep fresh snow. Today the rain down in Sofia and snow up in the mountains continues, so the snow cover will be even deeper. Still, I hope the cold weather is just a fluke and we'll have our Indian summer and proper golden autumn sometime soon.

We were not sure what we would find on Lozen, as Lanina mogila is tall enough, but if there was any snow during the heavy snow and rain fall, it had melted.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Burda cargo pants, Burda longsleeve, remodeled black hoodie

I: lingerie, Burda raglan blouse, remodeled blue hoodie, legwarmers, Nalu fingerless mitts

Part of the time on this hike I wore my new hoodie - a ready-made hoodie I bought recently, which I remodeled, adding double welt pockets and a zipper.

We had our extra delicious tortillas and tasty beer with this gorgeous view to Lozen, Plana, Rila and Iskar dam. I've been joking with husband, that when people ask us why we hike, we could answer - to have a lunch with a view :)

We went down the mountain along the marked trail to the west. Only two weeks previously we hiked this part of Lozen with Gaby, dressed in top tanks.

The forests are not ready for the cold weather and are still mostly in their summer mode.

And back to Pasarel Reservoir.

Husband is also wearing a ready-made sweater, which I recently remodeled into a zippered hoodie, adding new sleeve cuffs, a new hem and a zipper.

Once we reached the bridge over the reservoir, we decided to continue along the trail by the shore, to see where it would take us. This part of the trail was not marked on the map, but it obviously existed, so we followed it. It turned to be probably one of the most beautiful parts of the hike - a narrow forest path, running right by the gorgeous green waters of the lake.

The path continued along the lake up to the reservoir wall and an old bridge, now out of exploitation, adding some 2.5 km of picturesque sights to our hike.

Pasarel - Lanina Mogila 2022

On the last of the Indian summer days this year, Gaby, husband and I hiked in the Lozen mountains, from the Pasarel reservoir to peak Lanina Mogila and back. To our surprise, autumn was much advanced here, on the southern slopes of the mountain and most of the trees had lost their leaves, the grass was grayish yellow and the autumnal magic was mostly gone.

Still, the day was warm and sunny through clouds and we had a nice hike and chat with our grown daughter.

Hike info:

Destination: peak Lanina Mogila (1188 m)

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 12 km

Elevation gain: 490 m

Total duration (plus picnic): about 4 hours

Average difficulty: 4.5 / 10

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Knip Mode cargo pants

I: lingerie, Grey "Page" Hoodie, raglan Burda blouse

Pasarel - Lanina Mogila 2021

 On the last of the Indian summer days this year we decided to hike in the Lozen mountain, to one of the interesting panoramic peaks there that we love visiting - Lanina mogila. The mountain is low, but the elevation gain is quite substantial, especially in the final part of the track, where we faced the southern slopes of the peak and went directly uphill without a path or trail, gliganing style.

The day was warm and sunny with clouds before noon and quite overcast in the afternoon, with almost no wind - extremely pleasant and fresh for a walk in the fileds of Lozen mountain.

:Pasarel reservoir

Hike info:

Destination: peak Lanina Mogila (1188 m)

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 12.6 km

Elevation gain: 490 m

Total duration (plus picnic): about 4 hours

Average difficulty: 4.5 / 10

:Lanina mogila in the distance

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: men's boxers, Knip Mode cargo pants

I:  lingerie, socks, Teal Boatneck tee, in the backpack brown cc copycat beanie, fingerless mitts

:Uphill climbing

:On the top, with a view to the big Iskar reservoir in the far distance

:The forests were gorgeous, right in the middle of the autumn color bonanza

:Lanina mogila from the southwest

:The water mirror of Pasarel reservoir

Gorni Lozen - Pasarel 2021

Mud, Sweat and Tears Beer

After two weeks of cold weather and abundant snowfall, yesterday was very sunny and warm, finally a spring day. All in all, March was quite an unusual month, it seemed like the weather reversed and from mid-spring we slowly returned to winter again. So yesterday's hike was a typical winter hike, with the bizarre sensation, that we roamed the same mountain a month earlier, with spring flowers and no snow! Only in February we crossed it from west to the east and yesterday we traversed from north to south.

:We started from the village of Gorni Lozen. A view to the Sofia plateau and the village. Did you know that once, millions of years back in time, this was the bottom of a lake!

:The first half of the trail was still covered with snow and ice and was quite slippery. After an hour of climbing along the frozen snow and mud our legs burnt from the effort to keep balance like after an aerobics exercise!

:We decided to take a detour and climb peak Lanina mogila, following into the steps of a couple of hikers before us

:As we got higher, we could see the large Iskar reservoir and Rila in the far distance. 

:The narrow track to the peak. No wonder we met almost no one on the trail. It was difficult, but quite satisfying!

:We had our picnic at the top (first beer this hiking season:), with this gorgeous view, spreading over almost a hundred km of distance.

:We had planned to go down the peak along an alternative route, but the track was covered by a thick layer of snow and no one had traversed it before us, so we went down along the same trail as we went up.

:The southern part of the trail from Lanina mogila to Pasarel was actually the more difficult one, as the snow was intensely melting and the tracks had turned into muddy creeks, 

while the legit creek, which we had to cross six times without a bridge!, was a full watered river. At the end we were muddy and completely wet up to our knees! At least we'll have stories to tell to our grand children one day :)

:And Pasarel reservoir at the end of our trail. After all that snow the water reservoirs this summer should be full!

Hike info:

Destination: Dolni Lozen - Pasarel

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 12 km

Elevation gain: 470 m

Total duration (plus rest): 4 h

Average difficulty: 6 / 10 

 

 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: boxers, raglan sweater, orange hat in the backpack

I: Plantain T-shirt, lingerie, socks, brown C.C. copycat hat in the backpack