Pancharevo Late Autumn 2025

 Winter is coming :)

The weather this week is cold and wet, with almost incessant drizzling. The forecast for Sunday was a bit more optimistic, with clouds, but no rain in the morning, so husband and I packed the tortillas and a flask of hot tea and went to Pancharevo lake.

The hike on Pancharevo is more like a walk in the park rather than a real mountain hike, but still better than staying indoors. We switched our gears on max speed and walked the less than 7 km of the round trail in almost no time, managing to squeeze the hike between the raindrops. It did start drizzling again once we were back in the car.

 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Burda cargo pants

I:  lingerie, Chaika sweater, CC copycat hat, Zerda knitted gloves, purple snood

Hike info:

Date: 30 November 2025 

Destination: lake Pancharevo

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 7 km

Elevation gain: 130 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): about 2 hours

Average difficulty: 1 / 10

 

The trail was a bit muddy and slippery, but all in all easy to tread.

The vibe in the lower mountains is still autumnal.

We started from the Kokalyane end of the lake and reached the wall of the dam at German along the upper mountain trail and returned to the parking lot near Kokalyane along the lower alley by the lake.

The lake is home to plenty of birds and I love to watch them with our binoculars. It was fun to have our tortillas on the steps of the grandstand and enjoy the calm lake life.

Birds on Pancharevo

One of the presents we received for Christmas was a pair of binoculars. So, for our first hiking in the new 2025 we decided to go to the nearest lake to our home - Pancharevo, to have a walk in the forest and do some bird watching.

Unlike our latest hike here in November, this time the trails were much more difficult to walk, because of the icy surface. We are actually planning a visit to the nearest Decathlon sports shop for a pair of crampons - easy trails can quickly become dangerous when the sun during the day and the icy cold temperatures during the night turn them into ice rings.

There were hundreds of ducks on the ice, which we observed first from above and then up close from the lake.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Knipmode cargo pants, Burda Hoodie, Orange Hat

I:  lingerie, Burda blouse, Red cardigan, CC copycat hat

Hike info:

Destination: lake Pancharevo

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 7 km

Elevation gain: 130 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 2 and a half hours

Average difficulty: 2 / 10

Apart from the many ducks, there were also cormorants and herons.

We found a nice spot near the lake, with tree trunks to sit on, were we had our warm tee and sandwiches and watched the birds on the ice. A good start of our hiking year :)