Tag: hiking

From Kartala to Macedonia Hut (2)

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

We went to Macedonia Hut in June – and it felt like a great hike. Kartala has a good asphalt road and a large free parking, which makes it a very convenient starting point. Most of the hike is in the forest, which was great, given the heat wave over the last week.

This second time, we took all the possible shortcuts and slowed the pace as much as we could. As a result of both, we managed to reach the hut in slightly over 3h. The path with the shortcuts is slightly above 8km, +720~~ meters. Without the shortcuts, it’s over 9km.

It has these brand and new slightly optimistic signs. The actual distance as measured by our smart devices varied by +300 to +600 meters. I think some of the expected signs are not yet installed because we couldn’t find them.

The hut keeper cooked us food and the day was fine. We rolled back down tired and well fed.

Musala

~ Veselin ~ 9 Comments

We attempted to hike to Musala yesterday. We underestimated the time and effort for it and not only couldn’t reach the top but also got crushed and had bad sunburns.

The gondola to Yastrebets starts working at 8:30, which is when the journey should’ve started. Works until 18, which is when it should’ve ended. However, this is too much walking for a 6-year-old and his parents who are not in the best shape.

We set ourselves a time limit and turned around after 3h of walking, at around 2600 meters altitude, close to the Everest chalet. We needed another hour and some extra energy to reach the top. I think it’s doable with more stops and colder weather. We ended up doing 23000 steps on that day. Another 2 hours of walking would’ve made that 33000, way above anything we’ve done over the last 10 years.

It’s not that bad that we didn’t reach the summit because we only had one of the kids with us. Saved ourselves from the trouble of not having both of them. We may try again on a colder weekend, although with our current capabilities, the success is not guaranteed.

Vihren

~ Veselin ~ 13 Comments

The peak in the back is Vihren.

Last year, I set a personal goal to go back to it. I think good personal goals should be difficult, and back in 2024, this felt like a tough one.

Zoom in to see people going uphill. The whole path is consistently steep, consistently slippery, and feels long. The final limestone hill is about 1/5 of the whole hike, and probably the easiest part.

We did it.

I think it’s better for younger and lighter folks. It didn’t strike me as a difficult peak when I was in my 20s but felt like Everest this time. We crawled so slowly that the Apple Watch kept suggesting to end the hiking session, and wasn’t able to count the steps. First 1 hour was 1000 steps, according to it. We didn’t enjoy any part of it, it was hard all the way, and remained painful after we were back.

In any case, the main walking goal for 2025 is achieved. I’ll try finding some longer but less steep hikes that require patience and endurance rather than good knees for the next goal. An alternative would be to set a goal for the whole family because adding the kids to the equation makes everything far more challenging. One of the kids seems to be interested in hiking. A potential route could be Malyovitza, another peak I mentioned here as a place I’m unlikely to visit again. It’s less steep, the main path is longer, and goes by lakes that can make good blog posts 🙂

From Kartala to Macedonia Hut

~ Veselin ~ 18 Comments

We did our first true hike since we had children. I know we’ve been to Vitosha many times but Vitosha is almost a city park, it has lots of visitors, easy access, and is a low-effort adventure. Rila, on the other hand, is more remote, higher, and more scenic.

Our starting point, Kartala, is a small ski resort, 28 kilometers away from Blagoevgrad. The asphalt road to it is in a fine condition., Hut Macedonia is about about 9km further up in the Rila mountain. It should’ve been an easy 2.5h walk, according to all the websites we found. It might be 2.5 hours but you need to be in a good shape for it. For people like us, 3-4h is more realistic.

The path looks like this:

The trail is also accessible by vehicles with permit. It is used for supplying the hut and the nearby maintain rescue group. There are 3-4 well marked shortcuts that can cut maybe 2 kilometers from the total walk but are steeper and we only took them on the way down.

It starts as a continuation of the road Blagoevgrad-Kartala, however I would advise using the free parking at Kartala. The part of the road accessible for the public is maybe a few hundred meters and not worth breaking your car.

Took us 3h 10 min without any breaks for a total of about 26000 steps both ways, which is very close to my personal best since my phone started tracking in 2015.

We didn’t have any food so we were very happy that the hut keeper cooked for us and fed us well. The food was great.

The area is full of tiny creeks that all go to this small river, called Bistritza. I’d say it was moist. Lots of berries everywhere, still green, but once they’re ripe, the path will become even more challenging 😃

The altitude gain of this route is about 730 meters.

Cherni Vrah

~ Veselin ~ 5 Comments

I was lucky to have the first successful hike for the year. We did two in the winter but the weather was windy and unpleasant and we got nowhere. There’s still some snow here and there, just enough to enter your shoes. The weather was very warm – t-shirt, sun screen, and winter boots type of weather.

I’m thankful I was able to do this. 15k steps, roughly 3h.