Ushite Peak, Vitosha 2026

 This is our second hike to peak Ushite on Vitosha and it is now in my list of favourite trails. The track starts from Zlatnite mostove - a major hub on Vitosha with trails in all directions, plenty of lodges and a few parking lots. As is our habit, when the weather permits it, we chose a Friday for our hike, as the access to the mountain by car is much easier on work days and the crowds are thinner, which is very noticeable in the summer.

The day was the first after a sequence of rainy days with thunderstorms and the heatwave had not hit yet, so it was pleasantly chill and a bit cloudy. 

The forests in May and June are at their best, IMHO, lush and green, and the rivers are at their fullest. 

Hike info:

Date: 05 June 2026

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 and a half hours

Average difficulty: 4 / 10

Once we got to the plateau, we were in the realm of clouds, which breezed by and through us most of the time we spent there. Peak Ushite in the distance at the center of the picture:

The trail to the peak on our maps passed through large boulders and low shrubs. It was a struggle to climb up, it was not marked and we had to free-style it most of the time.

On the peak, which is a pile of enormous boulders without a name plaque - I suppose they will provide it soon, as these are appearing lately on most of the hitherto unmarked peaks on Vitosha.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Cargo pants, Burda hoodie, Burda T-shirt

I: lingerie, Burda color jeans, Burda raglan blouse

A view to plateau with Cherni Vruh in the distance

Peak Kamen Del across the track - the popular cousin of peak Ushite 

We found a sheltered spot on a couple of rocks, with a glorious view to the plateau, and spent a delightful hour, eating our tortillas and homemade muffins and drinking in the cold beer and the views.

From our lunch place we noticed an alternative trail, much easier and clearly discernible. We'll know for next time, as climbing up boulders is not my favourite pastime (my husband seems to love it, for some inexplicable reason :)  )

And back to Zlatnite along an alternative trail. We passed by Momina skala meadow again and I picked some more fresh nettles and dock leaves. My freezer is getting filled up with the green goodies, while I can still find them young and delicate.

Oven Mitts

I know that some seamstresses frown upon sewing household items, while on the other end of the spectrum - some are afraid of fitting and measuring and prefer to limit their hobby to non-clothes items. 

I am omnivorous - I love the challenge of clothes making, but I don't shy away from sewing curtains, table-cloths, cushion covers, bed linen - all kinds of practical items, that are needed in a household.

Last year I made a pair of kitchen curtains for Gaby's apartment and this year I added two table-cloths and a set of cushion-covers for their kitchen chairs. I had really small leftover from both fabrics, so last month I decided on a whim, to use them to make two pairs of oven mitts - one for Gaby and one for myself.

Gaby's set consists of one oven mitt and one pot holder, one side pistachio green and the other printed. I downloaded the free pattern from hallosewing - it is easy to print and comes with clear instructions. The lining is ranforce cotton, remnants from bed linen I made for my son, and I had the batting in my stash from previous projects. The whole idea was that these small items were to be some stash busting, so no new material was bought for these.

My set consists of two identical oven mitts, with both sides of the mitts combining the two fabrics, not out of some fancy, but as I had only very limited scraps of the green fabric left. I tested my pair of mitts with some baking today and so far I am very pleased with my new kitchen acquisition.

Although I found the making of these mitts fun, I'm not sure I would make any more any time soon - it did take a lot of time and effort and oven mitts are easily obtainable for a couple of euros in the kitchenware isle at the local supermarkets :) But we'll see, the mitts bug might bite me again, I have so many more fabric scraps.

Round Trail from Dendrarium 2026

The Vitosha forests in May and early June are so wonderful! We enjoyed our hike to Kopitoto on Monday so much, the weather kept sunny and warm, so we decided to continue our hikes in the region.

For our Friday hike we chose a round trip we had designed two years ago, a sort of a figure eight around Momina skala place. Starting from the Dendrarium area, we climbed to Momina skala meadow, from there on we continued to Kamen del lodge, closed the smaller circle, passing by the abandoned Sredetz lodge back to Momina skala and from there we returned to the Dendrarium through Zlatnite mostove along an alternative trail - very nice, relaxed and easy 10 km hike through the middle altitude of Vitosha.

Hike info:

Date: 29 May 2026

Destination: Kamen del Hut

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 10 km

Elevation gain: 370 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 4 hours

Average difficulty: 3.5 / 10

An interesting encounter on the meadow - a deer. The deer seemed not to notice or mind us, though we were probably less than 20 m away. It looked calmly in our direction and then slowly continued its walk through the forest.

The Momina skala meadow - a very popular place on Vitosha. While we were passing through the place, there was a class of school graduates, celebrating their graduation with games and a picnic,  really sweet!

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Burda cargo pants, Burda  hoodie

I: lingerie, Burda color jeans, Burda raglan T-shirt, Burda hoodie

The Kamen del lodge. We decided to postpone our lunch until we were back to Momina skala, so we just passed by the lodge and continued up to Sredetz lodge.

The Boyana river

Back to Momina skala. This time we chose a sunny table with benches and had our super tasty tortillas and homemade muffins here. Husband had a short sunbathe, while I picked a bag of young nettles. We stayed at least an hour here, the weather was so nice and the place very peaceful.

Another wild animal encounter - a common slow worm (slepok), a species of legless lizard, was crossing the trail from Zlatnite mostove down to Dendrarium.

The Dendrarium - a picnic place with a variety of trees, a small lake and picnic benches and gazebos. 

Kopitoto in May 2026

I've been dealing with a health issue for almost a month now and though nothing can stop me from hiking, unless I am bedridden or dead, we try to choose shorter and easier trails to be on the safe side.

For today's hike we chose a favourite circular trail on Vitosha in the mid-altitude zone, that we hike at least twice a year and which is absolutely spectacular in May.

We started from Zlatnite mostove and took the path to Kopitoto peak.

The warm wet weather in May has turned the mountain into a green paradise.

Hike info:

Date: 25 May 2026 

Destination: peak Kopitoto (1345 m)

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 8 km

Elevation gain: 140 m

Total duration (plus picnic): 3 hours

Average difficulty: 3 / 10

Kopitoto TV Tower

The views from Kopitoto towards Lulin mountain and Sofia

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Burda grey hoodie, cargo pants

I: lingerie, Sinclair Lotte sweater, leg warmers

After Kopitoto we continued to Boyana river and had our lunch on our favourite meadow along this trail - our delicious tortillas - yes, we are still obsessed with them and homemade muffins.

The Boyana river is very full-watered at this time of the year

We passed by Momina skala meadow, where I picked a bag of nettles and some docks leaves, and from there on we closed the circle back to Zlatnite mostove.