Just a day after we returned from our sea holiday in Greece, husband and i are back in the mountain, in search of the last ripe raspberries.
For our early September hike we chose the trail along the high altitude circuit, between Aleko Hut and Kupena hut. The trail is fairly easy and popular, but on work day at the end of the summer holidays it was almost completely empty - e met only a couple of tourists in both directions.
Although the trail runs mostly in the open, above the pine tree line, and the day was mostly sunny, it was not hot and at times the breeze from the mountain was actually chilly - 2000 m altitude is never to be underestimated :)
Apart from enjoying a nice mountain hike, we had planned to pick some wild raspberries for a few jars of home-made jam, so on the way to the hut we looked around and inspected the bushes. The ones near Aleko hut were long picked and gone, but further away in the mountain there were still plenty to be had.
Me-made items, worn on this hike:
We had our rest and picnic at the foot of peak Golyam Kupen at Kupena Hut (officially named after prof. Ivan Staykov, but nobody calls it that). Unlike our previous hikes to the hut, we decided to skip climbing the peak - the hut was completely empty and the meadow in front of it provided perfect picnic views and amenities. We had our tortillas and beer, followed by home-made muffins, filled with raspberry jam from our previous hike and spiced with baked fig leaves, brought from our Greek vacation.
Peak Golyam Kupen (1942 m)
We found a big patch of raspberry bushes near the hut and stopped here for almost two full hours, to fill a couple of plastic boxes with wild raspberries. The berries were a bit on the smaller size and somewhat overripe, so it wasn't the best harvest, but good enough for a bunch of jars of jam, which I'm sure we'll enjoy in the cold months to come.
After getting tired of picking the tiny berries, we started on the way back along the same trail, picking a berry or two on the way for a couple of wild berry pies, mostly raspberries and blueberries, with few cranberries for good measure.
A noisy spotted nutcracker (сокерица) near Aleko Hut
The first of the wild berry pies and our yield of raspberry jam - almost 10 average size jars :)
